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Reformation and Resistance in an English Village: Earls Colne, 1550-1750

Module description

Early modern British history is full of big events, the Reformation, the Civil Wars, or the Restoration, and encompassed many important historical processes – the growth of ‘agrarian capitalism’, the beginnings of industrial growth, the doubling of the population. But how did ordinary people experience these big historical events and processes in their everyday lives? Did they create profound changes? Were they largely ignored? This module explores ordinary people’s experiences of the Reformation, the Civil War, agrarian and industrial change, the growth of poverty and changing social relations, by examining a massive on-line archive of historical sources based on one community, the village of Earls Colne, Essex, between 1500-1750. This will allow you to research, first-hand, what it was like to live through these momentous historical phenomena in unprecedented detail, and interrogate/question existing interpretations.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module is based on an unprecedented on-line archive of over 37,000 documents relating to the village of Earls Colne, Essex. This was a fairly average settlement of c. 1,500-2,000 inhabitants, but which was fully exposed to the effects of the Reformation, the Civil Wars, growing social divisions & inequality, agrarian change and industrial growth in the early modern period. The module aim is to study the lives of the inhabitants or Earls Colne through these momentous historical events by studying this unique archive.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Have a detailed knowledge of the different sources available for the study of the historical change in early modern English communities
• 2. Develop a very close specialist knowledge of those sources which the students focus upon in their seminar presentations and written work

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Ability to analyse closely original sources and to assess their reliability as historical evidence
• 4. Ability to compare and assess historical questions by analyzing multiple source types
• 5. Ability to focus on and comprehend complex texts
• 6. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible manner

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Independently and autonomously study and work within a group, including presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning.
• 8. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment.

Syllabus plan

While the exact content of the module may vary from year-to-year, it is envisaged that seminar topics will cover some or all of the following:

 
Section 1 (Weeks 1-10)

Part 1 – Approaches & Methods – Introducing and using the source collection; History ‘from below’; Micro-history.

Part 2 – Reformation – The impact of the dissolution of (a) monastery; changing religious beliefs; the ‘reformation of manners’; the reassertion of manorial lordship and local resistance.


Section 2 (Weeks 10-20)

Part 3 – Divergence, Division and Inequality – Population growth & increasing inequality; poverty and authority; family & kin.

Part 4 – Religion and Revolution – The growth of Puritanism; Ralph Josselin’s ‘'patriarchal family’; the experience of civil war; legacies of division.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of an 8,000 word portfolio of source work, as in the original assessment, but replaces the individual presentation with a written script that could be delivered in such a presentation and which is the equivalent of a 20 minute presentation plus supporting materials (3,000 words).

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• H. R. French & R. W. Hoyle, The Character of English Rural Society, Earls Colne 1550-1750 (Manchester, 2006).
• A. Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin: An Essay in Historical Anthropology (Cambridge, 1970).
• A.Macfarlane, S. Harrison & C. Jardine, Reconstructing Historical Communities (Cambridge, 1977)
• A.Macfarlane (ed.), ‘The Diary of Ralph Josselin 1616-1683’, British Academy Records of Social and Economic History, new series, III, (Oxford, 1986).
• B. Capp, ‘The Double Standard Revisited: Plebeian Women and Male Sexual Reputation in Early Modern England’, Past & Present, 162, (1999), pp. 70-100.
• L.A. Pollock, ‘Rethinking patriarchy and the family in seventeenth-century England’, Journal of Family History, 23, (1998), pp. 3-27.
• M. Spufford, ‘Religious Preambles and the Scribes of Villagers’ Wills in Cambridgeshire, 1570-1700’, in T. Arkell, N. Evans & N. Goose (eds.), Till Death Us Do Part – Understanding and Interpreting the Probate Records of Early Modern England (Oxford, 2000), pp. 144-157.
• R. Von Friedeburg, ‘Reformation of Manners and the Social Composition of Offenders in an East Anglian Cloth Village: Earls Colne, Essex, 1531-1642’, Journal of British Studies, 29, (1990), pp. 347-385.
• J. Walter, ‘Confessional Politics in Pre-Civil War Essex: Prayer Books, Profanations, and Petitions’, Historical Journal, 44, 3 (2001), pp. 677-701.
• Henry French, ‘Neither “Godly professors”, nor “dumb dogges”: reconstructing conformist Protestant beliefs and practice in Earls Colne, Essex, c. 1570-1620’ in T. Dean, G. Parry & E. Vallence (eds), Faith, Place and People in Early Modern England: Essays in Honour of Margaret Spufford (Boydell Press, 2018), pp. 43-69.

Key words search

Social History, Reformation, English Civil War