Preface

While on sabbatical between December 2013 and August 2014, I shut myself in my home office and I wrote. That January and February were unusually cold in western Virginia, many of us learned what an Artic vortex was, and so my memories center upon concentrated periods of writing interrupted by breaks to walk dogs in the cold weather—Leo, an elderly Maltese, and Holbein, an energetic Miniature Schnauzer. We then ate treats and retreated to the office. Usually there was silence, but sometime an oldies station played at low volume. Later, as the weather became warmer, the heat went off and the windows were opened, but the routine remained the same as I progressed from an introduction, to the various chapters, and finally a conclusion. This period of writing with my two friends became one of the most wonderful experiences of my academic life.

Of course, such an event could not have occurred without a great deal of preparation—years of preparation during which I was helped by more people than I am able to count. I found my first churchwardens’ account (a published transcription) when I was ca. 22 and a student at the University of Florida, studying with C. John Sommerville, and I arrived at the University of Virginia at the age of 25 with plans to study those sources further, with the late Martin Havran, while also taking coursework with H.C.E. Midelfort, Carlos Eire, and Duane Osheim. I made my first trip to London’s Guildhall Library when I was 27. And, thanks to support from the Faculty Development Committee at Roanoke College, I have made several trips to London to gather archival evidence, encountering many helpful and kind archivists and members of staff not only at the Guildhall, but also at the London Metropolitan Archives, Lambeth Palace Library, The Draper’s Hall, The Goldsmiths’ Hall, The Salter’s Hall, and The National Archives at Kew. Closer to home, the library staff at the Fintel Library, Roanoke College, especially Jeffrey Martin (ILL) and Piper Cumbo (Reference) have solved many a last-minute, self-inflicted emergency.

In 1994, I was on a panel at the first International Medieval Congress at Leeds with Katherine French and Beat Kümin, an event which led to the publication of a collection of essays, and which also began two professional relationships which have never ceased. The publication also provided me the opportunity to launch numerous endeavors with others in the profession who are also interested in parish records.

My participation in the NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers, “The English Reformation,” directed by John King, Ohio State University (June–August 1997) encouraged me to reflect on problems of methodology and, eventually, inspired my creation and adoption of the analytical framework employed in this book. I wrestled for years with particular accounts, especially the information from St. Stephen Coleman Street—the reconstruction of the residential patterns of poorer parishioners I first accomplished in 1988–89, but I struggled to convince both myself and others of their significance—and the parish problems at St. Botolph Aldgate also perplexed and I read some better and some worse papers on the topic at a variety of conferences. I have now developed an analysis that I believe to be correct, and the process left me humbled by the collegiality of the profession and the eagerness of London and English historians to provide constructive criticism.

There remain far too many people I ought to mention, but restraint of space requires an abbreviated list. In addition to those already noted, James Amelang, Caroline Barron, Jennifer Berenson, Clive Burgess, Eric Carlson, Thomas Carter, John Cooper, Giles Darkes, Lydia de Cruz, Dee Dyas, Laura Endicott Hayden, Kenneth Fincham, Elizabeth Friend-Smith, Patrick Geary, Louise Hampson, Vanessa Harding, John Hayden, Valerie Hitchman, Fiona Kisby, Whitney Leeson, Caroline Litzenberger, Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, Peter Marshall, James Ogier, Laura Pilsworth, John Schofield, Jeremy Smith, Robert Swanson, István Szijártó, Ivonne Wallace Fuentes, Lisa Warren, and Michael Wolfe have all been supportive in various ways over the years as I have moved forward with this project. My colleagues in the History Department at Roanoke College have also been supportive by listening to ideas, answering miscellaneous questions, and covering classes on those occasions when I was at a conference. And, Karen Harris, the Secretary for the History Department and the Office Manager of The Sixteenth Century Journal Book Review Office, has enabled my ability to function professionally for almost three decades.

The maps that appear throughout the text are extracted from the Map of Tudor London, ed. C. Barron and V. Harding. Oxford, UK, The Historic Towns Trust, 2018 ©, and are published with permission.

The three images from churchwardens’ accounts are reproduced with permission of the London Metropolitan Archives.

The final work is my own responsibility and I wrote it for both professional consideration and the classroom. Sadly, Leo the Maltese passed away in March 2018 after a long life of almost fourteen years and eight months, but Holbein and I continue to read, write, and edit with our new friend Dyson the Shih Tzu.

Abbreviations

Note: archival sources receive full reference upon their first citation in a chapter, if the manuscript is from the London Metropolitan Archives, further references will contain only the manuscript number, if the manuscript is housed in another depository, then subsequent references will contain a reference to the archive followed by the manuscript number.