Abstract
Recent decades have witnessed a research boom into the history of the early modern English town. A subject which in many respects was uncharted territory in the early 1970s, before the publication in 1972 of the path-breaking Crisis and Order in English Towns 1500–1700,1 now has the character of a map the broad contours of which have been sketched in, although in which there are still obvious lacunae, and there is much scope for detailed infilling. The volume of research, and an early focus on synthesis — on viewing towns generically rather than individually2 — has ensured that the town has emerged as a distinct (if not independent) variable in the period’s history as a whole. This chapter will survey the findings of this new work as it relates to the Restoration town (1660-c. 1688).
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Bibliography
Urban historians tend to work across broad rather than narrow chronologies, so there are no specific studies of the Restoration town. The best starting points are P. Clark and P. Slack’s influential and admirably concise English Towns in Transition 1500–1700 (London, 1976); and J. Barry (ed.), The Tudor and Stuart Town: A Reader in English Urban History 1530–1688 (Harlow, 1990), which contains a valuable introduction, and reprints several key essays with a critical commentary. Other surveys of the early modern town can be found in
J. Patten, English Towns 1500–1700 (Folkestone, 1978);
A. McInnes, The English Town 1660–1760, Historical Association (London, 1980); and
P. J. Corfield, ‘Urban Development in England and Wales in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, reprinted in Barry above. The wider European context can be examined in J. de Vries, European Urbanization 1500–1800 (London, 1984). Some of the most innovative research has appeared in three volumes of essays, which contain stimulating introductions:
P. Clark and P. Slack (eds), Crisis and Order in English Towns 1500–1700 (London, 1972);
P. Clark (ed.), Country Towns in Pre-industrial England (Leicester, 1981); and
P. Clark (ed.), The Transformation of English Provincial Towns 1600–1800 (London, 1984). Two more general collections also contain important pieces which embrace the late seventeenth-century town:
A. Everitt (ed.), Perspectives in English Urban History (London, 1973), with essays on the buildings of Burford and the urban inn; and
D. Fraser and A. Sutcliffe (eds), The Pursuit of Urban History (London, 1983), with pieces on London popular culture and the writing of urban history in the period. A number of towns have been the subject of major studies:
A. L. Beier and R. Finlay (eds), London 1500–1700: The Making of the Metropolis (London, 1986);
P. Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660–1730 (London, 1989);
P. Earle, A City Full of People: London 1660–1760 (London, 1994);
D. Hey, The Fiery Blades of Hallamshire: Sheffield and its Neighbourhood, 1660–1740 (Leicester, 1991);
D. H. Sacks, The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450–1700 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991). On the general themes of demography and economy, and the interaction between the two, see: E. A. Wrigley, ‘Urban Growth and Agricultural Change; England and the Continent in the Early Modern Period’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XV (1985);
E. A. Wrigley, ‘A Simple Model of London’s Importance in Changing English Society and Economy 1650–1750’, P & P, XXXVII (1967);
P. Clark and D. Souden (eds), Migration and Society in Early Modern England (London, 1987). The built environment, and its social contextualization, can be explored in J. Langton, ‘Residential Patterns in Pre-industrial Cities: Some Case Studies from Seventeenth-century Britain’, reprinted in Barry above; L. Stone, ‘The Residential Development of the West End of London in the Seventeenth Century’, in
B. C. Malament (ed.), After the Reformation (Manchester, 1980);
N. G. Brett-James, The Growth of Stuart London (London, 1935); S. Collier with
S. Pearson, Whitehaven 1660–1800 (London, 1991). Important studies of urban politics and religion — the two are inextricably intertwined — can be found in
J. T. Evans, Seventeenth-century Norwich: Politics, Religion, and Government, 1620–1690 (Oxford, 1979);
J. Miller, ‘The Crown and the Borough Charters in the Reign of Charles II’, EHR, C (1985);
C. Jones (ed.), Britain in the First Age of Party 1680–1750 (London, 1987);
T. Harris, London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II (Cambridge, 1987);
T. Harris, P. Seaward and M. Goldie (eds), The Politics of Religion in Restoration England (Oxford, 1990). Differing views about the evolution of post-Restoration urban culture can be investigated in
A. McInnes, ‘The Emergence of a Leisure Town: Shrewsbury 1660–1760’, P & P, CXX (1988);
P. Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town 1660–1770 (Oxford, 1989);
J. Barry, ‘Provincial Town Culture, 1640–1780; Urbane or Civic?’, in J. H. Pittock (ed.), Interpretation and Cultural History (London, 1991). For the development of spas, see
P. Hembry, The English Spa 1560–1815: A Social History (London, 1990); and, for ‘popular’ culture,
B. Reay (ed.), Popular Culture in Seventeenth-century England (London, 1988). Two contemporary sources, rich in urban content, are The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed.
R. Latham and W. Matthews, 11 vols (London, 1970–83); and
The Journeys of Celia Fiennes, ed. C. Morris (London, 1947).
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© 1997 P. Borsay
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Borsay, P. (1997). The Restoration Town. In: Glassey, L.K.J. (eds) The Reigns of Charles II and James VII & II. Problems in Focus Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25432-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25432-3_8
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