Land, population and famine in the English uplands: a Westmorland case study, c.1370-1650

There is much we still do not know about the relationship between land, population and famine in early modern England. In his classic work on Famine in Tudor and Stuart England, Andrew Appleby presented a broadly Malthusian picture in which population growth in the upland north-west was accompanied...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Agricultural history review 2011-01, Vol.59 (2), p.151-175
Main Author: Healey, Jonathan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Baronies
Famine
Fees
Highlands
Land surveying
Pastures
Population growth
Subtenancy
Tenants
Towns
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Summary:There is much we still do not know about the relationship between land, population and famine in early modern England. In his classic work on Famine in Tudor and Stuart England, Andrew Appleby presented a broadly Malthusian picture in which population growth in the upland north-west was accompanied by the subdivision of peasant holdings and the expansion of cultivation at the margins of sustainability. This article questions the uniformity of this picture. Evidence from the Barony of Kendal in Westmorland suggests that tenant numbers had peaked by about 1560, while manor courts successfully controlled enclosure and the subdivision of holdings. Indeed, evidence from the early seventeenth century suggests that, rather than forming a famine-prone mass, customary tenants in the area enjoyed at least some prosperity. At the same time, however, the period from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth century saw the development of a large population of subtenants, and it was this group that suffered most from famine in 1623.
ISSN:0002-1490