Rosemary Sweet - The English Town, 1680-1840: Government, Society and Culture

Contents

This book is the result of the frustration I felt as a research student at having to wade through the Webbs in order to make any progress towards understanding the workings of urban government in the eighteenth century. As will be clear to any reader, it is heavily indebted to their research, but it is, I hope, a little more user friendly. It was written whilst I was a junior research fellow at St Johns College, Oxford and my biggest debt of gratitude, therefore, is to the fellows and the college, for providing the ideal surroundings, both intellectual and material, in which to undertake such a project. I would also like to thank the staff of the various libraries and record offices in which I worked, particularly those of the Bodleian Library, the Oxford History Faculty Library, St John College Library, Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull, Oxfordshire Archives, Southampton Record Office, Tyne and Wear Archive Service, West Devon Record Office and Winchester Record Office for their cooperation. John Stevenson was always a positive editorial force, and at Longman I met with a consistently friendly, helpful and efficient team. Both Paul Langford and Joanna Innes have always been unfailingly generous in their time, advice and encouragement, and this book would have been very much the worse but for them. I must also thank Hannah Barker and Alex Shepard who read and criticised the book in earlier incarnations, and Elaine Chalus for advice, support and frequent injections of good sense. Faramerz Dabhoiwala, Scott Mandelbrote, Michael Suarez, Tim Clayton, Perry Gauci, Jack Langton, Peter Borsay, David Eastwood, have all provided advice and information on numerous occasions. Finally, I must thank my family, who have already heard far more than they could ever want to know about eighteenth-century towns, for tolerating it all with patience and good humour.

We are indebted to Oxford University Press for permission to reproduce the three maps from The Impact of English Towns by P. J. Corfield (1982).

Anyone who makes even a cursory examination of the historiography of eighteenth-century England over the last twenty years will be forcibly struck by how much of it is urban-based. Urban studies have transformed our understanding of the workings of eighteenth-century politics and society and the relationship between the metropolis and the provinces. Paul Langfords choice of title,