Tarver, Anne (1998) The Consistory Court of the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry and its work, 1680-1830. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the work of the bishop's consistory court of the
Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry through the cause papers and
administrative documents generated between 1680 and 1830. These
courts were extensively used through the century, business peaking in
the 1730s and 1780s at between 200 and 250 causes per year. The overall
pattern of the work of the courts is established in relation to its
constituent elements of defamation, tithes, matrimonial, testamentary
and Office causes. The social and spatial provenance of the plaintiffs is
considered. Almost all of the plaintiffs were of the 'middling sort' and
lower social levels, and many were women. Comparative material
from Birmingham in 1770 would suggest that the users of the courts
mirrored the overall occupational structure of the period.
A re-evaluation of the work of the ecclesiastical courts shows that the
Lichfield courts represented a source of arbitration for intractable
disputes of predominantly rural origin. Causes arose from within the
community, rather than being imposed externally by the church
authorities, and formed a channel for public censure of those who
offended against local mores, regardless of sex or social standing.
Judgements in the form of sentences were often invisible and the
courts have been considered to have been useless. The fact that these
courts could harm neither purse nor person was not a failing, but a
strength in a 'face to face' society, where an individual insisting upon
the incarceration or financial deprivation of another could seriously
escalate conflicts within a community. The medieval function of
these courts was merely to 'correct and punish the disobedient, the
unquiet and the animous', and case studies from Lichfield demonstrate
that this function continued into the nineteenth century.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Ecclesiastical courts -- England -- West Midlands -- History -- 17th century, Ecclesiastical courts -- England -- West Midlands -- History -- 18th century, Ecclesiastical courts -- England -- West Midlands -- History -- 19th century, Church of England. Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry -- History -- 17th century, Church of England. Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry -- History -- 18th century, Church of England. Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry -- History -- 19th century
Official Date:	April 1998
Dates:	Date Event April 1998 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	2 v. (xv, 460 leaves)
Language:	eng

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