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

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this, household accounts from seventeenth century England will be analysed, primarily the previously unstudied and unpublished manuscript accounts of John and Marie Coke of Hall Court, Herefordshire (1607-1622).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