The Middleton Papers

by José Bosworth, Pat Hudson, Maureen Johnson and Denise Shillitoe

The Middletons were an old established Yorkshire Catholic gentry family who suffered greatly for their faith at a time when grave decisions had to be made. This book captures their lives and preoccupations at two crucial periods in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the repercussions of the Rising of the Northern Earls (1569) and of the English Civil War (1641-8) left the Middleton family in precarious financial circumstances.

This volume is based primarily in two account books, both of which were kept following these periods of national upheaval and personal hardship which necessitated strict housekeeping.

Much can be learnt from them about the structure of gentry household, its estate management, farming meathods, labour usage and wages in the North of England.