"One of a series of MS. collections relating to that county compiled by John Smith, of North Nibley, in Gloucester (1567-1641). In Smith's catalogue of his MSS., ... he thus describes the Men and Armour MS.: '14, 15, 16. Three bookes in folio, containinge the names of each inhabitant in this county of Glouc' how they stood charged with Armour in Ao. 6to. Jacobi. And who then was Lord or owner of each Manor or Lordship within the County; which you may call my Nomina Villarum'."-- Intro.

Many historians have attempted to understand the violent religious conflicts of the seventeenth century from viewpoints dominated by concepts of class, gender, and demography. But few studies have explored the cultural process whereby religious symbolism created social cohesion and political allegiance. This book examines religious conflict in the parish communities of early modern England using an interdisciplinary approach that includes all these perspectives. Daniel Beaver studies the urban parish of Tewkesbury and six rural parishes in its hinterland over a period of one hundred years, drawing on local ecclesiastical court records, sermons, parish records, corporate minutes and charity books, and probate documents. He discusses the centrality of religious symbols and ceremonies in the ordering of local societies, particularly in local conceptions of place, personal identity, and the life cycle. Four phases in the transformation of parish communities emerge and are examined in this book. This exploration of the interrelationship of religion, politics, and society, and the transformation of local communities in civil war, has a value beyond the particular history of early modern England, contributing to a broader understanding of religious revivals, fundamentalisms, and the persistent link between religion, nationalism, and ethnic identity in the modern world. Table of Contents: Introduction: Church History as a Cultural System Part I: Social Form, 1590-1690 Reverend Histories: Geography and Landscape Parts, Persons, and Participants in the Commonwealth: Social Relations, Institutions, and Authority Under the Hand of God: Parish Communities and Rites of Mortality Part II: Social Process, 1590-1690 Circumcisions of the Heart: Church Courts, Social Relations, and Religious Conflict, 1591-1620 A Circle of Order: The Politics of Religious Symbolism, 1631-1640 To Unchurch a Church: Civil War and Revolution, 1642-1660 Astraea Redux: Religious Conflict, Restoration, and the Parish, 1660-1689 Bloody Stratagems and Busy Heads: Persecution, Avoidance, and the Structure of Religion, 1666-1689 Conclusion. Symbol and Boundary: Relgious Belief, Ceremony, and Social Order Appendix 1. Tables Appendix 2. Accusations of Witchcraft in Tewkesbury Notes Manuscript Sources Index Reviews of this book: "In an intriguing argument, Beaver suggests that the reception of the Reformation into the Vale of Gloucester, where it lacked broad support, enabled dissenting religious groups to reject the territorial parish, in favour of the 'imagined communities' of the like-minded...His work is an important one. It translates the conflict of the seventeenth century into a local study that has a wider theoretical application...Beaver has written a perceptive and incisive study of religious and communal conflict in Stuart England, and one that is central to our understanding of seventeenth century society." DD--William Gibson, Albion [UK] "A significant historical study...This is not simply a work of local history, as it throws considerable light on wider aspects of the great conflict that convulsed Stuart England...The discussions are confident, sensible, and well grounded in the evidence...No other book that I know of covers the experience of a region (as distinct from a town) throughout the entire troubled history of seventeenth-century England in anything like this depth...It is original in the systematic way it applies anthropological concepts to English political and religious conflicts." DD--David E. Underdown, Yale University "He turns a local study into something that has theoretical force, as well as taking issue with other historians of Tudor-Stuart England on matters like the impact of the Civil War, 'revolution,' 'Restoration,' Laudianism and the like." DD--David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School "Parish Communities and Religious Conflict in the Vale of Gloucester examines the belief and activities of ordinary men and women in the Vale of Gloucestershire during the last years of Elizabeth's reign and throughout most of the seventeenth century. It goes beyond most regional studies, however, in emphasizing the effect of religious change and conflict on local communities. Class and gender as well as religious convictions are seen as important factors determining social cohesion and political allegiance...this is a valuable study that should interest historians as well as students of religion in England." DD--History Reviews of this book: Daniel Beaver has written a volume grounded in extensive manuscript sources and combining the methodologies of social and cultural history with the theories of cultural anthropology. His geographical focus is the single-parish town of Tewkesbury and its environs (an area of approximately twelve square miles) in the county of Gloucester. Chronologically and thematically, however, his range is much broader, encompassing a wide range of topics relating to parish communities and religious conflict in the tumultuous seventeenth century...Beaver's reliance on rich local manuscript sources, complemented by his anthropological approach, provides useful insights into the particular local manifestations of dramatic shifts in the policies of the nation state during that time of unprecedented religious and political change. --Caroline Litzenberger, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

The Tudor and Stuart Town brings together many of the most important articles in the field of urban history.

Thomas Welles (ca. 1590-1660), son of Robert and Alice Welles, was born in Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England, and died in Wethersfield, Connecticut. He married (1) Alice Tomes (b. before 1593), daughter of John Tomes and Ellen (Gunne) Phelps, 1615 in Long Marston, Gloucestershire. She was born in Long Marston, and died before 1646 in Hartford, Connecticut. They had eight children. He married (2) Elizabeth (Deming) Foote (ca. 1595-1683) ca. 1646. She was the widow of Nathaniel Foote and the sister of John Deming. She had seven children from her previous marriage.

Makes original contributions to late medieval and early modern historiography, including detailed, contextualized studies of the 'Lancastrian revolution', the Reformation and the English Revolution. Commune, Country and Commonwealth suggests that towns like Cirencester are a missing link connecting local and national history, in the immensely formative centuries from Magna Carta to the English Revolution. Focused on atown that made highly significant interventions in national constitutional development, it describes recurring struggles to achieve communal solidarity and independence in a society continuously and prescriptively divided by grossinequalities of class and status. The result is a social and political history of a great trans-generational epic in which local and national influences constantly interacted. From the generation of Magna Carta to the regicides of Edward II and Richard II, through the vernacular revolution of the 'long fifteenth century' and the chaos of state reformations to the great revival that ended in the constitutional wars of the 1640s, the epic was united by strategic location and by systemic, 'structural' inequalities that were sometimes mitigated but never resolved. Individual and group personalities emerge from every chapter, but the 'personality' that dominates them all, Rollison argues, is a commune with 'a mind of its own', continuously regenerated by enduring, strategic realities. An afterword describes the birth and development of a new, 'rural' myth and identity and suggests some archival pathways for the exploration of a legendary English town in the modern and postmodern, industrial and post-industrial epochs. DAVID ROLLISON is Honorary Research Associate in History, University of Sydney. DAVE ROLLISON isHonorary Research Associate in History, University of Sydney.

This microhistory reconstructs and analyses a protracted legal dispute over a small parcel of land called Warrens Court in Nibley, Gloucestershire, which was contested between successive generations of two families from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. Employing a rich cache of archival material, Jason Peacey traces legal contestation over time and through a range of different courts, as well as in Parliament and the public domain, and contends that a microhistorical approach makes it possible to shed valuable light upon the legal and political culture of early modern England, not least by comprehending how certain disputes became protracted and increasingly bitter, and why they fascinated contemporaries. This involves recognising the dynamic of litigation, in terms of how disputes changed over time, and how those involved in myriad lawsuits found legal reasons for prolonging contestation. It also involves exploring litigants' strategies and practices, as well as competing claims about the way in which adversaries behaved, and incompatible expectations of the legal system. Finally, it involves teasing out the structural issues in play, in terms of the social, cultural, and ideological identities of successive generations. Ultimately, this dispute is employed to address important historiographical debates surrounding the nature of civil litigation in early modern England, and to provide new ways of appreciating the nature, severity, and visibility of political and religious conflict in the decades before and after the English Revolution.