Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T10:12:24.332Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Urban decline in the later middle ages: the reliability of the non-statistical evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

Extract

E. H. Carr once admitted his envy of medieval historians who have a manageable body of evidence to deal with but found consolation in the belief that their competence was, in a sense, based on ignorance. Students of the English town in the later middle ages may soon be in the ‘enviable’ position of having no reliable sources at all with which to judge progress of urban life. The use of the statistical evidence of lay subsidy returns of 1334 and 1524 and the lists of admissions of freemen to late medieval towns as indicators of the prosperity of England's towns in the later middle ages has been questioned and the meaning of these sources is open to doubt. Yet much of the evidence for urban decline comes from impressionistic sources, sources which were often compiled by townsmen with a vested interest in pleading poverty in order to obtain financial relief. The value of this evidence has also been challenged.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Carr, E. H., What is History? (1974), 14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Rigby, S. H., ‘Urban decline in the later middle ages: some problems in interpreting the statistical data’, Urban History Yearbook 1979, 4659CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dobson, R. B., ‘Admissions to the freedom of the city of York in the later middle ages’, Economic History Rev., 2nd. ser., XXVI (1973), 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Bridbury, A. R., ‘English provincial towns in the later middle ages’, Economic History Rev., 2nd. ser., XXXIV (1981), 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Dyer, C., ‘A re-distribution of incomes in fifteenth century England?’, in Hilton, R. H. (ed.), Peasants, Knights and Heretics (1981), 201Google Scholar; Barron, C. M., ‘London and the Crown, 1451–1461’, in Highfield, J. R. L. and Jeffs, R. (eds.), The Crown and Local Communities in England and France in the Fifteenth Century (1981), 92.Google Scholar

5 CPR 1476–85, 376, 384, 409, 427, 434, 442; CCR 1476–85, 382; Rotuli Parliamentor-um, VI, 390Google Scholar; Wilson, K. P., ‘The port of Chester in the fifteenth century’, Trans. Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, cxvin (1965), 12Google Scholar; Miller, E., York, Medieval, in Tillot, P. M. (ed.), V.C.H., A History of Yorkshire: The City of York (1961), 61–2Google Scholar; Atreed, L. C., ‘The king's interest: York's fee farm and the central government 1488–92’, Northern History, XVII (1981), 2443CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wright, A. P. M., ‘The relations between the King's government, and the English cities and boroughs in the fifteenth century’, D. Phil, thesis, Oxford 1965, ch. 4Google Scholar; Horrox, R., ‘Urban patronage and patrons in the fifteenth century’, in Griffiths, R. A. (ed.), Patronage, the Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England (1981).Google Scholar

6 Phythian-Adams, C., ‘Urban decay in late medieval England’ in Abrams, P. and Wrigley, E. A. (eds.), Towns in Societies (1978), 162.Google Scholar

7 Wright, op. cit. 192.

8 Ibid., 119. The truth of Gloucester's complaints is open to serious doubt. CPR 1446–52. 71; Langton, J., ‘Late medieval Gloucester: some data drawn from a rental of 1455’, Trans. Institute of British Geographers., n.s. II. 3 (1977), 259–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 2.Google Scholar

10 Bridbury, A. R., Economic Growth: England in the Later Middle Ages (1962), 75Google Scholar; Dyer, A., ‘Growth and decay in English towns 1500–1700’, Urban History Yearbook 1979, 61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 11.Google Scholar

11 Rigby, S. H., ‘Boston and Grimsby in the Middle Ages’, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1983, ch. 5.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., ch. 6.

13 Gillett, E., A History of Grimsby (1970), 66Google Scholar; Phythian-Adams, , ‘Urban decay’, 168Google Scholar; Dobson, R. B., ‘Urban decline in late medieval England, Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., fifth ser., XXVII (1977), 19.Google Scholar

14 Reynolds, S., An introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns (1977), 151Google Scholar; Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 20.Google Scholar

15 Pipe Roll, 8 John (Pipe Roll Society, LVIII, 1942), 107Google Scholar; Historical Manuscripts Commission 14th Report, Appendix Pt. VIII (1895), 237Google Scholar; (cited as HMC Grimsby below).

16 HMC Grimsby, 238; CChR 1300–26, 410; Pipe Roll 8 John 107; Johnson, C. and Cronne, H. A. (eds.), Regesta Requm Anglo-Normannorum, II (1956), 1737.Google Scholar

17 PRO E372/100, m.2; E.372/101, m.12d; E372/116, mm.10, 11; E159/47, mm.4d, 6, 14d.

18 CPR 1272–81, 414; PRO C66/99, m.ld.

19 PRO C143/201/1; Dugdale, W., The History oflmbanking and Draining (1772), 154.Google Scholar CPR 1334–8, 200; PRO C66/186, m.31d; Gillett, op. cit, 140–1. See also Owen, A. E. B., ‘The early history of Saltfleet Haven’, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society Reports and Papers, V (1954), 87100.Google Scholar

20 Gillett, op. cit, 140–1, 163–7.

21 Rotuli Parliamentorum, I, 412; PRO SC8/7/322.

22 Placitorum in Domo Capitulari Westmonasteriensi Asservatum Abbrevatio (Record Commissioners, 1811), 354.Google Scholar

23 de Boer, G., ‘Spurn Head. Its history and evolution’, Trans. Institute of British Geographers, XXXIV (1964), 7189CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Beresford, M., History on the Ground (1957), 136–7Google Scholar, Boyle, J. R., The Lost Towns of the Humber (1889).Google Scholar

24 Rotuli Hundredorum temp Henry III et Edward I (Record Commissioners, 1812), I, 107, 292, 382.Google Scholar

25 CIM I, 1512. See also PRO SC8/339/15961; Boyle, op. cit.

26 Dollinger, P., The German Hansa (1970), 38, 4950Google Scholar; Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 191, 242, 317–18.Google Scholar

27 Allison, K. J. (ed.), V.C.H., A History of the County of York; the East Riding, I (1969), 1113Google Scholar; Gras, N. S. B., The Early English Customs Service (Cambridge, Mass. 1918), 222.Google Scholar

28 Hatcher, J., Plague, Population and the English Economy 1348–1530 (1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Miskimin, H. A., ‘Monetary movements and market structure: forces for contraction in fourteenth and fifteenth century EnglandJ Economic History, XXXIV (1964), 485.Google Scholar

29 PRO C143/258/16; C143/145/6; E372/305, m.l., CIM II, 1759., CIM, III, 351; CFR 1337–47, 203, 220.

30 de Boer, op. cit., 80–5; Boyle, op. cit., 39; Beresford, , History, 137Google Scholar; CPR 1307–13, 281; CPR 1334–8, 165; CPR 1340–3, 8; CPR 1343–6, 85, 217; CIM, II, 1988; Bond, E. A., Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, II (Rolls Series, 1867), 30, 153.Google Scholar

31 Dobson, op. cit, 6–10 Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 10, 14Google Scholar; Borsay, P., ‘Culture, status and the English landscape’, History, LXVII (1982), 3.Google Scholar

32 Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 320–1Google Scholar; South Humberside Area Record Office (S.H.A.R.O.), Grimsby court rolls, 19 Oct., 13 Richard II; Chamberlains' Accounts, 17 Richard II, 18 Richard II, 3 Henry IV.

33 CCR 1381–5, 338; CCR 1389–92, 106; CPR 1388–924, 59; CIM, v, 181; Rotuli Parliamentorum, III, 514; PRO C145/245/15; CP40/528, m.115; CP40/529, m.115, E372/235; SC8/22/1085; S.H.A.R.O. mayor's account 16 Richard II; Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 321–2.Google Scholar

34 CChR 1300–26, 416; CFR 1430–7, 209; Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 322.Google Scholar

35 CCR 1461161-–, 26.

36 S.H.A.R.O. 1/102/1, Mayor's court book (cited as MCB), f.70.

37 Ibid., f.14, 17; HMC Grimsby, 267, 272.

38 HMC Grimsby, 258; S.H.A.R.O. lease to Wellow Abbey (1471) with memorandum (1492); Storey, T. H., ‘A sixteenth-century Exchequer suit concerning the Wulfoo lands in Grimsby’, Lincolnshire Historian, II, 10 (1963), 33–9.Google Scholar

39 MCB, f.52; HMC Grimsby, 270.

40 MCB, f.24, 31v, 32, 32v, 47v, 50v, 52, 75v, 77, 77v, 79v, 80v, 81v, 84v, 89.

41 Ibid., f.47; HMC Grimsby, 269–70.

42 S.H.A.R.O. 1/700/1 Bailiffs' extent book, 1492, f.2v.

43 Gillett, op. cit., 66. The rental of 1286 only survives as the basis for the extent of 1492. The original rental itself has not survived. S.H.A.R.O. 1/700/1 Bailiffs' extent book.

44 Gottfried, R. S., Bury St. Edmunds and the Urban Crisis: 1290–1539 (Princeton, 1982), 255Google Scholar

45 PRO E359/8B, m.26.

46 Oman, C., The Great Revolt (1906), 27–8Google Scholar; PRO E359/8B, m.18; E179/135/83.

47 Postan, M. M., The Medieval Economy and Society (1972), 30.Google Scholar

48 See Hatcher, op. cit., 14.

49 PRO E179/136/311.

50 Cornwall, J., ‘English country towns in the fifteen twenties’, Economic History Rev., 2nd. ser., xv (19621963), 5760Google Scholar, Campbell, B. M. S., ‘The population of early Tudor England; a re-assessment of the 1522 Muster returns and the 1524 and 1525 lay subsidies’, J. Historical Geography, VII 1981), 145–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar, stresses that Cornwall's use of the lay subsidy returns tends to exaggerate estimates of population.

51 Hoskins, W. G., ‘English provincial towns in the early sixteenth century’, Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc, 5th ser., VI (1956), 17.Google Scholar

52 HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury, Pt. II (1883), 109.Google Scholar

53 Letters and Papers, Foreign arid Domestic Henry VIII, XIII, pt. n, 220Google Scholar; HMC Grimsby, 259 S.H.A.R.O. 1/900 consolidation of the rectories of St Mary and St. James.

54 For the evidence of rent in other towns see Butcher, A. F., ‘Rent and the urban economy: Oxford and Canterbury in the later middle ages’, Southern History, I (1979), 1143Google Scholar; Butcher, A. F., ‘Rent, population and economic change in late medieval England’, Northern History, XIV (1978), 66–7.Google Scholar

55 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' accounts, 18 Richard II, 9 Edward IV, 15 Henry VII. See also the chamberlains' accounts for 20 Richard II, 3 Henry IV, 10 Henry IV, 5 Henry V, 9 Henry V, 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI, 20 Henry VI, 5 Edward IV, 8 Edward IV.

56 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' accounts, 18 Henry IV, 5 Henry V, 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI, 20 Henry VI, 5 Edward IV, 8 Edward IV, 9 Edward IV.

57 S.H.A.R.O. 1/50 1498 ordinances.

58 MCB f.78v-88; S.H.A.R.O chamberlains' accounts, 5 Edward IV, 6 Henry VIII.

59 MCB f.47; HMC Grimsby, 269.

60 Phythian-Adams, C., Desolation of a City (1979), 47.Google Scholar

61 The Statutes of the Realm, III (Record Commissioners, 1818), 30.Google Scholar

62 PRO E368 L.T.R. Memoranda rolls give annual returns of the mayor of Grimsby in the accounts of seizures of illegal imports and exports.

63 For Grimsby's mayors in the late fifteenth century see S.H.A.R.O. 1/100 court rolls and 1/102/1 Mayor's court book, passim.

64 PRO E179/136/311.

65 In these 16 towns taxpayers with £20 or more of movables ranged from 1.8% to 11.4% of taxpayers. Cornwall, ‘English country towns’, 63.

66 Ibid.

67 Hoskins, ‘English provincial towns in the early sixteenth century’, 1718.Google Scholar

68 MCB, f.47; HMC Grimsby, 269.

69 S.H.A.R.O. Grimsby court rolls, 13 Feb., 15 Richard II, Eve of St John the Baptist, 5 Henry V. See also MCB f.172v.

70 Jackson, G., Grimsby and the Haven Company 1796–1846 (1971), 12, 60.Google Scholar

71 HMC Grimsby, 261.

72 Cole, R. E. G. (ed.), Lincolnshire Church Notes made by Gervase Holies (Lincoln Record Society, 1911), 2.Google Scholar See also Wood, A. C. (ed.), Memorials of the Holies Family 1496–1656 (Camden Society, 3rd ser., LV, 1937), 218.Google Scholar

73 Owen, A. E. B., ‘The Early History of Saltfleethaven’, 87100Google Scholar; Saul, A. R., ‘Great Yarmouth in the fourteenth Century’, Oxford D. Phil, thesis, 1975, ch. 6Google Scholar; Saul, A. R., ‘English towns in the later middle ages: the case of Great Yarmouth’, J. Medieval History, VIII (1982), 83Google Scholar; Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 381–2Google Scholar

74 Wren, W. J., Ports of the Eastern Counties (1976), ch. 1Google Scholar; Hallam, H. E., ‘Salt making in the Lincolnshire Fenland during the middle ages’, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society Reports and Papers, n.s. VIII (19591960), 112Google Scholar; Hallam, H. E., ‘Population density in the medieval Fenland’, Economic History Rev., 2nd ser., XVI (19611962), 7981Google Scholar; Steers, J. A., The Coastline of England and Wales (1964), 688CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bond, E. A. (ed.), Chronica Monasterii de Melsa III (Rolls Series, 1868), 120–3, 253, 280, 285–95.Google Scholar

75 A. E. B. Owen, ‘The early history of Saltfleethaven.’

76 Steers, op. cit., 683.

77 Ibid., 406–13, 417; de Boer, op. cit.

78 Gillett, op. cit., 51; see also Rotuli Parliamentorum IV, 365; CPR 1436–41, 297; CPR 1452–61, 512 for complaints of flooding near Grimsby in the fifteenth century.

79 PROC143/5/11.

80 Gillett, op. cit., 51.

81 Scammell, G. V., ‘English merchant shipping at the end of the middle ages’, Economic History Rev., 2nd. ser., XIII (19601961), 333–4.Google Scholar

82 MCB f.47; HMC Grimsby, 269.

83 S.H.A.R.O. 1/700/1 Bailiffs' extent book, f.2v.

84 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' account, 8 Edward IV.

85 S.H.A.R.O. 1/50 1498 ordinances.

86 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' account, 17 Richard II.

87 PRO SC8/399/14937.

88 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' account 3 Henry IV.

89 S.H.A.R.O. 1/50 1498 ordinances.

90 CChR 1257–1300, 14; Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 55.Google Scholar

91 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' account 18 Richard II.

92 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' account 3 Henry IV.

93 Heath, P., ‘North Sea fishing in the fifteenth century; the Scarborough fleet’, Northern History, III (1968), 5369CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Saul, , ‘English towns in the later middle ages; the case of Yarmouth’, 78–9, 83.Google Scholar

94 Unger, R. W., ‘The Netherlands herring industry in the later middle ages: the false legend of William Beukels of Beiervliet’, Viator, IX (1978), 335–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

95 MCB f.47; HMC Grimsby, 258–70.

96 Bolton, J. L., ‘Alien merchants in England in the reign of Henry VI 1422–61’, Oxford B. Litt. thesis, 1971, 68Google Scholar; Bolton, J. L., The Medieval English Economy (1980), 313–4.Google Scholar

97 Clarkson, L. A., The Pre-Industrial Economy in England (1974), 164.Google Scholar

98 CPR 1485–94, 349; S.H.A.R.O. 1/906/2, commission for an extent of the fee farm.

99 The extent of the town of Grimsby was made by a jury of 14 burgesses whilst 13 other men gave details of the fee farm's appurtenances in the villages of Clee, Swallow and Bradley, S.H.A.R.O. 1/700/1 Bailiffs' extent book; PRO SCll/406 is a neater but incomplete version of the 1492 extent.

100 The original commission ordering the extent refers to a rental of 1280 but the 1492 jurors based their extent on a rental of 1286. S.H.A.R.O. 1/700/1 Bailiffs' extent book, f.l; CPR 1485–94, 349.

101 For a fuller discussion of the 1492 extent see Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 344–8.Google Scholar

102 HMC Grimsby, 247; MCB ff.47v, 48, 48v.

103 MCB f.73v, 80v, 85; HMC Grimsby, 252–3.

104 HMC Grimsby, 256.

105 Wood, op. cit., 218.

106 Bridbury, , Economic Growth, 75.Google Scholar

107 The chamberlains' income in 1401–2 came to £59. A number of administrative changes later excluded certain types of revenue from their accounts, changes which exaggerate the decline of the chamberlains' income. The decline from £39 to £12 makes allowances for these changes, S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' accounts 3 Henry IV, 8 Edward IV; Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 56–9.Google Scholar

108 Piatt, C., The English Medieval Town (1976), 147.Google Scholar

109 S.H.A.R.O. chamberlains' accounts 18 Richard II, 8 Edward IV.

110 MCB, f.39v, 40v, 46v; HMC Grimsby, 269.

111 MCB f.47; HMC Grimsby, 269–70. It was John Ingson, burgess of Grimsby who had had built the tower of St James in 1365 (Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 320Google Scholar). In the late 1470s the mother of the bishop of Lincoln wrote to the mayor of Grimsby urging him to be a ‘good friend and well wilier to the poor house of nuns of Grimsby’ whose income was in decline (HMC Grimsby, 251).

112 Wilson, , ‘The port of Chester in the fifteenth century’, 10, 14.Google Scholar

113 Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 20.Google Scholar

114 Bridbury, , Economic Growth, 7782Google Scholar; Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 22.Google Scholar

115 PRO E179/135/20; E179/136/311.

116 Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 20.Google Scholar

11 Bridbury, , Economic Growth, 81.Google Scholar

118 Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 380Google Scholar, argues that Lincoln is such a yardstick of decline.

119 Dobson, op. cit., 13–14; Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 20Google Scholar; Kermode, J. I., ‘Urban decline? The flight from office in late medieval York’, Economic History Rev., 2nd ser., XXXV (1982), 179–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

120 Kermode, op. cit., 194–5.

121 MCB f.81.

122 MCB f.3, 17v, 79v.

123 In other words there was not a genuine election to select these men as bailiffs, MCB, f.79v, 80.

124 MCB f.4v–32v, 47v–81v.

125 Bridbury, , ‘English provincial towns’, 20Google Scholar; Gillett, op. cit., 63; S.H.A.R.O. Grimsby court rolls, 8 Oct. 16 Richard II.

126 Rigby, , ‘Boston and Grimsby’, 269.Google Scholar

127 Ibid., 364.

128 Hopkins, K., Conquerors and Slaves (1977), 1920.Google Scholar