wigs with curls, despite the church's dislike of wigs. This could hide
the short hair of a former Puritan Roundhead. In 1666, Charles
introduced a new mode of inexpensive court dress which was made entirely
from English textiles. This gave rise to gentlemen's weskits to below
the knee with a coat of the same length and full sleeves. Stockings and
shoes replaced the long fitted boots. Charles set a court tradition of
men wearing a scarf tied around the neck. Ladies often wore their hair
in masses of ringlets with little corkscrew curls on each side of their
heads, and later piled their hair up elaborately on their heads. They
wore satin or silk dresses fitted at the waist with a pointed bodice,
and full skirt. The shoulder line was low and the sleeves full and open
at the front with fastenings of jeweled clasps. The only fast colors
were reds, blues, purple, and yellow, but not green. They kept their
hands warm in muffs. Women wore perfume, rouge, and face patches. Some
women put on a lot of make-up. Many men dressed effeminately with rouge,
face patches, heavily scented clothing, muffs, and many ribbons of many
colors. The facial beauty patches were in shapes such as stars, crescent
moons, and hearts; they diverted attention from the common smallpox
scars. There were Oxford shoes, which laced up the front through
eyelets. The members of the House of Commons dressed like the gentry and
assumed their manners. There was exaggeration in all complimentary and
ceremonial language.
The gentry were beginning to be thought of as a "squirearchy". They
owned about half the land of the country.
The population according to class was as follows:
Number of Social Ranks, Household
Household
Households Degrees, Titles size
yearly
income
in pounds
160 Temporal lords
40 3,200
26 Spiritual lords
20 1,300
800 Baronets
16 880
600 Knights
13 650
3,000 Esquires
10 450
12,000 Gentlemen
8 280
5,000 Persons in greater offices and places 8
240
5,000 Persons in lesser offices and places 6
120
2,000 Eminent merchants and traders by sea 8
400
8,000 Lesser merchants and traders by sea 6
198
10,000 Persons in the law
7 154
2,000 Eminent clergymen 6
72
8,000 Lesser clergymen
5 50
40,000 Freeholders of the better sort 7
91
120,000 Freeholders of the lesser sort 5.5
55
150,000 Farmers
5 42.5
15,000 Persons in liberal arts and sciences 5
60
50,000 Shopkeepers and tradesmen 4.5
45
60,000 Artisans and handicrafts 4
38
5,000 Naval officers
4 80
4,000 Military officers
4 60
50,000 Common seamen 3
20
364,000 Laboring people and out-servants 3.5
15
400,000 Cottagers and paupers
3.25 6.5
35,000 Common soldiers
2 14
25,000 Vagrants, as gypsies, thieves, beggar
As can be seen, agriculture is still the most common occupation.
Great houses now had a central dining chamber for dining, with sets of
suites, usually for couples, around it. Each suite had an ante-chamber
and/or drawing room, and then a bedchamber, off of which there was a
servant's room and a closet [cabinet]. No longer did personal servants
bed down in the drawing room or outside their master's door or in a
truckle bed at his feet. The servant's room was connected to a back
staircase for use by servants. Secret guests also used it. The csbinet
room was the innermost sanctum for privacy and gave its name to the
later cabinet of the government.
There were fewer servants and they were of a lower social status than
before. They were often sons of merchants, clergymen, and army officers.
Gentlemen no longer advanced by service to a great man, but instead
through grammar school and university education, commerce, the law, or
the armed services. This change came about because the state now
maintained reasonable law and order. There were more female servants,
who were paid less to cook and to clean as well as do laundry and
nursing. Servants were kept more in the background, preferably out of
sight. The elaborate ceremonial ritual with sewer, carver, and cupbearer
was gone. A butler replaced the yeomen of the buttery, ewery, and
pantry, and footmen began to wait on the table at which the lord, his
lady, and other couples sat. Servants no longer had meals in the hall,
which now had a grand staircase up to the dining chamber. The highest
servants, the officers: clerk of the kitchen, clerk of the check
[comptroller], head cook, butler, and groom of the chambers, and female
housekeeper ate in the gentleman-of the-horse's room, although at a
separate table. The kitchen staff ate in the kitchen. The footmen,
underbutler, porters, coachmen, grooms, stable-boys, gardeners, maids
ate in a servants' room. The steward was no longer the chief household
officer, but had a room near the kitchen. The bulk of the servants slept
in the basement or subordinate wings of the house.
Great houses of nobles had more rooms, such as a chapel, library,
parlors, dressings rooms, and galleries; there was a variety of
architectural floor plans. The structure of a noble household of an earl
was as follows: The chief official was the receiver general. He had
financial responsibility for the household and prepared accounts for the
household and for the tenants' estates. These were checked by an
auditor. The receiver general was often the son of a country gentleman
and had a salary of 50 pounds raised to 100 pounds with longevity. He
had a servant and an assistant. If married, he had a house on the
property. There was perhaps an attorney on retainer who were paid for a
certain number of hours per week or month. The gentleman of the privy
purse kept the accounts of the family and bought them apparel and
toiletries. He was in close personal attendance upon the earl. His
salary was 20 pounds a year. Besides the receiver general and the
gentleman of the chamber, the tutor and chaplain had the closest
personal contact with the family. The lady had a gentlewoman with a maid
servant. The receiver general supervised most of the staff. There was a
steward of 40 pounds a year. He supervised a clerk of the kitchen and a
house bailiff of 20 pounds a year. The bailiff had responsibility for
the produce of the estate, e.g. the gardens, the deer park, and the fish
ponds. Under the clerk of the kitchen was the cook man and kitchen boys,
the latter of whom were clothed and fed, but not paid. The steward also
supervised the 4 pound yearly porters, who kept the gates; the watchmen
outside; and the head housekeeper, usually a woman of 2 to 6 pounds
yearly. She supervised the laundry maid and general maids, who spent
much of their time sewing. The steward was also responsible for the wine
cellar. A dozen footmen belonged partly to the house and partly to the
stables and received 2 to 6 pounds yearly. They waited on the lord and
lady in the house and accompanied them in travels and did errands for
them. The gentleman of the horse supervised the stables, coach, dogs,
kennels, and 16 pound yearly huntsman. Boy pages also worked partly in
the house and partly in the stables. They were clothed and fed, but not
paid. The head gardener received 80 pounds for tending the flowers,
vegetables, and fruit trees. He had casual workers as needed to assist
him. The steward was also responsible for the London house. Here there
was a housekeeper, a watchman, and a 40 pound a year gardener, all there
permanently. When the lord was there, bargemen were employed for his
barge. The salaries for the family estate totaled about 600 pounds a
year. Sometimes married sons' or daughters' families stayed for months
at the family estate; then they would pay for their part of the food.
Well-to-do people drank imported tea and coffee, sometimes from
porcelain ware, and usually after dinner or supper. Most tea leaves were
brewed first for the family and guests and a second time for the
servants; then they were given to the servants' relatives or friends.
Queen Mary encouraged the fashion of collecting Chinese porcelain. The
rich had red or black and gilt lacquered cabinets and cupboards. Oak
gave way to walnut, with its variegated surfaces. There were grandfather
clocks. Some fireplaces now had cast-iron firebacks. Stuffing began to
be upholstered to woodwork benches. Chairs were taller in the back.
Ladies did needlework to cover them and also made patchwork quilts. Cane
seats came into fashion.
From the spring of 1665 to the end of 1666 there was a Great Plague,
mostly in London. It was the last and worst plague since the Black Death
of 1348. It lasted over a year and about one-third died from it.
Households with a plague victim were walled up with its residents inside
to reduce contagion, and then marked with a red cross. Church bells
tolling their requiems clanged in ceaseless discord. The mournful cry
"bring out your dead" echoed in deserted streets. At night groups of
people shoveled the corpses into open graves. To prepare for this
revolting task, they often first became drunk out of their senses.
People acquired wild beliefs in hope of avoiding the plague. For
instance, at one time it was thought that syphilis would prevent it, so
maddened hordes stormed the brothels. At another time, it was rumored
that the plague could be burned out of the air, and all one day bonfires
blazed outside every door and people sweltered in the heat. Other
localities posted sentries on the road to keep Londoners out of their
areas to prevent the plague from spreading there. Since sneezing was
thought to be the first sign of a person getting the plague, it became
common to ask God to bless a person who sneezed. In London, statistics
were collected on the number of plague victims and their places of death
to try to determine the cause of the plague by correlation, a new
method. This was a natural sequent to merchant John Gaunt's 1662 book
"Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality",
which compiled yearly vital statistics from which to analyze, for
instance, causes of death due to particular diseases. It reached
conclusions such as that fall was the most unhealthy season; females had
longer life spans than males; and infant mortality was very high.
In 1666 a fire destroyed three-fourths of the City of London. The
blazing buildings were so hot that people with leather buckets of water,
hand squirts, and manually operated water-pumping machines could not get
near them. There was a lot of noise from falling buildings. Panic and
desperation were widespread. There was a lot of crying out and running
about distractedly. People saved some of their possessions by burying
them or removing them from the fire's path as they moved to different
lodgings. The streets were full of carts piled high with furniture and
merchandise. The Thames River was thick with heavily laden barges.
Melting lead from St. Paul's church ran down the streets in a stream.
The Tower of London, upwind of the fire, was saved by blowing up
surrounding buildings. Eventually the wind abated and the fire was put
out. A Fire Court with royal justices was created to offer settlement
terms about property that were free, fair, fast, and final. Army tents
and supplies, and soup kitchens sustained the citizens in the fields.
After the fire, buildings had to be brick or stone rather than wood,
except for doors and windows. Also, more plaster and tile was used. All
roofs had to be of tile or slate, rather than thatch. There was a
general use of tile for roofing. About 1714, came slate for roofings.
All buildings had to be at least two stories high, with flat facades
rather than overhanging upper floors. They had to have wide brick walls
around them to avoid the spread of fires. Many streets, squares, and
alleys were professionally planned, after the example of Inigo Jones,
who had continued his town planning with Lincoln's Inn field's open
square surrounded by houses with iron balconies. Another example was
Leiscester Square. Main streets had to be wide enough to stop a fire.
The street selling that had caused so much congestion was removed to new
market places. The massive rebuilding of London ended the monopoly of
the building trade claimed by the Mason's Company. Astronomer and
geometrician Christopher Wren designed and built a new St. Paul's
Cathedral and many churches in London, thus becoming England's first
architect. He worked up from a square base through all sorts of shapes
to a circular double dome on top. The fire put an end to Whitehall as a
royal residence and St. James Palace was used instead. But at least one
fire hazard remained: the practice of lighting new fires by taking
buckets of hot coals from one room or house to another. This was faster
than the several minutes it took to use a tinder box to start a flame,
i.e. striking a piece of flint upon a piece of steel making a spark
which was dropped onto tinder and then blown upon. Matches were invented
in this period, but expensive and unsafe.
Nicholas Barbon began fire insurance in the 1670s. If fire broke out on
an insured premises, the insurance company's firemen would come with
leather buckets and grappling irons, and later small hand pumps. Barbon
also redeveloped many districts in London, tearing down old buildings
without hesitation. He started the system of selling off leases to
individual builders, who hoped to recover their building costs by
selling their houses before they were completed and before substantial
payments on the lease became due. Entrepreneurial master-builders
subcontracted work to craftsmen and took a large profit or a large loss
and debt. Aristocrats bought large parcels of land on which they built
their own mansions surrounded by lots to be rented to building
contractors and speculators like Barbon. The houses built on these lots
were sold and the underlying land rented. These rentals of land made the
mansions self-supporting. Barbon built rows of identical townhouses.
Sometimes houses were built on all the lots around a square, which had
gardens reserved for the use of those who lived on the square. Most of
the new building was beyond the old City walls. Marine insurance for
storms, shipwreck, piracy, mutiny, and enemy action was also initiated.
Before the fire, e.g. in Tudor times, the writing of risks had been
carried on as a sideline by merchants, bankers, and even money lenders
in their private offices and was a private transaction between
individuals.
London was residential and commercial. Around the outside were
tenements of the poor. From 1520 to 1690, London's population had risen
tenfold, while the nation's had only doubled. London went from 2% to 11%
of the nation's population. In 1690, London's population was about half
a million. After 1690, London's population grew at the same rate as the
nation's. The first directory of addresses in London was published in
1677. Business began to follow the clock more strictly and many people
thought of their watches as a necessity.
London coffee houses, which also sold wine, liquors, and meals, became
specialty meeting places. They were quieter and cheaper than taverns;
for a penny, one could sip a cup of coffee by the fire, read the
newspapers, and engage in conversation. Merchants, stock jobbers,
politician groups, soldiers, doctors and clergymen, scholars, and
literary men all had special coffee house meeting places. Notices and
letters of general interest were posted therein. Many merchants,
brokers, and underwriters, especially those whose houses had been burned
in the fire, conducted their business at their coffee house and used it
as their business address. Men in marine insurance and shipping met at
Lloyd's Coffeehouse, which was run by Edward Lloyd who established it
for this purpose in 1687. Lloyd provided reliable shipping news with a
network of correspondents in the principal ports at home and on the
continent and circulated a handwritten sheet of lists of vessels and
their latest movements at his coffeehouse. The patrons cheered safe
arrivals and shared their grief over ships lost. They insured their own
risks at one moment and underwrote those of their friends the next.
Auctions of goods and of ships and ship materials which had been
advertised in the newspapers were conducted from a pulpit in the
coffeehouse.
French wine was consumed less because of heavy taxation and spirits and
beer were consumed more. The streets were alive with taverns, coffee
houses, eating houses, and hackney coaches past 9 p.m. at night. Coffee
houses were suppressed by royal proclamation in 1675 because "malicious
and scandalous reports" defaming his majesty's government were spread
there, which disturbed the peace and quiet of the realm. But this
provoked such an uproar that it was reduced to a responsibility of the
owner to prevent scandalous papers and libels from being read and
hindering any declarations any false and scandalous reports against the
government or its ministers.
London air was filthy with smoke from coal burning. In 1684 the streets
were lit with improved lights which combined oil lamps with lenses and
reflectors. Groups of householders combined to hire lighting contractors
to fulfill their statutory responsibility to hang candles or lights in
some part of their houses near the street to light it for passengers
until 9:00 p.m., and later to midnight. In 1694 a monopoly was sold to
one lighting company. In 1663 a body of paid watchmen was established in
London. An office of magistrate was created and filled with tradesmen
and craftsmen, who could make a living from the fines and fees. This was
to supplement the unpaid Justices of the Peace. The public was
encouraged to assist in crime prevention, such as being witnesses, but
most policing was left to the parishes. Crowds punished those who
transgressed community moral standards, threatened their economic or
social interests, or offended their religious or patriotic beliefs.
Often a crowd would react before the call of "stop thief" or the hue and
cry from the local constable. Pickpockets would be drenched under a
pump. Cheats would be beaten up. Dishonest shops and brothels would be
ransacked or destroyed. The most common targets were promiscuous women
and pregnant servants.
There were many highway robberies and mob actions in London. Mobs in
the thousands would turn out against the Catholics, especially at times
of unemployment and trade depression. Working people still saw
demonstrations and violence as the best way to achieve their economic
goals, since strikes didn't work. For example, the silk workers used
street violence to get protective legislation against imports and
mechanization in 1675. The manufacture of silk material had been brought
to England by French workers driven from France. In 1697, three thousand
London silk weavers demonstrated outside the Commons and East India
House against the importation of raw silks by the East India Co., and a
couple months later, they attacked a house in the city owned by a
gentleman of the company. In 1701, heavy duties were imposed on the
import of Indian silks and wearing of Indian silks was prohibited by
statute. Sometimes mobs would break open the prisons to release fellow
rioters or take action against strike breakers or informers. Parish
constables elected by their neighbors could not control the mobs and
stayed within their parishes. Dueling was still prevalent, even though
against the law.
In London and Westminster, it was hard to enforce the requirement that
inhabitants keep the street in front of their house clean and store the
filth until the daily raker or scavenger came with cart and dung pot. So
a commission was made responsible for paving and keeping clean the
streets, making and repairing vaults, sewers, drains, and gutters, and
removing encroachments. It compensated those with encroachments of over
30 years. It assessed inhabitants of such streets 16d. per square yard
from the front of their building to the center of the street. Women
continued to empty their pails and pans outside their doors and did
their washing on stools in the streets. There was a penalty of 5d. for
throwing filth in front of one's house, and 20d. for throwing it
elsewhere in the streets. Scavengers and rakers could lodge their coal
ashes, dust, dirt, and other filth in such vacant public places as the
commission deemed convenient for accommodating country carts returning
otherwise empty after their loads were sold.
However, this system did not work because people would not pay their
assessments. So there was a return to the former system of requiring
citizens to sweep and clean the streets in front of their buildings
twice a week and keep the filth until a scavenger or raker came. The
penalty for not doing so was 3s.4d., later raised to 10s. Any one
throwing coal ashes, dust, dirt, rubbish, or dung onto the streets or
lanes incurred a fine of 5s. There was a fine of 20s. for hooping or
washing any pipes or barrels in any lane or open passage or repairing
coaches, sawing wood, or chiseling stones in the streets. Pigs kept in
or about one's house had to be forfeited.
One way that people traveled was to be carried in sedan chairs held up
by two horizontal poles with one man at the front ends and another man
in back. There were so many sedan chairs and coaches for hire in London
that the watermen lost business. All hackney coaches in London or
Westminster were required to be licensed and marked with their owner's
distinctive mark so that complaints could be made. Their maximum rate
was 10s. for a 12 hour day, and 18d. for the first hour and 12d. for
every hour thereafter. Licensed coachmen were not allowed to practice
any other trade. The coaches paid the commission 5 pounds yearly. Hay
sold along the road brought 6d. per load, and straw 2d. per load, to the
commission. There had to by paid 3d. for every cart load of hay sold at
the hay market and 1d. for every cart of straw, to go towards paving and
repairing the hay market street.
Overall, agriculture improved. Fields that would have been left fallow
were planted with new crops which restored indispensable chemical
elements to the soil. At the same time, they supplied winter food for
stock. The size and weight of animals for slaughter grew. There was so
much stock breeding that it was more economical for a family to buy
meat, milk, and eggs, than to maintain its own animals. There was an
explosion in the growing of beans, peas, lettuce, asparagus, artichokes,
and clover. The demand for food in London and other urban areas made
enclosure for crop cultivation even more profitable than for sheep
grazing. The government made no more attempts to curtail the enclosure
of farm lands. The number of enclosures grew because copyholders were
not successful in obtaining the legal security of tenure. But most land
was not enclosed.
In 1661 in the county of Essex, the wages for mowing one acre of grass
were 1s.10d.; for reaping, shearing, binding one acre of wheat 4s.; and
for threshing a quarter of wheat or rye 1s.
Wives participated with their husbands in general agricultural chores
and did the dairy work including making cheese. Every householder kept
chickens because egg production was cheap, their market price being only
1s. for a hundred. Wives also took care of the gardening work and
traditionally kept for their own the cash that came in from garden,
dairy, and poultry products. A wife made jellies and preserves when the
fruit trees, bushes, and vines were bearing. Imported sugar enabled
fruit to be preserved as jam in jars sealed with a layer of mutton fat
to make them airtight. She was likely to concoct medications from her
herbs. Meat had to be smoked or salted when there was not enough fodder
to keep animals alive through the winter. She saw to it that the soap
was boiled and the candles molded. She cooked the daily meals, did the
washing, produced cloth for the family's use, and sewed the family's
clothing.