Seventeenth Century Austrey

The Parson’s Library

The seventeenth-century vicars of Austrey had books but, unlike their clerical neighbours in Appleby, their libraries do not provide much evidence as to clerical leanings and affiliations, much less evidence of radical Protestant inclinations. (The Appleby parson’s puritan sympathies are revealed, in contrast, by the several volumes of Calvin’s Commentaries among the books Thomas Mould passed on to his successor in 1642). By 1660 the Austrey vicarage had a study where the parson probably retired to write his sermons. In 1664, the incumbent, John Prior, left his brother James 'writing paper and books in the study', later appraised at Ł10. In 1680 his successor, John Shakespeare, left books in the same study worth Ł40, reflecting the growing enthusiasm for books throughout the country. The parson’s study probably contained some recent acquisitions including three 'popular' works which were later discovered in the parish chest and which may well have found their way into the vicar's library about this time. Their general tone is conservative or Anglican rather than puritan. The presence of John Foxe's popular Actes and Monumentes, required to be kept in every church under the Order of Convocation attached to the Elizabethan settlement, needs little further explanation. John Jewel's Apology for the Church of England, published around 1562 and reprinted in numerous editions over the course of the century, was a standard defence of orthodox doctrine. The third book, John Pearson's Exposition on the Creed, published in 1669 also defended the established church, perhaps even more vigorously, since Pearson served for a time as chaplain to Charles I in 1645 and, later, as bishop of Chester. Its possible that John Shakespeare purchased his copy of Pearson's Exposition from Richard Davies the bookseller in Oxford who had the book in stock while John was in residence as a servitor at St. Mary's Hall.

The Books of the Austrey Gentry

The gentry's literary interests are less in evidence. Although it can be safely assumed that most advanced beyond grammar school, the Austrey wills and inventories throw only a glimmer of light on their reading habits. It has already been suggested that the Warwickshire gentry may have had access to almanacs and newsheets from London and it seems likely that they maintained contact through local apprentices, especially to booksellers and the Stationers’ company. Even so, there is little evidence of book ownership or scholarly interests in Austrey before the Civil War. The inventory of Henry Kendall, the most prominent of Austrey’s late Elizabethan gentry, fails to list a single book or to provide any other indication of literacy, although it is apparent from wills and other documents that Henry was quite capable of signing his own name. After 1660, however, wills and inventories begin to provide evidence of a new enthusiasm for religious and secular reading. The younger Henry Kendall, Henry's grandson, had a study equipped with two desks and a 'press' (or shelf) of books valued at Ł6.5.8. His prized Geneva Bible and the Commentaries which Henry mentions in the will, is prominently recorded, giving clear indication of his Calvinist sympathies. Another gentleman, Robert Lilley, the Austrey attorney, had a substantial collection of 'law books' which be bequeathed to his children in 1685. The small number of books in Austrey inventories should not be interpreted to mean that the gentry did not have scholarly interests or connections. They may well have kept company with the scholarly antiquarians who lived around Polesworth, men like Aston Cockayne of Pooley Hall, an ‘ingenious gentleman’, poet and antiquary, and Walter Chetwin of Grendon, the antiquarian attorney.

The occasional printed book listed in the inventories of those below the gentry provides further evidence of the link between literacy and religious piety. Although books are more frequently encountered after 1660 they were still a comparative rarity in inventories, despite an impressive array of evidence of an expanding market for religious tracts, little books, ballads and almanacs after the Interregnum. The Bible continues to be the most frequently listed book in the parish and most of the books recorded are religious works John Lakin, the retired yeoman (1630) had only a Bible and a Statute Book in his possession. A mention of ‘one little and other books’ valued at 2s in John Mould's inventory (1672) provides one of the few tangible indications that chapbooks were available. The bulk of the works mentioned were devotional works with a comparatively wide circulation. It is hardly surprising to find, for example, that one of the husbandmen, Thomas Robinson, had two Bibles and a copy of Lewis Bayly's Practice of Piety (1602) in his possession in 1672. Nicholas Sharpe, variously styled as husbandman or yeoman, had eight books worth 2s 8d out of goods appraised at Ł22.7.8 in 1682. Finally, John Rainalls (1684), the Austrey village blacksmith, had a collection of what appear to have been chapbooks, judging from their small value (3s). These books undoubtedly represent only a fragment of the printed material kept in the parish during this period. The absence of any further record of such items is explained by the fact that the cheaper printed emphemera were more readily disposed of during the testator’s lifetime, or more easily overlooked by the appraisers after his death.

Literacy was highly regarded by gentry and non-gentry alike, but it remained an almost exclusively male preserve (even some gentry widows were illiterate) and it took a long time to reach the labouring poor.

Sources and Notes

L.J.R.O. inventories, Henry Kendall, 1592, will and inventory, Henry Kendall, 1673.

Among the local apprenticeships were George Thomas, the son of a Grendon husbandman, to Samuell Clerk, London bookseller in 1596; John Heathcote, son of William Heathcote the schoolmaster at Polesworth to George Dawes, 1688. P. Morgan, ‘Warwickshire Apprentices to the Stationers’ Company of London, 1563-1700’, Dugdale Society Occasional Papers, 25 (1978), 26-7.

M. Spufford, Small Books (op.cit.), 75.

For an account of these scholarly antiquaries, see P. Styles, ‘Sir Simon Archer, A lover of Antiquity and of the lovers thereof’, in Studies in Seventeenth Century West Midlands History (Kineton, 1978).

L.J.R.O. inventory, John Lakin, 1630., John Mould, 1590.

Bayley’s Practice of Piety was reprinted in some 40 editions between 1602-1700.

L.J.R.O. inventories, Nicholas Sharpe, 1682., John Rainalls, 1684. Catherine Lilley, wife of William Lilley, the attorney could not sign the documents to convey her husband’s estate into probate. L.J.R.O. adm., William Lilley, widow, 1687.