Controlling Misbehavior in England, 1370–1600

by Marjorie Keniston McIntosh

• ISBN13: 9780521894043
• ISBN10: 0521894042
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-20
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this important study, Professor McIntosh argues against the suggestion that social regulation was a distinctive feature of the decades around 1600, resulting from Puritanism. Instead, through an examination of 255 village and small-town communities distributed throughout England, Professor McIntosh demonstrates that concern with wrongdoing mounted gradually between 1370 and 1600. In an attempt to maintain good order and enforce ethical conduct, local leaders prosecuted people who slandered or quarrelled with their neighbours, engaged in sexual misdeeds, operated unruly alehouses, or refused to work. Professor McIntosh also explores who the offenders were as well as the factors that led to misbehaviour and shaped responses to it. More generally, Professor McIntosh sheds light on the transition from medieval to early modern patterns and succeeds here in opening up little-known sources and new research methods.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xi
List of tables and lists	xiii
Acknowledgements	xv
List of abbreviations	xviii
Introduction	1	(1)
The debate over social regulation	1	(5)
The approach and arguments of this study	6	(10)
The past and present	16	(7)
Part I The history of social regulation
The forms of control	23	(23)
Mechanisms of social regulation	24	(10)
The lesser public courts	34	(12)
Methodological underpinnings	46	(8)
Social regulation in England's smaller communities	54	(54)
The Disharmony cluster	56	(12)
The Disorder cluster	68	(13)
The Poverty cluster	81	(15)
A special case: gaming	96	(12)
Social concern in other contexts	108	(19)
Legal settings	109	(7)
Almshouse regulations and Chancery petitions	116	(11)
Part II Factors that influenced social regulation
Some political considerations	127	(10)
National vs. local responses	129	(5)
``Political'' activity at the community level	134	(3)
Social ecology I: ``broad response'' and ``no response'' communities	137	(33)
Method and evidence	138	(17)
Integration and discussion of the data	155	(15)
Social ecology II: analysis by type of offences reported	170	(16)
Method and evidence	170	(2)
Integration and discussion of the data	172	(14)
Ideological/religious influences	186	(23)
The fundamental social concerns	187	(8)
Fifteenth-century ideas about social wrongdoing	195	(5)
Conceptions of a Christian society in the sixteenth century	200	(6)
The social costs of aggressive regulation	206	(3)
Conclusion: social regulation and the transition from medieval to early modern England	209	(6)
Appendices	215	(50)
Bibliography	265	(14)
Index	279