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Social Conflict and Change in the Mining Communities of North-West Derbyshire, c. 1600–1700

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Andy Wood
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Increased demand for lead on both domestic and international markets spurred on technological and organizational innovation in Derbyshire's lead mining industry. Population expanded due to immigration into the mining areas, and problems of poverty and proletarianization were created as the traditional small producers were marginalized by new capitalized mineworkings owned by aristocrats, merchants and gentlemen. Social conflict intensified over the ownership of mining rights; in particular, this dispute revolved around popular and élite notions of property and legality. This conflict engendered new forms of popular resistance and provides evidence of a language of class in the seventeenth century. The eighteenth century saw the marginalization of the independent free miner, but memories of lost liberties conditioned the class consciousness of Derbyshire's new working class at the end of the century.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , April 1993 , pp. 31 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1993

References

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38 PRO DL5/28 fos. 378–80.

39 PRO E317/9/28; PRO E101/280/18; PRO DL5/28 fos. 378/380; DRO D258/X/7c–c; DRO D258/58/20a–c. I hope to publish a fuller study of Wirksworth's mining community in the future.

40 PRO DL4/72/31.

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56 PRO E134/13 Jas I/Mich 3; PRO DL4/66/6.

57 PRO E134/4&5 Wm & Mar/Hil 15; PRO DL4/98/34; PRO STAC8/219/4.

58 PRO E/134/13 Jas I/Mich 3; PRO E134/8 Chas I/Mich 26.

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60 PRO E134/6 Geo II/Mich 4.

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63 See case of William Booth, PRO DL4/72/31.

64 Treby's Mss. Reports, 22–24 Chas II, Middle Temple Library. I am indebted to Dr Alan Cromartic for this reference.

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68 DRO QSB/103; DRO DL1/366, unlisted complaint of William Goodwin; PRO DL1/293, Crown vs. Sir Fras. Foljamb; PRO DL4/124/1686/7; PRO DL1/323, unlisted Crown vs. John Manners.

69 PRO DL4/90/24.

70 PRO RGO 33 frontispiece.

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91 BL Add. Mss. 6677 fo. 49.

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95 PRO DL4/91/16.

96 PRO DL4/71/36.

97 PRO DL4/75/10.

98 PRO STAC9/1/13.

99 PRO DL5/29 fo. 289. The Duchy court later reversed this decision.

100 DL4/72/31.

101 PRO E134/3 Jas II/East 15; DRO D258/42/21.

102 Unlisted accounts of Odin mine, Chatsworth House; SRO OD 1495.

103 SRO Bag.C.206(3).

104 PRO RGO 33.

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110 MCL Carill Worsley MSS M35/2/44/41.