Love, hate, and the law in Tudor England : the three wives of Ralph Rishton / L. R. Poos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Poos, Lawrence R. (Lawrence Raymond), author.

Series:

Oxford Academic.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marriage law--England--History--16th century.

Marriage law.

Marriage (Canon law).

Divorce settlements--England.

Divorce settlements.

Great Britain--History--Tudors, 1485-1603.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (338 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford Oxford University Press, [2022]

Summary:

Love, Hate, and the Law in Tudor England reconstructs the life of Ralph Rishton, a member of the sixteenth-century Lancashire gentry who was a child bridegroom and a serial wife discarder, who bribed church officials to obtain a forged annulment, defrauded a kinsman out of his inheritance, and adroitly manipulated his own and other people's land. The dozens of lawsuits in which the Rishtons were involved, in many different courts, elucidate one family's engagement with law in Tudor England: how they used and misused law, how it shaped their perceptions of rights and mutual obligations, and how it framed litigants' and witnesses' language. Drawing upon trial and estate records, the core of this book is the central narrative of Ralph Rishton and his three wives, of litigiousness and violence, marriage and property, and the pursuit of equitable resolutions to disputes, along with countless smaller narratives that vividly capture a culture in its time and place. Alongside that central narrative, the book uses the Rishton stories as a starting point for analysing child marriage, the construction of memory, and the development of local historical identity through antiquarians and the Victorian and Edwardian local press, demonstrating how-from the time of the Rishtons into the twentieth century-historical narratives were continually reshaped and repurposed.

Contents:

List of Illustrations

Maps

Genealogies

Figures

Tables

List of Abbreviations

1. 'Set All Things in a Perfect Order'

Case Studies

Duchy, Palatinate, and Courts in Lancashire

2. 'His Own Father Was the Cause of His Trouble'

Rishton Family Histories

Roger Rishton's Conflicts: Church Kirk, 1536

Roger Rishton's Conflicts: Blackburn and Church Kirk, 1542-3

Roger Rishton's Conflicts: Duckworth Moor and Church Kirk, 1555

More Conflicts

Resolutions

3. 'God Have Mercy of Thy Soul, Wife of Ralph Rishton'

Ellen Towneley

Elizabeth Parker

Lancashire Child Marriage

4. 'In Fancy and Love with Ann Stanley'

John Rishton

Ann Stanley

Law's Stories: Plaintiffs and Defendants

Law's Stories: Deponents

Law's Stories: Reading Depositions

5. 'I Will Keep Him in Suit'

Litigation: Marriage

Estate Settlements

Litigation: Property

Equity, Conscience, Law

6. 'It Would Be a Pity Not to Complete the History'

Later Rishtons and Religion

The Afterlife of the Rishton Stories: Antiquaries

The Afterlife of the Rishton Stories: Newspapers

Retrospection

Appendix: A Timeline of Events

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on Publisher website; title from home page (viewed on June 14, 2022).

Other Format:

Print version: Poos, L. R. Love, Hate, and the Law in Tudor England

ISBN:

0-19-195559-0

0-19-268859-6

0-19-268860-X

OCLC:

1336406104

Publisher Number:

10.1093/oso/9780192865113.001.0001 DOI