Datasets

The Social Network Analysis of this monograph uses two datasets. Dataset A is formed of over 600 legal and financial transactions from the period 1280–1600. Just over half of the transactions are debt cases, most often recorded in the Court of Common Pleas. Just under half are various types of conveyancing document, most commonly grants but also some quitclaims, leases, releases, feet of fines, licences to alienate land, demises, and feoffments. About 4 per cent of the evidence base is composed of other forms of legal interaction between parties, such as letters of attorney and bonds. The source coverage is uneven across the period, becoming much weaker in the sixteenth century. For this reason, my detailed statistical analysis focuses on three decades with a greater number of extant documents: the 1370s, the 1430s, and the 1470s.

Dataset B comprises the 298 surviving wills of Reading inhabitants from the period 1490–1589, years selected to place the Dissolution midway. Wills registered with the archdeaconry of Berkshire make up 22 per cent of the pre-Dissolution set but 78 per cent of the post-Dissolution one. In contrast to Dataset A, the wills can only meaningfully be analysed from the 1490s due to limited survival before this date. The networks are composed of links between testators and the individuals whom they chose to be executors, overseers, and witnesses. In comparison with executors and overseers, the choice of witnesses may have been based more on availability at the time of writing than careful selection of the ideal associate. Witnesses are included in the network analysis, since their appearance still denotes an instance of social interaction with the testator and the Reading evidence does not indicate the selection of a significantly different type of individual for the role.

In carrying out a Social Network Analysis, a researcher must select appropriate parameters regarding the data that are included and excluded. An option used in some studies is ‘snowballing’. Here, particular individuals are chosen as a starting point and data are initially collected only on them, followed by data collection on their direct contacts, repeating the process for as many steps as the researcher deems necessary.