Papers by Judith Spicksley
Historische Zeitschrift, 2019
The Business and Household Accounts of Joyce Jeffreys, Spinster of Hereford, 1638–1648, 2012
Gender & History, Jul 1, 2018
Marion Williamson and her husband Patrick Riddell appeared before the burgh, or town, court in Ed... more Marion Williamson and her husband Patrick Riddell appeared before the burgh, or town, court in Edinburgh three times between December 1615 and July 1616, twice in connection with monies they were owed and once in relation to money they themselves owed. So begins Spence’s engaging account of the findings of her study of over 55,000 debt cases across four Scottish towns – Edinburgh, Haddington, Linlithgow and Dundee – in the period between 1570 and 1640. Her study is dominated by evidence from Edinburgh: over two thirds of her sample comes from what was at that time the biggest and most economically developed location. But Marion and Patrick’s case is offered both as an exemplar and a taster of ‘the diverse ways in which people, and particularly married women, engaged in networks of debt and credit in early modern Scotland, how frequently they might do so, and what the litigation resulting from these networks could reveal about women’s economic roles’ (p. 1). Indeed, married women appear prominently in the debt cases of the four Scottish burgh courts, if more especially in Edinburgh, where they amount to 38.8 per cent of all the cases involving women. This is a much higher proportion than in the remaining categories – ‘widows’ (13.1 per cent), ‘servants’ (3.5 per cent) and a mixed group, identified as ‘other’, which contains women whose various titles or lack of titles indicate no clear marital designation (17.6 per cent) (p. 38). The visibility of married women in these records is especially welcome because the economic activities of wives have been the most difficult to recover from the early modern documentary sources: in Scottish, as in English law, wives could not sue or be sued independently of their spouses. In Scotland, however, legal custom allowed them to be named in debt cases. Being able to recover the activities of wives as a result of this is one reason why Spence’s work makes such a significant contribution to our understanding of the economic roles of married women in the early modern period. In addition, Spence’s work dovetails nicely with existing scholarship that locates married women at the heart of early modern economic activity, able to gain entry to it by virtue of their roles as adjuncts to, and agents of, their husbands. But she argues here for a more proactive role for married women. Her investigations reveal that while court cases were expected to name husbands and indicate their legal responsibility for any debts that were contracted by denoting debts as ‘for his interest’ (p. 14), the use of
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2004
(with Professor David Richardson), 'Sexe, esclavage et biopolitique: approche comparée' in Mart... more (with Professor David Richardson), 'Sexe, esclavage et biopolitique: approche comparée' in Martine Spensky, ed., Le contrôle du corps des femmes dans les Empires coloniaux: Empires, genre et biopolitiques (Paris; Éditions Karthala, 2015), 81-106 'Women, 'usury' and credit in early modern England: the case of the maiden investor', Gender and History, 27, 2 (August, 2015), 263-92 'The decline of slavery for debt in Western Europe in the medieval period', in Simonetta Cavaciocchi, ed., Schiavitù e Servaggio nell'Economia Europea Secc. XI-XVIII (Serfdom and Slavery in the European Economy 11th-18th Centuries),
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2005
"While a considerable amount of time and energy has been spent investigating the extent of w... more "While a considerable amount of time and energy has been spent investigating the extent of women’s literacy in the early modern period, little, if anything has been written about their levels of numeracy. This omission is at least in part the result of difficulty in its measurement, and not just among women. As Keith Thomas revealed some years ago, numeracy did ‘not leave evidence which can be readily measured’; moreover, levels of numeracy are ‘entirely a matter of degree.’ Though the ability to count may have been considered a distinctively human quality in the Tudor and Stuart periods, simply knowing ‘how many beans made twenty was hardly proof of great numerical dexterity’. Yet the survival of a considerable number of personal, household, and business accounts that can be directly attributed to women appears to challenge the notion that arithmetic ‘was not a normal part of the education of a lady’, and that ‘women lagged behind in numeracy, perhaps even more than they did in literacy.’ Mathematics may not have been part of the female curriculum, but in this paper I intend to argue that in terms of basic arithmetical skills – numeration, addition and subtraction – women of gentry status, at least, may well have been more numerate than their male counterparts. This was in essence the product of a gendered system of education, in which boys studied the classics, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy, while girls acquired social and domestic skills: reading, writing, housewifery and spinning or needlework, with the addition of musical pursuits and the romantic languages for those of higher status. For as Thomas himself argued, the emphasis of the humanist curriculum on the acquisition of knowledge rather than skills may have put men at a disadvantage in terms of basic computation. Gentlewomen, on the other hand, were considerably more accomplished in this area, for the acquisition of housewifery skills remained the pinnacle of achievement, and with it, the upkeep of the household accounts. During the seventeenth century mathematical skills for men grew in importance – both in terms of pure and applied mathematics – and numerical analysis, as Thomas has revealed, ‘established itself as one of the dominant forms of intellectual enquiry.’ Women remained largely excluded from this mathematical revolution and their knowledge of arithmetic was restricted: the construction of accounts could have been completed with knowledge of addition and subtraction alone, and women may have ventured little beyond these areas. Nevertheless, gentlewomen at least may well have been more adept at basic computation than historians have been inclined to accept."
This dataset is derived from a project designed to consider the cultural, economic and social imp... more This dataset is derived from a project designed to consider the cultural, economic and social impact of single women’s participation in money-lending in seventeenth century England. Previous investigations of surviving probate documents in Lincolnshire and Cheshire have revealed a high percentage of single women engaged in credit provision, and this project was designed to broaden the picture of single women’s money lending in other areas. The main aims of data collection were to consider the definitions applied to the probate documents of never married women, the extent and nature of their money lending, and how it fitted into their daily lives. The Lincolnshire material also indicated that single men were also active in the provision of credit. Although the extent of their involvement is harder to establish since most were identified by their occupation rather than marital status, the project was concerned to compare their role with that of their female counterparts. Further aspec...
Women and the Land, 1500-1900, 2019
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 2016
His methodology of explicating reactions to the comma of a long succession of scholars from John ... more His methodology of explicating reactions to the comma of a long succession of scholars from John Milton to Edward Gibbon and his contemporaries underlines the importance of human agency in the history of ideas. This does not amount, however, to what McDonald calls 'a social history of the debate' (p.). Despite brief references to early modern English anti-Catholicism and to the reach of the debate about the comma 'into all parts of English society' (p. ) in the nineteenth century, Biblical criticism in early modern Europe remains a highly accomplished work of intellectual history. McDonald deftly unfolds a complex and fascinating controversy of great moment in the history of Christian ideas. HILMAR M. PABEL SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Women's voices in Tudor wills, -. Authority, influence and material culture. By Susan E. James. Pp. xii + incl. ills. Farnham-Burlington, VT: Ashgate, . £.. JEH () ; doi:./SX In early modern England, the laws of coverture limited married women's entitlement to own property and to make wills. Yet important scholarship by Amy Erickson and Barbara Harris has complicated our understanding of women, the law and property during this period. The book under review follows in the footsteps of this research. Exploring a huge repository of , wills written by women across the Tudor period from the reigns of Henry VII to Elizabeth I, James sets out to identify women's priorities and activities concerning property, community and identity, exploring how these changed over time. Cutting across the late medieval and early modern periods by studying women's wills throughout the Tudor monarchy, this book interrogates the impact of sixteenth-century religious upheaval and economic change on women's will-making practices. James's methodology is to construct a vivid picture of women's experiences, treating testaments as 'word portraits of women' (p. ). Underpinning the book is an assumption that will-making was an empowering process for a woman. In compiling her will, James argues, a woman had sole authority to dispose of her goods according to her own wishes. She claims that wills recorded the 'voices' of female testatrixes, 'unfiltered by the male-dominated processes that compiled and registered tax and court records' (p. ) and it is these voices that she hopes to uncover. We can be sure that many women's desires and hopes were expressed in their wills and a real strength of the book lies in James's careful unpicking of the detail recorded in these documents. However, the process of making a will was not without mediation; surrounding the deathbed were many individuals with their own agendas and abilities to influence. Moreover, many women, particularly those of lower status, were illiterate and relied on male relatives, friends or clergymen to write their wills. Men were important in the willmaking process and this is a point that needed greater attention. The book is divided into six chapters that consider various aspects of women's wills. The first two chapters are concerned with the conditions under which wills were made and the opportunities that making a will could provide for women in establishing an enduring legacy and identity. James finds evidence of women at all social levels providing for members of their communities and taking measures
British Academy eBooks, 2012
A project of this size and duration attracts many debts. First I must signal my appreciation to t... more A project of this size and duration attracts many debts. First I must signal my appreciation to the many archivists who have assisted me in the retrieval of documents. I would like to single out for special attention those from the London Metropolitan Archives, the Guildhall Library in London, the Borthwick Institute at York, the Lincolnshire Archive Office and most especially those at the Chester Record Office, who went out of their way to provide me with a continuous supply of wills and inventories. The staff in the Brynmor Jones library have also been a tireless source of information and assistance. In addition I must thank Keith Elliott, whose help with the inventory index at Lincoln in the early stages of the project proved invaluable, and Diane Askew, who helped me check the final typescript. I have also been privileged to benefit from the advice and help of a number of historians who have taken an interest in my work. Here I must offer especial thanks to Keith Nield, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull, who encouraged my interest in discourse theory, and whose comments on earlier drafts of certain chapters greatly furthered my understanding of the nature and role of discourses in early modern society. Henrice Altink and Mandy Capern were much-needed friends as well as colleagues who gave willingly of their time to discuss and support my work. To my supervisor, Donald Woodward, I owe a great intellectual debt. Though I had some initial difficulty in persuading him to embark on the project with me, he has been the best of mentors, offering incisive comments and correcting numerous draft chapters with his own inimitable precision, without ever becoming intrusive. Throughout he has remained helpful and supportive, and I shall miss our lively discussions. Finally I must thank my friends and most especially my family, who have suffered my constant preoccupation with early modern celibates with unstinting patience, and reiterated at regular intervals their confidence in my ability to complete the project. I therefore offer the completed dissertation in homage to my parents, my husband, and my children.
Journal of British Studies
This chapter offers an analysis of the land that was held by spinsters in England from the mid-si... more This chapter offers an analysis of the land that was held by spinsters in England from the mid-sixteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. Although our knowledge of landholding by women is increasing, there is little published work on the amount of land held by those who did not marry, even though their number, as a proportion of the population, was expanding for much of the early modern period. At the same time, and because the bulk of women (at least 75 per cent) still did marry, this analysis aims to shed new light on the relationship between women and land during that period. Research so far suggests that patterns of change varied between areas and according to social and marital status. Barbara Harris claimed that even though legal devices had been developed to circumvent primogeniture and the restrictions of male tail in the late medieval period, between 1450 and 1550 ‘much less than 20 per cent of the land that belonged to the aristocracy descended to female heirs’. Eileen Spring's provocative study of the downward slide of the heiress-at-law between 1300 and 1800 was also largely built upon evidence from aristocratic and gentry families, although she argued that her findings applied more broadly.For ‘ordinary’ English families the picture appears to have been only slightly better. In the village of Brigstock in Northamptonshire in the early fourteenth century, Judith Bennett found that for every four sons who conveyed or received lands, only one daughter did so. That few single women had large amounts of land can be explained by reference to the fact that daughters tended to inherit only in default of surviving sons, and then property was generally shared between all surviving daughters; inter-vivos transfers also favoured sons. At Orwell in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spufford too noted that it was uncommon for women to inherit, although possibilities did exist: they could do so in the absence of a son, or ‘at the whim of an eccentric father, or even grandmother’. What Spufford's work does suggest, however, is that women's ability to access land had increased in some areas by the end of the early modern period. In Willingham and Chippenham very few women's names appear as possessors of land in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
This article considers the apparent disappearance of debt slavery in western Europe by the early ... more This article considers the apparent disappearance of debt slavery in western Europe by the early modern period, in contrast to the survival of other forms of enslavement, most notably war and birth. The desire of states in late antique and early medieval western Europe to protect the liberty of their freeborn citizens led them to rework rules on debt and distraint so that neither poverty nor civil debt should result in enslavement. They were aided in this by a religious theology that not only sought to provide mercy and forgiveness but adapted the policies of an ancient Hebrew sect to the problems of early medieval society. The result was a large and expanding ‘Christendom’ that continued to redefine the relationship between slavery, debt and poverty, at least as far as fellow believers were concerned.
This article considers the apparent disappearance of debt slavery in western Europe by the early ... more This article considers the apparent disappearance of debt slavery in western Europe by the early modern period, in contrast to the survival of other forms of enslavement, most notably war and birth. The desire of states in late antique and early medieval western Europe to protect the liberty of their freeborn citizens led them to rework rules on debt and distraint so that neither poverty nor civil debt should result in enslavement. They were aided in this by a religious theology that not only sought to provide mercy and forgiveness but adapted the policies of an ancient Hebrew sect to the problems of early medieval society. The result was a large and expanding ‘Christendom’ that continued to redefine the relationship between slavery, debt and poverty, at least as far as fellow believers were concerned.
Gender & History, 2015
In 1582, a great number of distressed subjects in Norfolk complained to the right honourable lord... more In 1582, a great number of distressed subjects in Norfolk complained to the right honourable lords of the Privy Council, claiming that they were ‘vexed, dispoyled, and many utterly consumed, by the rigor and Extremitie of John Ferror, whoes usurie, and extortion, oppression, imbracerie, and maintenance hath and doeth extende and stretch them selves, over a great parte of the same Count[y]’.1 Ferrour it seemed had been causing trouble in a number of areas since at least 1580, but it was the claims about his usurious behaviour that are particularly interesting. Henrie Hayward, one of the parties appearing for the prosecution, claimed in article four of the case:
Itinerario, 2015
The Portuguese were keen slave traders on the west central coast of Africa in the early modern pe... more The Portuguese were keen slave traders on the west central coast of Africa in the early modern period, but governors in Angola appear to have been increasingly unhappy about certain aspects of enslavement in relation to debt, and in particular that of children. Slavery for debt was uncommon in early modern Europe, where three arguments, drawn from Roman law, were usually cited by way of justification: birth; war; and self-sale. Cavazzi, an Italian Capuchin missionary travelling around Angola between 1654 and 1665, suggested several similarities between the legal justifications for slavery in Africa and Europe, but also pointed up a major difference: while in Angola in the early modern period enslavement could result from a number of instances of default, in Portugal at the same time - and in Europe more widely – debtors tended to find themselves imprisoned if they defaulted on a payment, rather than enslaved. This paper will consider the nature of debt enslavement in Angola in the e...
Women's History Review, 2013
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATED REFERENCES EDITORIAL METHOD AND COMMEN... more LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATED REFERENCES EDITORIAL METHOD AND COMMENTARY ON THE TEXT INTRODUCTION THE BUSINESS AND HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNTS OF JOYCE JEFFREYS RECEIPTS DISBURSEMENTS APPENDIX I. HEREFORD CITY DOCUMENTS APPENDIX II. PERSONS LISTED AS DEBTORS IN JOYCE JEFFREYS' ACCOUNTS APPENDIX III. TRANSCRIPT OF JOYCE JEFFREYS' WILL APPENDIX IV. TIMELINE FOR DESIGNATED SERVANTS AND WAGED EMPLOYEES GENEALOGICAL TABLE I. GENEALOGY OF JOYCE JEFFREYS (MALE LINE) GENEALOGICAL TABLE II. GENEALOGY OF JOYCE JEFFREYS (FEMALE LINE) GENEALOGICAL TABLE III. GENEALOGY OF SIR THOMAS CONINGSBY GLOSSARY BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF PERSONAL NAMES INDEX OF PLACE NAMES INDEX OF SUBJECTS
Uploads
Papers by Judith Spicksley