The Middleton Papers : The Financial Problems of a Yorkshire Recusant Family in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Additional editor: Denise Shillitoe The Middletons were one of the chief Catholic families in Yorkshire, and as such suffered considerably for their faith.

The records they have left are a hugely valuable source for knowledge for life at the time.

This volume is based on two account books, both of which were kept following periods of national upheaval and personal hardship (1578 to 1582, and 1653 to 1655); they vividly document the family's strategies for survival and reconstruction in two different but challenging periods of their history.

Much can be learnt from them about the structure of a gentry household, its estate management, farming methods, labour usage and wages.

Meanwhile, personal details of a more intimate kind glimmer through the text.

Births and deaths are recorded, as are details of diet, journeys made (notably to the Continent by William Middleton between 1579 and 1582), fairs attended, visitors received and visits made.

There is also information about the pastimes and leisure activities of the family, their own and their servants' clothing, and medical practices.

The documents are presented here with notes, introduction, and glossary.