Agricultural History Review, Volume 51 Part 2 (2003), p. 231

This is the third volume to appear in a series of books, based on the archives of the Arley and Tabley estates in Cheshire, which describe social and economic developments in a corner of north-western England in the early modern period. This time, however, the scope is far more ambitious; not only is this book twice the size of the first two but it also extends its survey into mid-Lancashire and Furness. To do so, the author has to go beyond the bounds of his own primary research and make use of published material, specifically, the accounts of Sarah Fell of Swarthmoor Hall, Richard Latham of Scarisbrick and the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe. His intention is to provide the ‘intimate details of daily life’ of people from a variety of backgrounds, even families of comparatively humble means. To a certain extent he succeeds. While the gentry dominate the proceedings, there are interesting chapters on representatives of the yeoman class, namely the Fells of Swarthmoor, the Jacksons of Hield and the Lathams of Scarisbrick. Moreover, in passing we learn something of the lives of a kaleidoscopic cast of tenants, craftsmen, labourers and servants. Like the previous two volumes, the book remains true to its origins as a local history project, similarly displaying the strengths and weakness of that genre.

Agricultural historians will read this book with profit for, taken together, the seven case studies cover a number of key developments that were taking place in the countryside at the time. They include agricultural, economic and commercial change; family life and inheritance; social mobility; the provision of rural credit; and the decline in the system of living-in servants. I found particularly illuminating the career of Thomas Jackson, a three-life leaseholder of a fifteen acre farm at Hield in Aston-by-Budworth. Through his efforts he managed to earn enough to spend £840 on setting up his children, to acquire a freehold estate, amass £200 in ready money, and to be recognized as a gentleman. Education, as with so many other people, was the key, for it enabled him to obtain employment as the steward of the Leicesters of Tabley Hall and carry on a thriving legal practice. Alas, two of his three sons did not prosper, illustrating the point that mobility was downwards as well as upwards. This theme crops up regularly in various chapters.

The format of the book, unfortunately, does create some problems. Because the seven households are looked at end-on, there is a considerable amount of repetition. Thus, major themes, such as the ones listed above, are scattered throughout the text and, as a result, the argument is fragmented. In places, too, the local experience should have been contextualized. In addition, some of the findings should have been highlighted to a greater extent; the material presented here is very important but its value is not always fully appreciated. The text also contains a considerable amount of raw data, whether in the form of lists of wages and prices, extracts from 232 the agricultural account books or genealogical details. This documentation is very useful as a source of primary information, especially when printed in the numerous appendices, but it distracts, when placed in the middle of a passage. Of course, many of the Review’s readers will recognize the significance of the information included here and be able put it into context themselves. The book should certainly be read by all those researching the process of social and economic change in north-western England in the period 1550–1750. I look forward to the fourth and final volume.