Food and Community in early modern England: how the production, consumption and selling of food were central to seventeenth century communities

现代早期英格兰的食物与社区：食物的生产、消费和销售如何成为 17 世纪社区的核心

• 批准号: 2872764
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2872764
• 关键词: Food; Community; early; modern; England

The study of both food and community are familiar subjects in seventeenth century history. However, no historian has studied the two in conjunction to investigate how food built links within and between groups of people. This thesis will combine the study of community with that of agriculture, rural life and food to argue that food was integral to early modern society, not only for sustenance but in the way it created social bonds. It will demonstrate how food created social links between the wealthy and less-wealthy and how women were important agents in forming and maintaining these connections. There is a gap in the literature concerning the role of food and society that this research will fill. It will encompass different areas of sociability: work, commerce and family whilst illustrating that food was not only needed to physically sustain but was inextricably woven into all aspects of early modern life and that women took a primary role in its provision. To achieve this, household accounts from seventeenth century England will be analysed, primarily the previously unstudied and unpublished manuscript accounts of John and Marie Coke of Hall Court, Herefordshire (1607-1622). Although gentry (John Coke served as a royal administrator), when the accounts were kept the family was not especially well-off and supplemented their income by selling produce to the local community. John and Marie Coke kept the accounts themselves (instead of employing a steward), increasing their contact with workers on their farm and others in the community. The accounts are particularly revealing as they comprise more than payments and receipts. They also include weekly consumption accounts, and annual summaries, as well as details about who foodstuffs were bought from and sold to, illuminating a network of contacts. Additional sets of household accounts have been identified for analysis. These include those of John Everenden, a wealthy yeoman from Sussex (accounts from 1619-1678) and those of gentry households such as the Spencers of Althorp (1599-1605) and the Le Stranges of Hunstanton (1613-1653).The research involves both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A database to analyse and cross-reference account entries will be created: tables of items and quantities of farm produce and whether it was used or sold will be compiled as will lists of what the household purchased and consumed. In this way, trends and patterns will be identified. Names will be noted and cross-referenced to determine who the Cokes employed in the production of food and to whom it was sold. Findings about employees and purchasers will then be cross-referenced with other records such as probate records, parish registers, wills, inventories and poor law records to allow the analysis of networks of social contacts, creating a fuller picture of links within the community and of the individuals themselves. Although such methods can be time-consuming, they are necessary to allow a structure of social interactions to be assembled, revealing lines of connection between individuals and examples of reciprocity and exchange, the backbone of community. This is of particular importance as, because the main source of data is accounts of wealthy households, this will inevitably illuminate more links between landlord and labourer rather than between fellow labourers. Analysis of probate records will go some way to remedy this by revealing links between peers.The term 'community' is notoriously difficult to define. In this study it will be taken to mean social relationships and communal ties between groups of people involved in the processes surrounding food. This project will explore community and social relationships through the acts and artefacts of food production and consumption considering all six of these components.

对食品和社区的研究都是十七世纪历史上熟悉的学科。但是，没有历史学家结合研究两者，以调查食物之间和人之间的食物之间建立的联系。该论文将将对社区的研究与农业，农村生活和食物的研究结合在一起，认为食物是早期现代社会不可或缺的一部分，不仅是寄托，而且是建立社会纽带的方式。它将展示食物如何在富人与富裕的人之间建立社会联系，以及妇女如何在建立和维持这些联系方面是重要的推动者。关于粮食和社会作用的文献存在差距，这项研究将填补。它将涵盖不同的社交能力领域：工作，商业和家庭，同时说明食物不仅需要身体上的维持，而且可以密不可分地融入现代早期生活的各个方面，并且妇女在其提供中扮演了主要角色。为了实现这一目标，将分析17世纪英格兰的家庭帐户，主要是赫里福德郡霍尔法院的约翰和玛丽·可口可乐（1607-1622）的先前未研究和未出版的手稿帐户。尽管Gentry（John Coke担任皇家行政人员），但是当保留帐户时，家庭并不是特别富裕，并通过向当地社区出售产品来补充他们的收入。约翰和玛丽·可口可乐自己保留了帐户自己（而不是雇用管家），增加了与农场和社区其他工人的接触。这些帐户的构成不仅仅是付款和收据，因此特别揭示了它们。它们还包括每周的消费帐户和年度摘要，以及有关从中购买和出售的食品的详细信息，从而阐明了联系网络。已经确定了一组家庭帐户以进行分析。其中包括约翰·埃弗伦登（John Everenden），苏塞克斯（Sussex）的富有的约曼（1619-1678的账户）以及绅士家庭（例如Althorp的Spencers（1599-1605））和Hunstanton的Le Stranges（1613-1653）。将创建一个用于分析和交叉参考帐户条目的数据库：农产品的物品和数量的表以及是否被使用或出售，将被汇编，以及家庭购买和消费的列表。这样，将确定趋势和模式。名字将被注意到并交叉引用，以确定在食品生产中使用的cokes和谁被出售的人。然后，关于员工和购买者的调查结果将与其他记录进行交叉参考，例如遗嘱认证记录，教区寄存器，遗嘱，库存和糟糕的法律记录，以允许分析社会联系网络，从而对社区和个人本身内部的链接进行更全面的了解。尽管这种方法可能很耗时，但它们对于允​​许组装社交互动的结构是必要的，揭示了个人之间的联系和互惠和交流的示例，这是社区的骨干。这尤其重要，因为数据的主要来源是富裕家庭的叙述，这将不可避免地阐明房东和劳动者之间的更多联系，而不是在同事之间。遗嘱认证记录的分析将通过揭示同行之间的联系来进行某种纠正。众所周知，“社区”一词很难定义。在这项研究中，这意味着社会关系和参与食物过程中参与过程的人之间的社会关系和公共关系。该项目将通过考虑所有六个组成部分的粮食生产和消费的行为和人物来探索社区和社会关系。