Our Legal Heritage Part 86

Tobacco, potatoes, tea, asparagus, kidney beans, scarlet runners, cardoons (similar to artichokes), horseradish, sugarcane, and turkeys for Christmas, were introduced from the New World, China, and India. Tea was a rare and expensive luxury. Coffee was a new drink. With the cane sugar was made sweetened puddings, pies, and drinks. The potato caused the advent of distillation of concentrated alcohol from fermented potato mashes. There was a distiller's company by 1638. Distilleries' drinks had higher alcoholic content than wine or beer.

The Merchant Adventurers sold in town stores silks, satins, diamonds, pearls, silver, and gold. There were women peddlers selling hats and hosiery from door to door and women shopkeepers, booksellers, alehouse keepers, linen drapers, brewers, and ale- wives. London had polluted air and water, industrial noise, and traffic congestion.

Work on farms was still year-round. In January and February, fields were ploughed and harrowed and the manure spread. Also, trees and hedges were set, fruit trees pruned, and timber lopped. In March and April, the fields were stirred again and the wheat and rye sown. In May gardens were planted, hop vines trained to poles, ditches scoured, lambs weaned, and sheep watched for "rot". In June sheep were washed and sheared, and fields were spread with lime and clay, and manured. In July hay was cut, dried, and stacked. In August crops were harvested, which called for extra help from neighbors and townsmen who took holidays at harvesting.

Then there was thres.h.i.+ng, and the sowing of winter wheat and rye. In the autumn, cider from apples and perry from pears might be made. By November the fall planting was finished and the time had come for the killing of cattle and hanging up their salted carca.s.ses for winter meat.

Straw would be laid down with dung, to be spread next spring on the fields. Stock that could not live outdoors in winter were brought into barns.

Government regulated the economy. In times of dearth, it ordered Justices of the Peace to buy grain and sell it below cost. It forbade employers to lay off workers whose products they could not sell. It used the Star Chamber Court to enforce economic regulations.

Enclosures of land were made to carry on improved methods of tillage, which yielded more grain and more sheep fleece. Drainage of extensive marsh land created more land for agriculture. Waste land was used to breed game and "fowling" contributed to farmers' and laborers'

livelihoods. Killing game was not the exclusive right of landowners, but was a common privilege. The agricultural laborer, who worked for wages and composed most of the wage- earning population, found it hard to make ends meet.

There were food riots usually during years of harvest failure, in which organized groups seized foodstuffs being transported or in markets.

Also, there were enclosure riots, in which organized groups destroyed hedges and fences erected in agrarian reorganization to restrict access to or to subdivide former common pasture land. These self- help riots were last resorts to appeals. They were relatively orderly and did not expand into random violence. The rioters were seldom punished more than a fining or whipping of the leaders and action was taken to satisfy their legitimate grievances.

The poor came to resent the rich and there was a rise in crime among the poor. Penal laws were frequently updated in an effort to bring more order.

In 1610, weekly wages for a mason were 8s. or 5s., for a laborer were 6s. or 4s., for a carpenter 8s. or 6s. An unskilled laborer received 1s.

a day.

There were conventions of paternalism and deference between neighbors of unequal social status. A social superior often protected his lessers from impoverishment For instance, the landlord lessened rents in times of harvest failure. A social superior would help find employment for a lesser person or his children, stand surety for a recognizance, intervene in a court case, or have his wife tend a sick member of his lesser's family. A social obligation was felt by most of the rich, the landlords, the yeomen farmers, and the clergy. This system of paternalism and social deference was expressed and reinforced at commonly attended village sports and games, dances, wakes and "ales"

(the proceeds of which went to the relief of a certain person in distress), "rush-bearings", parish feasts, weddings, christenings, "churchings" to give thanks for births, and funerals. Even the poor were buried in coffins. Also there was social interaction at the local alehouse, where neighbors drank, talked, sang, and played at bowls or "shove goat" together.

Quarrelling was commonplace. For instance, borough authorities would squabble over the choice of a schoolmaster; the parson would carry on a long fight with paris.h.i.+oners over t.i.the hens and pigs; two country gentlemen would continue a vendetta started by their great-grandfathers over a ditch or hunting rights; the paris.h.i.+oners would wrangle with the churchwardens over the allocation of pews. The position of one's pew reflected social position. Men tried to keep the pews of their ancestors and the newly prosperous wanted the recognition in the better pews, for which they had to pay a higher amount. But, on the other hand, farmers were full of good will toward their neighbors. They lent farm and kitchen equipment, helped raise timbers for a neighbor's new barn, sent food and cooked dishes to those providing a funeral feast and to the sick and incurable.

Village standards of behavior required that a person not to drink to excess, quarrel, argue, profane, gossip, cause a nuisance, abuse wife or children, or harbor suspicious strangers, and to pay scot and bear lot as he was asked. Neighbors generally got along well and frequently borrowed and loaned small sums of money to each other without interest for needs that suddenly arose. Bad behavior was addressed by the church by mediation and, if this failed, by exclusion from holy communion.

There was also whipping and the stocks.

Marital s.e.x was thought to be good for the health and happiness of the husband and enjoyable by wives. The possibility of female o.r.g.a.s.m was encouraged. Both women and men were thought to have "seed" and drank certain potions to cause pregnancy or to prevent birth. Some argued that o.r.g.a.s.m of both partners was necessary for the "seed" of the male and female to mix to produce pregnancy. Most women were in a virtual state of perpetual pregnancy. Both Catholics and Protestants thought that G.o.d wanted them to multiply and cover the earth. Catholics thought that the only goal of s.e.x was procreation. Men were considered ready for marriage only when they could support a family, which was usually at about age 30. Brides were normally virgins, but there was bridal pregnancy of about 20%. Women usually married at about age 25. Marriages were usually within one's own cla.s.s and religion. The aristocracy often initiated matches of their children for the sake of continuity in the family estates and tried to obtain the consent of their children for the match in mind. The age of consent to marry was 14 for boys and 12 for girls.

Girls in arranged marriages often married at 13, and boys before they went to university. But the girls usually stayed with their parents for a couple of years before living with their husbands. If married before p.u.b.erty, consummation of the marriage waited for such time. In other cla.s.ses, the initiative was usually taken by the child. Dowries and marriage portions usually were given by the parents of the bride.

Wet-nurses frequently were used, even by Puritans. There were no baby bottles. Many babies died, causing their parents much grief. About 1/4 of women's deaths occurred during childbirth. A child was deemed to be the husband's if he was within the four seas, i.e. not in foreign lands, for an agreed length of time. Illegitimacy was infrequent, and punished by church-mandated public penance by the mother and lesser penance and maintenance by the father. The church court punished adultery and defamation for improper s.e.xual conduct.

The established church still taught that the husband was to be the authority in marriage and had the duty to provide for, protect, and maintain his wife. Wives were to obey their husbands, but could also admonish and advise their husbands without reproach. In literature, women were portrayed as inferior to men intellectually and morally as well as physically. In reality wives did not fit the image of women portrayed by the church and literature. Quarrels between husband and wife were not uncommon and were not stopped by a husband's a.s.sertion of authority. Wives were very active in the harvesting and did casual labor of was.h.i.+ng, weeding, and stone-picking. Farmers' and tradesmen's wives kept accounts, looked after the garden, orchard, pigs, and poultry; brewed beer; spun wool and flax; and acted as agents in business affairs. Wives of craftsmen and tradesmen partic.i.p.ated actively in their husbands' shops. Wives of weavers spun for their husband's employers.

Wives of the gentry ran their households with their husbands. The lady of a large mansion superintended the household, ordering and looking after the servants, and seeing to the education of her children. Mothers handed down their recipes to their daughters. Women still did much needlework and embroidering for clothing and house, such as cus.h.i.+ons, screens, bed curtains, window curtains, hangings, footstools, book covers, and small chests of drawers for valuables. Liking simplicity, Puritan women did less of this work.

Naming one's wife as executor of one's will was the norm. Jointures [property for a widow] were negotiated at the betrothal of ladies.

Widows of manorial tenants were guaranteed by law one-third of family real property, despite creditors. But most testators went beyond this and gave a life interest in the farm or family house. So it was customary for a widow to remain in occupation of the land until her death or remarriage. Few widows or widowers lived with one of their children. Widows usually had their husband's guild rights and privileges conferred upon them, e.g. to receive apprentices. In London, custom gave 1/3 of a deceased husband's estate to his wife on his death, but 2/3 if there were no children. The other part went according to his will. If a widow did not remarry in memory of her husband, she was esteemed. But remarriage was common because the life expectancy after birth was about 35 years.

Sons of the well-to-do went into law, the Church, the army, or the navy. If not fit for such, they usually went into a trade, apprenticing, for instance, with a draper, silk merchant, or goldsmith. Sometimes a son was sent to the house of a great man as a page or esquire to learn the ways of courtiers and perhaps become a diplomat.

The guild with its master and their employees was being replaced by a company of masters.

James I ruled over both England and Scotland. He had come from Scotland, so was unfamiliar with English love of their rights, pa.s.sion for liberty and justice, and extensive discussing of religion and quoting scripture. When he came to the throne, he had a conference with a group of Puritans who asked for certain reforms: ceremonies such as the cross in baptism and the ring in marriage should not be used, only educated men competent to preach should be made ministers, bishops should not be allowed to hold benefices that they did not administer, and minor officials should not excommunicate for trifles and twelve-penny matters. He not only denied their requests, but had the English Bible revised into the King James version, which was published in 1611. This was to replace the popular Geneva Bible written by English Protestant refugees from Catholic Queen Mary's reign, which he did not like because some of its commentary was not highly favorable to kings.

James didn't believe a king had to live by the law; he hadn't as king of Scotland. He tried to imbue into England the idea of a divine right of kings to rule that he had held in Scotland. The established church quickly endorsed and preached this idea.

The selection of the clergy of the parish churches was now often in the hands of the paris.h.i.+oners, having been sold to them by the patron lord of the manor. Some patrons sold the right of selection to a tradesman or yeoman who wished to select his son or a relative. Some rights of selection were in the hands of bishops, the colleges, and the Crown. The parish clergyman was appointed for life and removed only for grave cause. Most paris.h.i.+oners wanted a sermon created by their minister instead of repet.i.tious homilies and constant prayer. They thought that the object of wors.h.i.+p in church was to rouse men to think and act about the problems of the world.

In 1622, the King mandated that clergymen quote scripture only in context of the Book of Articles of Religion of 1562 or the two Books of Homilies and not preach any sermon on Sunday afternoon except on some part of the Catechism or some text out of the Creed, Ten Commandments, or the Lord's Prayer.

The Puritan movement grew. About 5% of the Protestants were Puritans.

These included country gentlemen and wealthier traders. They dressed simply in gray or other drab colors and wore their hair short to protest the fas.h.i.+on of long curls. They lived simply and disapproved of dancing because it induced lasciviousness and of theater because of its lewdness. Theaters and brothels still shared the same neighborhoods, the same customers, and sometimes the same employees. Prost.i.tutes went to plays to find customers; men shouldered and shoved each other in competing to sit next to attractive women to get to know them. The Puritans also disapproved of c.o.c.k fights because they led to gambling and disorder, and Maypole celebrations because of their paganism. There was less humor. Many became stoics. The Puritan church ceremonies were plain, with no ornamentation. Puritans prayed several times a day and read the Bible to each other in family groups to look for guidance in their conduct and life. They asked for G.o.d to intervene in personal matters and looked for signs of his pleasure or displeasure in happenings such as a tree falling close but not touching him, or his horse throwing him without injury to him. When there was an illness in the family or misfortune, they examined their past life for sins and tried to correct shortcomings. They circulated records of puritan lives including spiritual diaries. They believed in the equality of men and that a good man was better than a bad peer, bishop, or king. Puritan influence made families closer and not merely dependent on the will of the husband or father. There was a sense of spiritual fellows.h.i.+p among family members as individuals. They emphasized the real need of a lasting love relations.h.i.+p between husband and wife, so a mutual liking that could develop into love between a young couple in an arranged match was essential.

Most Puritans felt that the bishops were as tyrannical as the pope had been and that more reform was needed. They favored the Presbyterian form of church government developed by John Calvin in Switzerland. The presbyter was the position below bishop. Parishes were governed by boards consisting of a minister and lay elders elected by the paris.h.i.+oners. These boards sent elected representatives to councils. All lay elders and ministers had equal rank with each other. The Calvinist G.o.d preordained salvation only for the elect and d.a.m.nation and everlasting punishment for the rest of humanity, but the Puritans had an optimism about avoiding this d.a.m.nation. They believed that at his conversion a person received grace, which was a sign that he was predestined for salvation. They rejected all ecclesiastical inst.i.tutions except as established by each parish over its own elected pastor and members. They rejected the established church's control from the top by bishops. They believed in negotiating directly with G.o.d for the welfare of the soul without the priest or church organization.