British (1714-1815)

By MARTIN MALONE

Kingdom of Great Britain; England; Brits; Georgian Britain

This collection contains data on British culture and society during the period from the accession of George I, and the House of Hanover in 1714, to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This was a period of great change in Britain. The changes were probably greatest in agriculture and industry, and the external politics of empire.

While eighteenth century population figures are still rough estimates, experts agree that the population of England nearly doubled from about five and a half million in 1714, to ten and a half million by 1811 (Plumb 1950:11,144). London’s population also doubled, going from about 670,000 in 1700, to 1,274,000 in 1820 (George 1965:25).

There were also dietary changes at this time. Between 1700 and 1765, the general standard of living of the country improved. In the South, wheat flour replaced barley, rye, and oats as the staple food and the price of meat remained low enough for all but the poorest to have it a few times a week (George 1965:26). But in the second half of the century, bad harvests and continual warfare drove prices very high. In combination with the enclosure movement, which eliminated the possibility of grazing animals on the commons, or of collecting fuel there, many of the poorest could not even cook the limited food they had (Drummond & Wilbraham, 1940: 221-222, 246).

Vegetables became an important part of the diet in the eighteenth century. Potatoes became a staple food in the North early on, but not until later in the South. In the South, cabbage, carrots, onions, and other vegetables provided the contents of soups and stews, the major meals of the poor (Drummond & Wilbraham, 1940:245). By the end of the century, Southern laborers were living almost exclusively on bread and cheese. Those in the North and in Wales had a greater variety of vegetables and a more sufficient supply of milk (Drummond & Wilbraham 1940:245).

The wealthy in the city and the country ate very well. Lemons, limes, and oranges arrived frequently from abroad. Poultry became a popular luxury. Country gentlemen’s estates usually included orchards and kitchen gardens, as well as, game reserves. Wine and other luxuries from abroad became popular. In the cities, French and Italian cooking with a wide variety of sauces and seasonings were the foods of style (Drummond & Wilbraham 1940:226-227, 245-250). Tea, coffee, and chocolate became popular with all classes. Many felt that the replacement of beer as a breakfast drink was a boon to the working classes. This was the period when afternoon tea became a British institution (Drummond & Wilbraham 1940:251-258).

The eighteenth century was a period of great change for the British people. The changes were especially greatest in industry and the external politics of empire, but agriculture and animal husbandry also underwent great changes during this time. It was a time of large-scale enclosure of farmland, which was accompanied by increasing experimentation in planting and animal breeding. Selective breeding and limitations on the number of grazing animals per acre resulted in much larger animals (cf. Plumb’s charts, 1950:82). New methods of soil preparation and crop rotation, and new implements, such as the seed drill and the steel tipped plough, produced similar results in agriculture (Green: 1963:227ff.). This increase in the productivity and efficiency of agriculture, resulting in increased wealth of the landed aristocracy and increased food supplies for the country, were, however, a disaster for the peasantry. The enclosure of common lands meant they could no longer survive on their small portions and they were forced to move to cities and towns to take jobs in factories, or become part of the ever larger numbers of urban unemployed poor who scavenged the cities for a bare living. The fabric of hundreds of years of relations between land owner and laborer had been ripped and a large landless proletariat emerged whose existence signaled a permanent change in the social structure of the country (Green 1963:227-231).

By 1811, England had eight towns of over 50,000 people, of which six were in the industrial North. The most rapid population increases appear to have been in the industrial North and to have occurred after 1780, when the infant mortality rate began to decline significantly. This seems to have been related to a leveling off in urban migration, which had created severe crowding and dangerously unhealthy conditions, especially for children under five years of age (George 1965:22-25).

Although this was the age of the Industrial Revolution, farming remained the country’s leading occupation. A very large percentage of the population still lived on, or were in some way connected with, the cultivation of the soil (Green 1963:227).

With the British conquest of territories in India, Canada and the West indies, merchants from London began to make large fortunes out of trading with these countries. A complex array of fulltime tradesmen and specialized artisans began to live in towns and cities.

London was a center for skilled artisans involved in international trade and in the production of fine goods such as optical and mathematical instruments and furniture for home and abroad, and luxury goods and services such as wig-makers, tailors, and coffee-house owners. All of these were high prestige and well-paying professions whose practitioners were in the upper ranks of the working classes (George 1965:156-160, 233). Working men had the right to practice their professions within the Corporation of London, were divided into two classes: liverymen and freemen. Liverymen were members of the liveried companies (guilds) and they had the right to choose the magistrates and members of Parliament for the city. They were the people who ran London. Freemen belonged to the nonliveried companies and had the right to exercise their trades but they had no political prerogatives (Campbell 1747:303).

Eighteenth century British society was a class- and status-conscious society. The towns and cities were full of a complex array of tradesmen and artisans who divided themselves into minutely differentiated strata based on pay and type of work. On the lowest level were unskilled laborers, porters, chairmen, and street-sellers. Above these were the journeymen and artisans in the skilled trades. However, by the middle of the century, many highly capitalized trades such as brewing and sugar-refining were hiring workmen who had no hope of becoming masters, but who were receiving higher wages and had more stable employment than skilled artisans. The wealthiest and most prestigious skilled artisans and masters worked out of their own homes and were equal in status with shopkeepers, some of whom were very wealthy. There was a blurring of distinctions here, for the lowliest shopkeepers, such as chandlers and cookshop keepers, were no better off than unskilled laborers (George 1965:156-158). Orphans supported by the parish were usually apprenticed out to the cheapest and worst trades with little hope of advancement, simply to get them off the parish rolls.

Britain’s class structure among the aristocracy was based almost solely on the possession of land. Traditionally, the only socially acceptable income for an aristocrat was rental on his property. However, the Industrial Revolution and a world empire began to make investment in commerce and manufacturing more attractive alternative or at least subsidiary forms of income.

Property was also the key to government and the basis of representation in Parliament. The propertied classes regarded themselves as having “a natural right to govern the masses” (Green 1963:49). “The greater and lesser landowners constituted the real ruling classes of the country, the controllers of England’s destiny and the guardians of her, and their, interests” (Green 1963: 226). The House of Lords, made up of all of England’s peerage, represented exclusively the landed interests (Green 1963:48-49, 225-250).

There is no information on kinship system and kinship-based groups. Information in the documents is limited to description of genealogies of successive kings.

By the Common-Law of England, marriage was between one man and one woman. It was illegal for either sex to have more than one spouse. The legal age for marital consent was 14 for boys and 12 for girls (Chamberlayne 1729: 177). Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753 ordered the calling of bans to stop scandalous and clandestine marriages (Green 1963: 254-255). Under this act, the marriage of a man and woman was recognized as valid only when solemnized in church by a recognized clergyman in the presence of at least two witnesses.

As husbands and fathers, men had absolute authority over wives and children (Chamberlayne 1929: 177). The wife was expected to contribute to the family income. The wife of a day-laborer usually hawked fruits and fish or carried loads through the streets from the markets. Likewise, a shopkeeper’s wife generally served in the shop or superintended it.

A parenting handbook published in 1747 provided the following advice, “Children naturally mimick every Thing they See, and are fond of imitating every Thing new that occurs…(Cambell 1747: 18). ” Sons of master tradesmen learned acquired trade through apprenticeship. Disciplining apprentices often involved corporal punishment (George 1965: 282).

The rigidity of class distinctions was never so great in England as it was on the Continent, and under the economic pressures of the Industrial Revolution, it was becoming even less solid. The frequent complaints during the eighteenth century of the insubordination of the poor and about the deleterious effects of the spread of luxury are probable indications that the relations of the classes were changing and changing considerably (George 1965: 22-23, 319). Eighteenth century England was a country ruled by the aristocracy, and their authority was as yet undisputed. But their power and prestige was being continuously encroached upon by many competitors with new and untraditional sources of wealth and status.

In the eighteenth century, England was ruled by a small class of property owners who felt they had a “prescriptive right” to rule and that what was good for them was good for the country (Green 1948: 30). The British constitution was based on a three-part division of authority among the king, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The king was sacred in the eyes of the law, even to imagine his death was treasonous and he could be guilty of no crime. He had the authority to make war or peace, to send and receive ambassadors, to make international treaties, to raise armies and fit out fleets, to commission officers, to summon and dissolve Parliament, and to refuse assent to any bill from Parliament, which effectively killed it. However, he could make no new laws, nor raise or impose new taxes, nor oppose the law. He could declare a war but not support it, raise an army or fleet but not maintain them, and he could bestow jobs but not pay the salaries. Thus Parliament had a basic check on the potential abuse of power by the Crown.

The House of Lords consisted of a spiritual section which included two archbishops and 24 bishops, and a temporal section, which included all of the peers of the realm, plus 16 peers representing Scottish nobility. The number of peers was indefinite and could be increased by the Crown at any time.

The House of Commons represented all the untitled men of property in the kingdom. It consisted of representatives from every county (knights elected by landed proprietors), borough, and city (citizens and burgesses elected by the mercantile interests). There were 513 English and 45 Scottish representatives. It required the consent of all three sections of the government to make a new law, but the king rarely opposed the clear will of the Parliament. While it was up to the king when to summon Parliament, the law required that he do so at least every three years (Barfoot & Wilkes 1791).

Excommunication as an ecclesiastical punishment was generally supposed to have ceased at the Reformation. It was, however, continued down to the nineteenth century.

During the Georgian time of approximately 100 years, Britain was involved in a series of wars. The most important of these included the “Northern War” of 1712 -1721 against Sweden over British political and commercial interests in Hanover and the Baltic, the Anglo-Spanish war of 1719 which merged into the War of Austrian Succession in 1740, and the Seven Years’ War of 1756-1767. This period also witnessed the American War of Independence (1775–1783). For a list of wars that occurred during the Georgian time, see Green (1948: 466-473).

The eighteenth century is generally held to be an irreligious period. Among intellectuals, deism was providing a basis for social criticism and included traditional Christianity among its targets. Montesquieu toured England in 1729-1730 and reported that the upper classes were indifferent to religion (Sydney 1891: 323-328). Besant however, has argued that aside from small numbers of social critics and philosophers, there was probably little real change. People were suspicious of the fanaticism of the previous century and the material comforts of the present century led to a more easy-going form of worship (Besant 1902: 147-150). It is likely that most of the contemporary laments about the decline of religion are reflections of the general unrest and social change. This is similar to the aristocracy’s complaints of the impudence of the poor. In both cases, people close to the situation viewed the changes as evidence of the decay of cherished institutions, rather than just adjustments in the social relations. It was not until the parliamentary revisions of the early nineteenth century, essentially in the transition from Georgian to Victorian England, that the political and social structural alterations that changed England into its present form took place.

Parish priests and pastors providing a wide variety of religious services. A parish priest’s rise to high religious office (e.g. become a bishop) depended not so much on his learning and piety but on family background and connections with somebody who had influential parliamentary interests. As a consequence, the ecclesiastic policy and political views of the bishops and higher clergy often reflected those of the government which appointed them (Green 1963: 269-270).

The service at parish churches was plain and simple. Besant described this simplicity as follows: “many churches had not an organ; the sermon was preached from a high pulpit the preacher wore a black gown…. the parishioners were often left quite alone; there was no visiting; none of the modern working of a parish; no mothers’ meeting, no ‘day in the country,’ no concerts, no lads’ clubs, no lectures, no activity at all. But the people might come to church if they liked, for the sermon, and the sermons were sound (Besant 1902: 152).”

Barfoot, Peter and John Wilkes, compilers, 1791. The Universal British Directory of Trade,

Commerce, and Manufacture. (Vol. 1). London: Printed for the Patentees.

Besant, Walter, 1902. London in the Eighteenth Century. London: Adam and Charles Black.

Cambell. R., 1747. The London Tradesman. London: printed by T. Gardner, at Cowley’s Head in

the Strand.

Drummond, J. C and Anne Wilbraham, 1940. “The eighteenth century”. In The Englishman's

Food: A History of Five Centuries of English Diet. London: Jonathan Cape.

George, M. Dorothy, 1965. London Life in the 18th Century. New York: Capricorn Books.

Green, Vivian Hubert Howard, 1948 (1963 reprinted). The Hanoverians 1714-1815. London:

Edward Arnold.

Plumb, J. H., England in the Eighteenth Century. Baltimore, Md., Penguin Books, Inc.,

1950 (1973 printing).]

Sydney, William Connor, 1891: England the English in the Eighteenth Century: Chapters in the

Social History of the Times. Vol. 2. London: Ward and Downey.

This culture summary was written by Martin Malone in February 1978. Teferi Abate Adem wrote the synopsis and indexing notes in April 2011. .