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3 - Office and Manhood

from Part II - Remaking Office

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2023

Jonah Miller
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter traces the emergence of a new kind of official masculinity which was not rooted in the household. In the mid-seventeenth century, some lawyers attempted unsuccessfully to exclude women from officeholding entirely by arguing that gender trumped householder status as a qualification for office. Also in the mid-seventeenth century, the new system of indirect excise taxation produced a new kind of officer: young, unmarried, and always male. Excisemen were derided for lacking the independence of traditional householder officers and their wives (if they did marry) were prohibited from taking part in official business. This complete separation of office and household began to be mirrored by London constables and watchmen in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Householders chosen to hold these offices increasingly hired deputies to serve for them, and deputies tended to be poorer than their principals. Many were either younger or older than middle-age and often unmarried. In the course of working and socialising together year after year, these deputies developed a culture of fraternal masculinity based on solidarity, drinking, misogyny, and violence.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Office and Manhood
  • Jonah Miller, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Gender and Policing in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009305174.006
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  • Office and Manhood
  • Jonah Miller, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Gender and Policing in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009305174.006
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Office and Manhood
  • Jonah Miller, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Gender and Policing in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009305174.006
Available formats
×