Peasant Petitions

Part I. Introduction: Understanding the Rural Societies of the British Isles

1. ‘Unimportant minorities’: the landholding peasantry of Britain and Ireland, c. 1600–1850
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2. People above and below: ‘landlordism’, ‘estate studies’, and relationships between owners and workers of land
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3. Methodologies: the practice and theory of petitions, and the choice of estates
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Part II. Landed Estates: Personnel, Organisation, Documentation, and Elements of Variance

4. Stewards and other estate officials
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5. The estates and the petitions
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6. Petitions and the rhythms of estate life
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7. Empty spaces: the missing estate petitions of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Wales
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Part III. Authorship, Physical form, and Written Style of Petitions

8. Authenticity and authorship
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9. Physical form
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10. Address
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11. Ending
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12. Delivery and receipt
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Part IV. The Content of Petitions

13. The north of Ireland, c. 1750–1850
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14. North-West England, c. 1600–1800
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15. The Highland margin of Scotland, c. 1770–1860
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Part V. Land, Psychology, and the ‘Hard Surfaces of Life’: Asking for Poor Relief on Landed Estates

16. Poverty and self-help in north-west England and Wales
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17. Petitioning for relief on Breadalbane: estate policy, family life, and strategies for care
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18. Poverty and its relief in the north of Ireland: the place of the estate
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19. Psychology and necessity: attachment to the land in parts of Scotland and Ireland
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Part VI. Conclusion: The Landlords and Tenants of Britain and Ireland

20. Paternalism and deference
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21. Oppressions, freedoms, and their politico-legal context
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22. The texture of rural society in parts of Britain and Ireland
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Avainsanat: History, Cultural History, History of Britain and Ireland, Social History, Modern History