For reservations to experience “nkwiluntàmën: I long for it; I am lonesome for it (such as the sound of a drum)” by Indigenous artist Nathan Young, please go to https://nkwiluntamen.com/
Last weekend, during our annual spring Interpreter training, I shared an amazing BBC mini-series on 17th-century farm life, and I wanted to make sure everyone else got to hear about it too!
(I’ve actually already shared it a couple of times on this blog, including a recent article about stuffing straw mattresses. But this is a tv series any history buff should not miss, so I couldn’t resist re-posting a link!!)
The series, called Tales From the Green Valley, follows 5 historians and archaeologists as they live on a real 17th-century Welsh farm and perform the daily activities required to survive. Unfortunately the series is not available on DVD in US-format, but luckily all 12 episodes are available onDaily Motion:*
These 12 episodes, one for every month of the year, offers a marvelous inside look at the daily lives of Stuart-era English farmers. They follow the agricultural year and show how much life was influenced by the seasons, in ways that modern society hardly notices anymore.
Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing more posts on seasonal activities, so stay tuned!
Hannah Howard, Volunteer Coordinator
*No copyright infringement intended, used for purely educational purposes
I hope everyone has enjoyed a safe and happy holiday season! I love the end of the year, it offers everyone a chance to reflect on the past 12 months and start the next year with a fresh perspective! William Penn’s dream for his new colony was all about living a fulfilled and worthwhile life, and it’s never too late to make a difference.
We have featured some amazing articles this past year on so many different issues and people, and gathered a wonderful following for the blog! I’d like to send out a big THANK-YOU to the staff and interns who have contributed articles this past year. I think we have created a very special resource for our volunteers and anyone with an interest in 17th-century history!!
But this is not meant to be a one-way street – we invite your comments, questions, and discussion! Also if there are any topics you find fascinating and would like to learn more about, please feel free to comment on this post and we’ll try to address it in the coming months!
I wish all Pennsbury’s wonderful volunteers a very happy New Year!
The Scene: The Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, London
The Date: 15-16 January 1690
Where’s William? M.I.A. At this stage, Penn was keeping a very low profile in England. He was still suspected by the new King and Queen, William and Mary, of Jacobitism and perhaps Catholicism. Most of his letters now just carry a date, not a location of where it was written, and letters to him were addressed to friends who might know his location, for hand delivery.
Background: Far below the social and political sphere in which Penn maneuvered, there existed a large underclass. This is especially true of the city of London. Many upper class Londoners were quaintly amused by
the simple country laboring folk they encountered in journeys across southern England. Closer to home, though, they often objected to the ‘airs’ put on by the lower classes, especially concerning their modes of dress. Fashion, and fashionable clothing, became a London trait, most noticeable after the Restoration, and continuing after the Glorious Revolution. Modes of dress indicated your status in society, and also indicated who could or could notbe approached in public areas. The engraving on the right is one of many in a collection by Marcellus Laroon, an artist who sketched London’s street hawkers, entertainers, and beggars in the late 1600s. These chimney sweeps are from the lowest ranks of London society, and are dressed accordingly. But unfortunately for the gentry, the lower classes started to find plenty of opportunities to buy the fashionable garments traditionally worn only by the upper-classes, causing a major disturbance in the class system. Many women wearing fashionable gowns were now less than met the eye. Bernard Mandeville, writing in the early 18th Century, laments:
This haughtiness alarms the court, the women of quality are
frighten’s to see merchants’ wives and daughters dress’d like
themselves: this impudence of the City, they cry, is intolerable;
mantua-makers are sent for, and the contrivance of fashions
becomes all their study, that they may have always new modes
ready to take up, as soon as those saucy city shall begin to
imitate those in being.
As the merchants wives went, so went the laborers and their wives and girlfriends. They aspired to fashions which would elevate themselves to the merchants clothing status. Men were no different, as you can see from the engraving here. This fiddler sought to elevate his appearance and improve business by dressing in fashionable attire, probably bought used from a street crier. A huge quantity of secondhand clothes abounded in London, both legitimate and stolen. Tradesmen looking to purchase new fashions or servants who receive garments from their employers would sell off used clothing to street hawkers (seen below) for extra money. The hawkers would then resell for a much smaller price than new garments. Clothing and cloth remained a huge black market commodity in 17th – 18th Century England, and most likely, throughout the Empire. This continued until industrialization and its mass-produced, inexpensive clothing caught up with the demand. If fashion or other needs called, and the purse was light, theft would do.
Event: Trials of Anne Hughes, Jane Townsend, Jean Voudger, Ursula Watson, and Mary Smith all before a jury for theft of clothing or cloth in the weeks preceding.
Outcome:
Anne Hughes – found guilty of stealing a number of clothing items from her employer, listed as a “quarter of an ell of Holland value 18 d one yard of Cambrick 3 s. one Scarf 6 d. one pair of Shoes 12 d. “
Jane Townsend – found guilty of stealing one Flaxen Sheet value 5 s. from Joseph Brendon.
Both of these women were sentenced to being “Whip’d from Newgate to Temple Bar” which would have been from above St. Paul’s, and down Fleet Street, tied to a cart, being publicly whipped along the way.
Jean Voudger – found guilty of stealing from one John Rance 56 yards of Flanders Lace value 10 pounds, two Laced Holland Cornets 7 s., two Quoifs 14 s., 2 pair of Gloves, 2s., and twelve Hoods 13 s.
She was sentenced to death for this crime, but was saved from the gallows by reason of her pregnancy.
Ursula Watson – found guilty of stealing a handkerchief and a pair of gloves, and was acquitted of theft charges regarding other items missing from the house.
Mary Smith – found guilty of for stealing six yards of Serge value 12 s. on the 24th of December , from Robert Acton.
Both Smith and Watson were sentenced to being whipped from Newgate to Holburn Bars.
The second-hand clothing market fueled by fashion crazed London was a boon for some, allowing for an apparent increased status to lower class workers (like the crab seller seen above) and employing many. However, it remained a bane to those caught stealing to supply this market and the aristocrats who saw their status as under assault by those up-dressing commoners!
We often spend so much time focusing on William Penn’s own life that we forget there was an entire WORLD of dramatic events and intrigues happening all around him!! William’s World, our new monthly featurette, will focus on the people, places, inventions, and ideas of the Early Modern Period.
Scene: London, England
Date: 30 September 1661
Where’s William? An almost 17 year old William Penn is studying at Christ Church College, Oxford, roughly 50 miles up the Thames River from London.
Background: The Restoration of Charles II in 1660 has brought changes to the population of London. The returning Royalists supplant the Cromwellian Puritans, the Church of England’s Anglicism is restored over the Protectorate’s Presbyterianism, and continental European rulers are establishing embassies in the English Capitol. An arriving ambassador is received with great pomp and ceremony, not only by Charles II, but also by fellow ambassadors already in London. Such is the case when Sweden’s Ambassador Brahe arrives by barge at the Tower of London. They planned for Brahe to enter an official state carriage and proceed to the palace at Whitehall for a formal presentation to the king. Other ambassadors follow behind in their own elaborate carriages, following an order of precedence determined by the nominal founding of the various royal houses in Europe.
“The Arrival of King Charles I of England in Rotterdam” by Lieve Verschuier
The Main Event: Now it just so happens that both France and Spain are claiming to have the highest rank among European states, and both are planning to be in the Swedish ambassadors’ procession, and their embassies are across the street from each other. Charles has asked them both not to participate, and in learning of their decisions, instructs that no Englishman is to participate or meddle in the dispute. English soldiers are called in under arms, and London’s Trained Bands (an efficient group of militia) were also on duty as well.
By the early afternoon, both the French and Spanish had arranged their carriages and retinues for the procession. The French contingent numbered some 150, the Spanish around 40 or so. An eyewitness to the proceedings, Samuel Pepys observed, “…great preparations on both sides; but the French made the most noise and vaunted most, the other made no stir almost at all…”, then, in spite of all this activity, goes off to lunch.
While he dined, the two groups began to make their way toward the Tower, as their embassies are some distance away. At some point in the journey, most likely after arriving at the landing, the French and Spanish began a running battle along London’s crowded streets. They head North-East, over Tower Hill, toward Crutched Friars near Aldgate. There, the Spanish stalled the French by killing and cutting the harnesses of a number of horses pulling the French coach, leaving it unable to move. In the process, at least 6 Frenchmen were killed and 33 wounded. The Spanish attempted to avoid similar destruction by assigning individual guards for each Spanish horse and coachman and reinforcing their horses’ harnesses with chains. However, one or two men of their party were still killed, and several more wounded. Additionally, one English soldier somewhere along the route was killed, most likely by a French firearm, as the Spanish were reported to be armed only with swords.
Alfred Barron Clay’s 19th-century depiction of Charles II entering London
Our eyewitness describes the success of the Spanish, as their coach “…is gone through the City next to our King’s coach. At which it is strange to see how the City did rejoice. And endeed, we do naturally all love the Spanish and hate the French.” He also witnesses the ending, as he recalls:
…I run after them with my boy after me, through all the dirt and the streets full of people; till at last at the mewes [Royal Mews at Charing Cross, some miles away from the scene of battle] I saw the Spanish coach go, with 50 drawne swords at least to guard it and our soldiers shouting for joy. And so I fallowed the coach, and then met it at Yorke-house, where the Embassador lies; and there it went with great state.
A victory, it would seem, for the Spanish, and the London population which seemed to prefer them over the French.
The Outcome: It seems likely that news of such an event would have spread quickly around the London area, given the number of casualties (likely over 50) and the success of the English favorites. It is probable that William Penn would have heard the tale, given that his father was close friends and neighbors with our eyewitness, Samuel Pepys, whom he also worked with at the Navy Office. Indeed, a few days later Pepys and Sir William Penn met a Monsieur Eschar, who complained that the English actually assisted the Spanish, and that the French Ambassador would leave England unless King Charles acted against the Spanish and the participating English. Pepys observed the threat and, on the Ambassador leaving, noted that, “… I and all that I meet with, all are very glad of.”
The French Ambassador did leave England in October, but returned in January, despite Charles ignoring his threats. The Spanish court did eventually recall their Ambassador, issued an apology, and agreed to allow the French precedence, although a binding agreement on this topic was not reached until 1761, a century after the event. Charles wised up much faster, issuing orders that only English subjects were to be permitted at these types of state events.
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