Hierarchies

Question 1

How many towns were there at the start of the period

Answer 1

800

Question 2

What did race refer to

Answer 2

A group of people

Question 3

Give an example of a successful black person

Answer 3

Ignatious Sancho

Question 4

How was the term sort often used?

Answer 4

As a derogatory term such as ‘the meaner sort’ or ‘the common sort’. ‘Middle sort’ was often used to refer to goods rather than people.

Question 5

Who often used the language of sorts?

Answer 5

The better sort

Question 6

How people were referred to as opposed to class

Answer 6

Of a certain ‘sort’

Question 7

Quote Barry and Brooks: the relationship between the better sort and the poorer sort

Answer 7

“The richer and better sorts were enjoined to keep hospitality and stop profiteering in order to help the poorer and meaner sorts during times of suffering (1590s)”

Question 8

Quote, Crawford: Status of women’s citizenship in EM England

Answer 8

Women’s citizenship in Early Modern England was always ambiguous

Question 9

What kind of roles did women have?

Answer 9

Ones that were more maternal, chruchwardens and overseers of the poor

Question 10

Which women was voting confined to?

Answer 10

Single women and widows

Question 11

How active were women in the political sphere?

Answer 11

They were somewhat active, would riot when there were bad harvests, would petition parliament. Generally peaceful protests, played into stereotypes.

Question 12

What were key definers of the middle sort?

Answer 12

Bigger houses with fireplaces and furniture, more expensive clothes, generally in positions of authority

Question 13

Increasingly across the period what made people more well respected?

Answer 13

A culture of high society, with concern over being well dressed and well versed in business

Question 14

What can the common ideas of an urban middling sort be traced to?

Answer 14

Capitalistic ideals such as common profit, business success and citizenship

Question 15

What was the ideology of improvement?

Answer 15

An ideology which argued land should be used as a productive resource rather than one of shared use

Question 16

What happened to the relations between the middling sort and the poor across the period?

Answer 16

Responsibilities of the middling sort moved away from paternalistic relations of hopitality

Question 17

Example of a typical dynamic between the poorer and better sort

Answer 17

Thomas Turner, shopkeeper and middle sort saw Sam Jenner, a poorer man as a worthy companion, despite being of lower status. Sam Jenner did odd jobs for Turner though showing a power dynamic

Question 18

Quote Muldrew, the identity of the middling sort

Answer 18

There may have been little sense of national experience and identity among England’s middling sort, there was a general belief in profit and commercialisation as a dynamic, ethically justifiable social system

Question 19

What was the middle sorts definition of the meaner sort

Answer 19

Those who had ‘neither voice nor authority in the common wealth, but are to be ruled and not to rule the other’

Question 20

How did Gregory King classify the meaner sort?

Answer 20

Those who were losing money for the nation, they were making less than they were consuming

Question 21

What was the key feature of labouring people?

Answer 21

They earned part or all of their living through working for wages

Question 22

What was the best gaurantee of living?

Answer 22

Owning livestock, especially cattle

Question 23

When was the worst problem with poverty across the period and why?

Answer 23

Between 1550-1650, this was due to high population growth causing high rates of inflation

Question 24

Why was a stable income unreliable for many of the poor?

Answer 24

Grain prices were unreliable, that was the main thing the poor spent money on. This did improve past 1700

Question 25

What was the contemporary definition of someone who was poor?

Answer 25

You were poor if you couldn’t support yourself through your own labour

Question 26

What was the difference between deserving and undeserving poor?

Answer 26

The deserving poor were poor because they couldn’t work, they were ill or disabled. The underserving poor were poor because they were lazy and didn’t want to work

Question 27

What is the life cycle of poverty?

Answer 27

The link of poverty to certain stages in a persons life. The elderly were more likely to be poor as were those with more children.

Question 28

What % of poverty was old age responsible for in Norwich?

Answer 28

16%

Question 29

How did poverty vary in Norwich?

Answer 29

Greatly from one ward to another. From 7-8% poor all the way to 36-41% poor

Question 30

What were the poor laws?

Answer 30

The English poor laws were a series of acts passed by parliament which introduced a system of parish based poor relief funded by compulsory taxation

Question 31

What was the flaw with the poor law system?

Answer 31

There was no criteria of what is was to belong to a parish so parishes would get rid of people who were going to require poor relief

Question 32

What did the workhouse act of 1723 do?

Answer 32

Erected workhouses and allowed parishes to deny poor relief to those who didn’t enter them.

Question 33

By what point was every parish contributing to poor law?

Answer 33

1690s

Question 34

What was the intention behind poor law?

Answer 34

To supplement household income rather than completely provide it

Question 35

By the 1770s how many Africans resided in London?

Answer 35

Between 3,000 and 15,000