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

食物和社区的研究都是17世纪历史上熟悉的主题。然而，没有历史学家将这两者结合起来研究，以调查食物是如何在人群内部和人群之间建立联系的。本文将把对社区的研究与对农业、农村生活和食物的研究结合起来，论证食物在早期现代社会中是不可或缺的，不仅是为了维持生计，而且是因为它创造了社会纽带。它将展示食物如何在富人和不太富有的人之间建立社会联系，以及妇女如何在形成和维持这些联系方面发挥重要作用。这项研究将填补关于食物和社会的作用的文献中的一个空白。它将涵盖社交的不同领域：工作、商业和家庭，同时说明食物不仅是维持物质生活所必需的，而且不可避免地融入了早期现代生活的方方面面，妇女在提供食物方面发挥了主要作用。为了实现这一点，将分析17世纪英国的家庭账目，主要是赫里福德郡霍尔考特的约翰和玛丽·科克(1607-1622)以前未被研究和出版的手稿账目。虽然绅士(约翰·科克担任皇室行政长官)，但当账户保留时，这家人并不是特别富裕，通过向当地社区出售农产品来补充他们的收入。约翰和玛丽·可口可乐自己保管帐目(而不是雇佣管家)，增加了他们与农场工人和社区其他人的联系。这些账目特别具有启发性，因为它们包含的不仅仅是付款和收据。它们还包括每周消费账户和年度摘要，以及关于食品从谁那里购买和出售给谁的细节，从而揭示了一个联系人网络。已经确定了其他几套家庭账户以供分析。这些研究包括来自苏塞克斯的富有的自耕农约翰·埃弗伦登(1619-1678)的研究，以及阿尔索普的斯宾塞家族(1599-1605)和亨斯坦顿的Le Stranges(1613-1653)等绅士家庭的研究。将建立一个分析和对照账户分录的数据库：将汇编农产品的物品和数量表，以及农产品是用还是卖的表，以及家庭购买和消费的清单。这样，趋势和模式就会被识别出来。名字将被记录下来，并相互参照，以确定可口可乐公司在食品生产中雇用了谁，并将其出售给谁。有关雇员和购买者的调查结果将与遗嘱认证记录、教区登记册、遗嘱、库存和不良法律记录等其他记录相互参照，以便分析社会联系网络，创建社区内联系和个人本身的更全面的图景。尽管这样的方法可能很耗时，但它们是必要的，以使社会互动的结构得以组合，揭示个人之间的联系以及社区的支柱--互惠和交换的例子。这一点特别重要，因为数据的主要来源是富裕家庭的账户，这将不可避免地揭示房东和劳动者之间的更多联系，而不是其他劳动者之间的联系。对遗嘱认证记录的分析将通过揭示同龄人之间的联系来在一定程度上补救这一点。众所周知，“社区”一词难以定义。在这项研究中，它将被认为是指参与食物周围过程的一群人之间的社会关系和社区联系。该项目将通过食品生产和消费的行为和手工艺品探索社区和社会关系，考虑到所有这六个组成部分。

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this, household accounts from seventeenth century England will be analysed, primarily the previously unstudied and unpublished manuscript accounts of John and Marie Coke of Hall Court, Herefordshire (1607-1622).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.