Frances Timbers - The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 1500–1700

The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 1500–1700 — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 1500–1700" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...55

The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 15001700

The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 15001700 examines the construction of gypsy identity in England between the early sixteenth century and the end of the seventeenth century. Drawing upon previous historiography, a wealth of printed primary sources (including government documents, pamphlets, rogue literature, and plays), and archival material (quarter sessions and assize cases, parish records and constables accounts), the book argues that the construction of gypsy identity was part of a wider discourse concerning the increasing vagabond population, and was further informed by the religious reformations and political insecurities of the time. The developing narrative of a fraternity of dangerous vagrants resulted in the gypsy population being designated as a special category of rogues and vagabonds by both the state and popular culture.

The alleged Egyptian origin of the group and the practice of fortune-telling by palmistry contributed elements of the exotic, which contributed to the concept of the mysterious alien. However, as this book reveals, a close examination of the first gypsies that are known by name shows that they were more likely Scottish and English vagrants, employing the ambiguous and mysterious reputation of the newly emerging category of gypsy. This challenges the theory that sixteenth-century gypsies were migrants from India and/or early predecessors to the later Roma population, as proposed by nineteenth-century gypsiologists.

The book argues that the fluid identity of gypsies, whose origins and ethnicity were (and still are) ambiguous, allowed for the group to become a prime candidate for the other, thus a useful tool for reinforcing the parameters of orthodox social behaviour.

Frances Timbers holds a PhD in British History from the University of Toronto (2008). She has published two books and three articles that deal with issues of magic, witchcraft and gender in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Timbers is currently on a self-imposed sabbatical in Panama, where she spends her time writing about gypsies, teaching yoga, biking to the beach and caring for seven rescued cats.

The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 15001700

Frances Timbers

First published 2016

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2016 Frances Timbers

The right of Frances Timbers to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-1-472-46251-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-472-46252-7 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-472-46253-4 (ePub)

Typeset in Bembo

by Out of House Publishing

This one is for Zara, who thinks I am a gypsy at heart.

Contents

It is not every academic who gets the opportunity to focus on a project and see it through to its completion without full-time teaching responsibilities. In this regard, I am especially grateful to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship, which enabled me to pursue the research and writing of this project. Academic and financial support is also much appreciated from the history departments at the University of Victoria and Trent University, as well as CUPE Local 39081 in Peterborough, Ontario.

My task was made so much easier by the many gypsiologists and folklorists who collected the hundreds of historical fragments from the archives and published them in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. I am eternally grateful to this group of dedicated authors and scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A special thank you to my eager students in the University of Victorias spring 2013 seminar on Magicians, Witches and Gypsies in Early Modern England. Our sessions together helped me work through various aspects of the topic. I am particularly grateful to Daniela Loggia for her insightful essay on Richard Bromes A Jovial Crew.

Special mention goes out to Steve the gypsy for sharing his grandmothers story. I have no idea how to get in touch with you, Steve, short of going to Wetherspoon House in Leeds!

I am also indebted to my editor at Ashgate, Tom Gray, for his ongoing support of the project.

Much of the sustenance for this book came from non-academic sources in the form of loyal friends and family, as well as an amazing crew of yoga teachers and students, who helped me weather the storm of creativity.

Samhain 2015

The use of italics in quotations reflects the usage in the original unless otherwise stated.

APC	Acts of the Privy Council of England
CAR	Calendar of Assize Records
CSPD	Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
DNB	Dictionary of National Biography
ERO	Essex Record Office, Chelmsford, Essex
GLS	Gypsy Lore Society Collections, University of Liverpool
JGLS	Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society
HMC	Historical Manuscripts Commission
HMSO	Her Majestys Stationery Office
LMA	London Metropolitan Archives
LPFD	Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII
OED	Oxford English Dictionary (www.oed.com)
PRO	Public Record Office
RPSS	Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland
SMGC	Scott Macfie Gypsy Collections
SP	State Papers
SR	Statutes of the Realm
STAC	Star Chamber Records
TNA	The National Archive, Kew, Richmond, Surrey
WYRO	West Yorkshire Record Office, Leeds, West Yorkshire

The damned fraternitie: constructing gypsy identity in early modern England, 15001700

In the mid-eighteenth century, an old gypsy woman named Mary Squires was satirically illustrated as a stereotypical witch, flying on a broom and wearing a conical hat ( Investigation into this image revealed that the slippage between the caricature of the witch and the figure of the gypsy was not limited to this incident. Association between the two had started to take place by the mid-seventeenth century, if not earlier. The juxtaposition of these two very different characters sparked my interest in the construction of the figure of the gypsy in England, as it coalesced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Building on the work of previous historians, as well as social anthropologists, I began to trace the formation of the distinct identity of English gypsies. Geographical parameters are limited to England, with a necessary foray across the border to Scotland; temporal parameters are between 1500, when the references to Egyptians first appeared in England, and the end of the seventeenth century. The aspect of identity with which I am concerned is

Next page

1234567...55

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 1500–1700»

Look at similar books to The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 1500–1700. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

David Mayall

Gypsy Identities 1500-2000: From Egipcyans and Moon-men to the Ethnic Romany

Susan Doran

Princes, Pastors, and People: The Church and Religion in England, 1500-1700

John Stevenson

Popular Disturbances in England 1700-1832

Peter Marshall

Invisible Worlds: Death, Religion And The Supernatural In England, 1500-1700

Gary K Waite

Exile and Religious Identity, 1500–1800

Cathleen Sarti

Deposing Monarchs: Domestic Conflict and State Formation, 1500-1700

Frances Timbers

The Magical Adventures of Mary Parish

Frances E. Dolan

Dangerous Familiars: Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550-1700

Michael G. Brennan

The Sidneys of Penshurst and the Monarchy, 1500–1700

Sandberg

War and conflict in the early modern world: 1500-1700

Katherine Lester

Accessories of Dress: an Illustrated Encyclopedia

Walsh

Gypsy boy on the run : my escape from a life among the Romany gypsies

Discussion, reviews of the book The Damned Fraternitie: Constructing Gypsy Identity in Early Modern England, 1500–1700 and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.