The peasants of Halesowen 1270 - 1400: a demographic social and economic study

Razi, Zvi (1976). The peasants of Halesowen 1270 - 1400: a demographic social and economic study. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to use manorial court rolls for a demographic, social and economic study of the rural population of the parish of Halesowen from 1270 to 1400. As peasants' surnames were unstable before the Black Death and as the court records include the names of many outsiders, it was necessary to find effective methods of identifying the peasants and of excluding the non-residents. Only then it was possible to conduct a census-like enumeration of the peasants noted in the court rolls every ten years and to establish the demographic trend from1270 to 1400. In addition it was possible to trace the course of mortality and of marriages; to estimate the expectation of life of males at twenty, the male replacement rate, the age of marriage, the size of families according to their economic status, the age specific mortality in the Black Death and the age distribution of the adult male population; and to study the settlement patterns of young peasants, the incidence of illegitimacy, the social mobility and the supply and market in land.

The data obtained from the court rolls explain how, despite an acute land shortage the population of Halesowen, managed to maintain a slow growth from 1270 to 1349; how life in the parish could have returned to normal so rapidly in the 1350's, although the Black Death killed about 43% of the villagers; and why the population stagnated and declined in the second half of the 14th century despite the improvement in the economic conditions of the villagers.

The thesis includes 54000 words without tables and figures.

Type of Work:	Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)
Award Type:	Doctorates > Ph.D.
College/Faculty:	Faculties (to 1997) > Faculty of Arts
School or Department:	Department of Medieval History
Funders:	Other
Other Funders:	British Council, Tel-Aviv University
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
URI:	http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/17992

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