Aspects of society in Scotland and north east England, c.1550-c.1750 : social structure, literacy and geographical mobility
This thesis offers a comparison of certain aspects of society in pre-industrial Scotland and the north of England. It attempts to view the social development of Scotland and England simultaneously in the period cl550-1750, thus countering the assumption that this is impossible and also offering some opportunity to examine whether the two countries enjoyed a :(undamentally different historical development. The aspects studied are social structure, geographical mobility and literacy. Using apprentice records, marriage bonds and marriage registers a picture o f the social hierarchy of Scotland and Northern England is recovered by the use of the statistical technique of multi- dimensional scaling. The resulting configurations show that at its basic structure society in the two regions of Britain was remarkably similar. The 'backward' nature of society in north-east England is questioned, as is the 'egalitarian' nature of Scottish social life. Apprentice records for Edinburgh and Newcastle are exploi ted to study geographical mobility over the same period of time. These are supplemented, for Scotland only, by the use of 'testimonials' issued to mobile persons between c 1640 and 1800. The Patterns of geographical
Houston, Robert Allan
History
Aspects of society in Scotland and north east England, c.1550-c.1750 : social structure, literacy and geographical mobility. This thesis offers a comparison of certain aspects of society in pre-industrial Scotland and the north of England. It attempts to view the social development of Scotland and England simultaneously in the period cl550-1750, thus countering the assumption that this is impossible and also offering some opportunity to examine whether the two countries enjoyed a :(undamentally different historical development. The aspects studied are social structure, geographical mobility and literacy. Using apprentice records, marriage bonds and marriage registers a picture o f the social hierarchy of Scotland and Northern England is recovered by the use of the statistical technique of multi- dimensional scaling. The resulting configurations show that at its basic structure society in the two regions of Britain was remarkably similar. The 'backward' nature of society in north-east England is questioned, as is the 'egalitarian' nature of Scottish social life. Apprentice records for Edinburgh and Newcastle are exploi ted to study geographical mobility over the same period of time. These are supplemented, for Scotland only, by the use of 'testimonials' issued to mobile persons between c 1640 and 1800. The Patterns of geographical
aspects society scotland north_east_england social_structure literacy geographical mobility offer comparison certain_aspect society pre_industrial scotland north_england attempt view social_development scotland england simultaneously period thus counter assumption impossible also offer_opportunity examine_whether two_country enjoy different historical_development aspect study social_structure geographical mobility literacy using apprentice record marriage bond marriage register picture social_hierarchy scotland northern_england recover use_statistical technique multi dimensional result configuration show_basic structure society two_region britain remarkably_similar backward nature society north_east_england question egalitarian nature scottish social_life apprentice record edinburgh newcastle study geographical mobility period_time supplement scotland use issue mobile person patterns geographical