Mike Kipling
DPhil in English Local History
Thesis
Debt, Trade and Reputation in Early Modern Sussex
Research abstract
My work brings together information about lending and trade in early modern Sussex which can be found in various contemporary records, most particularly those of the Court of Requests. From reading this court’s records ‘against the grain’, a range of lending practices and networks emerges, as does insight into the county’s key industries and merchandising activities. Linking these records with other sets, including those of other Westminster equity courts, the plea rolls of the court of Common Pleas, Sussex port books, lay subsidy rolls, and local records provides a unique vision of the lives and activities of key players in the trade of the county between 1560 and 1625, exemplified by several in-depth prosopographical case studies.
In particular, I examine the mercantile activities of the county’s only city, Chichester, which have to date been little researched, especially regarding the participants therein. I also examine the county’s key industries: iron, timber, and, especially, grain, again examining in detail the activities of some key participants.
Finally, I consider the impact of personal reputatioin, identifying its vital role in both lubricating trade and in enhancing the relative credibility of legal testimony.
Supervisor(s)
Dr Jonathan Healey Dr Jonathan Healey | Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, Dr Heather Falvey
Biography
I started the DPhil in October 2021. I have an first degree in mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge (1978), an MSc in Genealogy from Strathclyde (2013) and a MSc from Oxford in English Local History (2022). I am an actuary by profession, although retired apart from a small non-executive role. I am treasurer of the Local Population Studies Society and a committee member of the West Sussex Archives Society. I have been awarded a Cruttenden scholarship from Kellogg College for the duration of my DPhil studies.
As a 'mature' student, I am pursuing my research purely for personal interest and the (slight) expansion of human knowledge.
Papers and lectures
'Historical research without leaving home: the Anglo-American Legal Tradition archive', The Local Historian, 52, 3 (July 2022), pp 196-206
'Legal Windows into the Life of a Jacobean Chichester Merchant', West Sussex History, 90 (2022), pp 10-17
'What happened next: further research on the sad case of Prudence Fenn', The Local Historian, 53, 1 (January 2023), pp 19-28 (with Ian Beckwith)
'A Star Chamber case from Elizabethan Sussex', The Local Historian, 53, 3 (July 2023), pp 206-215
'Sussex Debt Suits at the Elizabethan Court of Common Pleas, Local Population Studies, 110 (Spring 2023)
'Hugh Barker, ecclesiastical lawyer and Chichester landlord', West Sussex History, 91 (2023)
'Elizabethan merchants and the Court of Requests', presentation at the workshop Popular Knowledge of the Law in Early Modernity, St John's College, Oxford, April 2024
'Sussex Debt and Trade Suits in the Court of Requests', Local Population Studies, 111 (Autumn 2023)
Research interests
Finance, trade and reputation either side of 1600.
