{"id":369,"date":"2019-03-06T11:21:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T11:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/?p=369"},"modified":"2024-08-31T17:05:53","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T16:05:53","slug":"interview-with-recent-phd-graduate-dr-louise-fairbrother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2019\/03\/06\/interview-with-recent-phd-graduate-dr-louise-fairbrother\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with recent PhD graduate, Dr Louise Fairbrother"},"content":{"rendered":"

What was the subject of your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My research looked in detail at how the town governments of Southampton and various other English towns organised their industry and trade in the sixteenth century.\u00a0 It focussed specifically on the way in which they controlled the groups involved.\u00a0 In Southampton\u2019s case, this was by the use of devices such as licences, oaths and ordinances on the three groups of the burgesses, the freemen and the strangers.<\/p>\n

What attracted you to this subject?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I realised at an early stage that although there was considerable diversity in the nature and structure of town administrations across England, the majority of towns were nevertheless governed by an assembly of men within which was a smaller, senior group who wielded the most power.\u00a0 In Southampton this group was formed of burgesses.\u00a0 Although in some towns the terms \u2018burgess\u2019 and \u2018freeman\u2019 were interchangeable, this was not the case in Southampton.\u00a0 The town government ensured the continued separation of the two groups even though both held the franchise, that is, the right to carry on a craft or trade.\u00a0 The terms \u2018burgess\u2019 and \u2018freeman\u2019 often meant different things in different towns which made direct comparisons difficult.<\/p>\n

What new insights did you have about social distinctions in Southampton in this era?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The status of an individual was often determined by membership of a particular group.\u00a0 Burgesses were undeniably the group with the most power and highest social standing. Its members were often of the mercantile crafts, and although only burgesses had access to the higher levels of political power, non-burgesses were permitted to hold some lower offices.\u00a0 Freemen, on the other hand, were those persons who paid a fine to be allowed the freedom to set up in a craft or trade in the town and to be admitted to a guild or corporation if one existed for their occupation.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photograph of the Southampton brewers\u2019 incorporation
document of 1543 (SCA, SC 2\/7\/4)
Copyright: Southampton City Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Southampton, they were also known as \u2018commoners\u2019 and later as \u2018free commoners\u2019. This term \u2018commoners\u2019 is extremely problematic as it appears to have had several meanings during the period. \u00a0Freemen, at least in the sixteenth century, were inconspicuous as a unified group in the town, unlike freemen in many other English towns.\u00a0 The establishment of the Register of Free Commoners in 1613\/4 is perhaps an indication they were becoming more of a discrete and visible group\u2014that they had at last found their collective voice.<\/p>\n

Strangers, resident and non-resident, were the third group who were manufacturing or trading in the town. Those strangers residing in the town were assessed for \u2018stall and art\u2019 payments in order to trade or carry on a craft.\u00a0 This term appears to have been unique to Southampton.\u00a0 Although the strangers were without question the largest group of the three, they were also generally the least wealthy and held the least power. \u00a0Having said that, several of those who arrived as strangers in the town subsequently entered the burgesship and rose to the position of mayor.<\/p>\n

What new insights did these fine-grained distinctions reveal about Southampton\u2019s social history?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although it is clear that the three groups were distinct from one another, close collaborations could exist between them.\u00a0 Within many occupations a combination of burgesses, freemen and strangers worked alongside one another. \u00a0Town ordinances, which regulated the clear demarcations between the groups, may have been more flexible in practice than they were in principle.\u00a0 In 1544, a time of national emergency, the members of twenty-five of the town\u2019s occupations were called upon to help maintain thirteen towers as part of the town\u2019s defences. \u00a0This shows the interrelationship that existed between the burgesses of the town council on the one side and the members of the craft and trade groups on the other.<\/p>\n

What was the most important lesson you took from your PhD?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Southampton\u2019s social history was unique in the context of other late medieval and early modern towns. In-depth studies of local communities still have new stories to tell about English urban environments of the past. \u00a0On a personal level, the doctoral experience has shown me that however daunting a project may seem at the outset, by remaining focussed on research aims, it is possible to find answers to many of those questions which at one time seemed out of reach.<\/p>\n

Louise Fairbrother was awarded a PhD from the University of Southampton in November 2018 with the thesis title of \u2018Burgesses, Freemen and Strangers: The Organisation of Industry and Trade in Southampton, 1547 to 1603′.\u00a0 Her research utilised unique sources to reveal not only a part of Southampton\u2019s history but also its place within the wider field of urban history.<\/p>\n

She can be contacted at louisefairbrother@hotmail.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What was the subject of your research? My research looked in detail at how the town governments of Southampton and various other English towns organised their industry and trade in the sixteenth century.\u00a0 It focussed specifically on the way in which they controlled the groups involved.\u00a0 In Southampton\u2019s case, this was by the use of devices such as licences, oaths …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10,8],"tags":[76,74,71,72,75,26,73],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meet-the-department","category-postgraduate","category-research","tag-crafts-trade","tag-local-history","tag-phd","tag-postgraduate","tag-social-history","tag-southampton","tag-urban-history","column","threecol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}