Sutton Benger in the 1600s

England in the 1600s

What was England like in the first half of the 17th Century? To provide some context, the kings and queens of England for the first 50 years of the 1600s were as follows:

Elizabeth I reigned: 1558 - 1605
James VI of Scotland / James I of England 1603 - 1625
Charles I 1625 - 1649

Civil War raged across England from 1642 to the early 1650s and had an impact on North Wiltshire with the battles at Roundway, near Devizes, and Lansdown, near Bath, in 1643. The Royalist and Parliamentary armies both marched through Chippenham in July that year. During the 1640s Malmesbury was besieged several times, and each side took it in turns to occupy the town. The villages in the area, including Sutton Benger, not only had their livestock and produce taken as the armies marched through but were taxed by the troops who occupied Malmesbury.

Sutton Benger in the 1600s

It is impossible to say with any accuracy whether the villagers of Sutton Benger were Royalist or Parliamentarian sympathisers at heart; but the village was part of the Manor of Draycot Cerne. And the Lord of the Manor, Sir James Long, was a Royalist officer who was closely involved in various incidents during the war. So 'his' villagers would have been expected to be Royalists as well. However, the Vicar had been born in Sutton Benger and was the son of a yeoman farmer. The fact that the Reverend John Ferris managed to keep his job after the execution of Charles I, throughout the period when Oliver Cromwell was in charge, and until the early years of Charles II, suggests that he was a Parliamentarian.

We can probably get a sense of what life was like in a small rural village, from having seen period dramas which cover the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. Society was extremely stratified. At the top were the nobility or aristocracy, and below them were the gentry. The Lord of the Manor was a Baronet; below him was the Vicar, who might be considered in the upper gentry. And below them came everybody else: the labouring classes, who had their own hierarchy. At the top were the yeomen / farmers; then came the husbandmen; and at the bottom were the farm labourers.

We can read the Wills and Inventories of some of the villagers from the 1600s to learn something about their homes and possessions. The problem is that only the wealthier people, and mainly men, wrote Wills. Villagers in Sutton Benger were living in basic houses; the more affluent – those who left Wills – had stone-built houses with three or four rooms, probably very similar to the thatched houses that can still be seen today east of the church and Old Rectory. But the majority of the villagers were likely to have been illiterate, and few had personal possessions other than the basic tools that they used for working the land and subsisting. They undoubtedly lived in one- or two-room houses which were very basic and extremely overcrowded; women often had 6 to 10 children, only some of who survived beyond their early years. Children, if they survived, were expected to supplement the family income from the age of 6 or 7 by working as shepherds, cowherds, apprentices, and so on. We know from surviving documents that there were several small houses of this type to the west of Seagry Road, roughly in the north east corner of The Park; the houses were demolished at the beginning of the 1800s.

We have a set of Wills from the early 1600s of the Barnard family, who were husbandmen and yeomen; these Wills allow us to imagine how life must have been for them and, by extension, how life must have been for the less well-off below them in society.

Edward Barnard (died 1627) was a smallholder; he grew some corn, had a few animals, made cheese and was probably also a weaver. He and his wife Joan rented a house which had three bedrooms (or chambers), and in which they raised at least six children. The most valuable possessions which he left were three beds, three cows and two calves, and a field of corn. His total estate was valued at under £34 (less than £5,000 today). This would have been the equivalent of 2 years’ pay for a skilled tradesman in the 1620s.

When we read them, we must take into account that these Wills were written by the wealthiest and most literate; the majority of the villagers lived in even smaller houses and left no money or property behind.

If you have any questions about the transcriptions, or if there are any specific Wills you want to see, please get in touch:

Email: hello@bengertrails.co.uk