ENGLISH SOCIAL HISTORY OF DEFOE’S ENGLAND 1702 TO 1740 AD

 

Queen Anne 1702-1714, George I 1714-1727, The Marlborough Wars 1702-1712. Parliamentry and economic union with Scotland 1707.

 

Daniel Defoe in the reign of Queen Anne.

 

Daniel Defoe was similar to William Cobbett a hundred years later. A man of the people, an observer, and a realist. But unlike William Cobbett, he advocated commerce. His books on Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders were imaginary reports on English life. He like William Cobbett saw life through ‘modern’ eyes.

 

England at the time of Queen Anne was content. Food was cheap and only during the last 3 years of the ten-year war with France (1702 – 1712 AD). The Act of Toleration continued to give peace between religions. And in the reigns of Anne and George I the life of the peasant was favourable. Town and Country were in harmony. Perhaps this was the English Golden Age that William Cobbett would look back upon later. Puritans and Quakers were still called fanatics, but were pacifist now.

 

English Agriculture in Queen Anne’s reign.

During this time land and Water traffic using rivers was changing agriculture. More wheat was being grown than in mediaeval times. The Thames was an artery sending food, drink, and wood to London. The coasts of Sussex and Hampshire were alive with coastal shipping risking French Privateers still operating from Dunkirk. Irish cattle traffic had been killed off under an act passed by Charles II. But Scottish cattle and Welsh sheep drovers were common sights on English roads.

 

1706 AD. The Venetian envoy, Mocenigo, reported that ‘industry in England was further advanced I England that in any other part of the world.’ England actually exported corn abroad.

 

The Open Field of Queen Anne’s reign.

 

Corn was best produced in the vast open hedge less fields of East Anglia. These fields were cultivated in a way virtually unchanged since 1066 AD. The Open Field was cultivated to a uniform plan. More enclosed fields were located in the lest productive areas of this Island, such as Northumbria. Yet Kent operated small-enclosed fields.

Defoe reported that around Dorchester were a half a million sheep. Salisbury Plain was covered in sheep.

 

Yeoman in Defoe’s England.

 

Free holding Yeoman consisted about one eighth of the population of England. By Georgian times, however, tenant farmers had poured onto free holders lands, and threatened their existence. Yet Yeoman still had the vote. Tenants did not.

 

The Northern English counties of Queen Anne’s reign.

 

The rural areas of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumbria, and Durham were still very poor. Large families grew up in poor cottages. In the centuries before the valleys of the Lake District were ‘choked, tangled, swampy, and featureless.’  The dales during Queen Anne’s reign were starting to gain their rural beauty as known today. Cloth spinning was, as had been, the main cottage industry. The warlike Northumberland and Cumberland, continually fighting with the Scots, began to get visitors like Defoe and his companions. The coast of South Tyne was found to have ‘plenty of good bread and beer.’  Some fine houses were beginning to appear in the ‘Border Country’. But it was the Hanoverians who introduced good road building, beech tree plantations, and walled gardens. This was possible as the ‘suppressive’ influence of raiding Scots on the northern counties was lessened with superior English military forces, and the advent of the English Union with Scotland in 1707 AD.

 

Queen Anne Houses.

 

High well-lighted ceilings were now the fashion in Queen Anne’s reign. Chinaware brought from Dutch and East India Companies, had become the passion of the high-heeled English. ‘Simple in elegance’ was the order of the day, broken by the opulence of Vanburgh’s Blenheim Palace. Wren was still alive, as denoted by his London churches.

 

Seat of the Duke of Marlborough: Vanburgh's Blenheim Palace

 

1704 AD. The taking of Gibraltar.

 

The taking and keeping of Gibraltar in 1704 AD was key to giving England a free entrance to the cloth markets of Turkey and the Mediterranean. Oil would then be brought back for cloth making.

 

1707 AD. The Act of Union with Scotland.

 

Union with Scotland was sealed in 1707 AD. It has since then meant effectively that England has to keep Scotland ‘happy’. Scottish soldiers have fought bravely for England since. But in truth the wet and windy Highlands have always been an economic burden, despite its small population. If Scotland lagged behind England in agriculture, her industry and commerce were no better. It is interesting to compare Scottish ‘industry’ then as now. Cattle and salmon for England. Salt and lead for Norway. Herrings for Spain. What has changed?  We also see the start of the use of the word ‘Briton’, aided by Edward Lluyd and his concept of ‘Celtism’, which is merely a tool to keep Irish, English, Scots and Welsh, believing they are the same.

 

1708 AD. Charity Schools.

 

Charity schools sprang up by the hundred all over England to educate the poor in reading, writing, moral discipline, and the principles of the Church of England and moral values. Another object was to clothe English boys and girls. In 1708 a poor boy could be clothed for nine shillings and two pence, and a poor girl for ten shillings and three pence in one of London’s Charity schools.

 

1710 AD. The New`English Aristocracy.

 

The English Dukes lead society and lived like Princes. Squires and Yeomen occupied the lower strata of society. Their rural dialects would separate them from the Upper classes. They would be noticeable by the horsehair periwig, jockey belt, and coat without sleeves. The books he read were the Bible, Baker’s Chronicles, Hudibras, and Foxe’s Martyrs.  But, this type of country gentlemen was feeling the pressure of heavy land tax.

 

Letter writing was in full swing and thousands of letters remain to show the concerns, attending to estates, the county business, magistrate business, their gardens, and ponds.

 

Huguenot refugees would often act as tutors to the sons of the rich. Eton, Winchester, and Westminster schools lead in education. £20 a year would pay for a boy’s education. Greek and Latin were still studied. Milton and Pope were popular.

‘Gothic’ architecture had fallen from favour and buildings began to reflect ancient designs.

 

Steele and Locke pushed for educational reform. Swift and Burnet commented upon Scottish education (or lack of it.) Daughters, even of the rich, had poor education. Most ladies learned to read, write, sew, and manage the household. Marriage was arranged almost like barter in the upper and middle classes. A Cornet of Horse explains frankly that:

 

‘Not expecting anything this campaign I had taken thoughts another way, to try my fortune under Venus, and accordingly about a fortnight ago proposed to a lady of very good fortune…..’

 

Yet ‘runaway matches’ were common as in the case of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Divorce was almost unknown. Both sexes gambled freely and tobacco was popular, taken in long churchwarden pipes. Frequent duels occurred due to gambling and political factionalism. All gentlemen were allowed to wear swords. But mostly this was a town based dress piece. English social history was starting to take a ‘modern’ appearance as we see individual vices becoming social traits.

The one place where no one wore swords was at horse race meetings, which were hugely popular. Godolphin introduced various horse blood into racehorse breeding. Other sports included shooting, fishing, and snaring birds. England was alive with birds, which, are now long gone. Such as the Great Bustard of the Downs to the Westmoreland Eagle. Englishmen and field sports were inseparable.

 

Pace of life in Queen Ann’s reign.

 

Only a few people visited town. Most were village dwellers. The mental food of the children was ‘the hall-house, being haunted of fairies, spirits, and witches’. But witches were no longer hanged or drowned. The ordinary farmer or cottager rarely saw printed matter, except the Bible and Prayer book. Or:

 

‘The ballads posted on the wall
Of Joan of France and English Moll
Fair Rosamund, and Robin Hood
And little Children in the Wood’

 

The roads were held to be a national disgrace. Of little real commercial use in the middle ages, they had grown in importance since the Stuarts. Turnpikes were set up to help pay for road repairs. Acts of Parliament helped.

 

1712 AD. English coal industry in Queen Ann’s reign.

 

Coal was, as a consequence carried by river. Where the Dunkirk Privateers could not get at the ships. Nor were the rivers taxed. Shafts were dug to around 400 feet deep. A steam pump was developed to pump water out of the mines. Twenty thousand horses were employed in Newcastle alone to carry coal. Mine explosions were common, such as at Gateshead in 1705 AD. In 1707 AD an explosion at Bensham in North Durham killed eighty people. There were no inspectors or regulations.

 

English Cloth Industry in Defoe’s Time.

 

Children were often set to work in cottage industries. Spinning cloth was conducted in this fashion. Two fifths of English exports was cloth made in this way. American and Russian markets grew for English cloth. The main competitor was the Indian cloth industry. Lighter and often cheaper than English cloth. But the two trades operated side by side.

English Coffee House life.

 

Coffee and ‘tay’ were now being regularly imported into England leading to the establishment of Coffee Houses, which competed with gentlemen’s clubs. Journalists and all types of news circulated and they also sold chocolate.

 

The English Church and the High Court.

 

Much political anger and ecclesiastical energy in the early 1700’s was wasted in battles between the High Court and the Low Church and Dissent. But, it was a time when the Charity schools and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge were formed.  Bibles and Prayer books were distributed by the S.P.C.K. Yet the lower English strata still had it very hard.

London and the London Underworld of Ann and William’s reign.

 

The dockers, and unskilled labour of the London ports and markets lived in appalling squalor, without sanitation, police, or doctors. The privileged sanctuary of ‘Alsatia’ had been abolished, but the London underworld spread across the City. Harlots, highwaymen, and thieves abounded. The death rate in this sub stratum was furious.

 

The Tower of London.

 

The Tower of London was built to overawe the London Mob, by William the Conqueror. It was a great Arsenal in Queen Anne’s time. Also the Royal Mint, and on occasion still a state prison. Yet it also had a lighter side, being the London Zoo with Lions. It was also the London museum and visitors could as now see the Crown Jewels. A line of mounted Kings in armour was also an exhibit.