Memory, Orality, and Life Records: Proofs of Age in Tudor England

This article examines memories of the births of feudal heirs to consider both what witnesses remembered from their past and how they remembered it. It argues that in the early sixteenth century jurors' memories revolved around the life-course markers of birth, marriage, and death, and were reca...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: McGlynn, Margaret (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc. 2009
In: The sixteenth century journal
Year: 2009, Volume: 40, Issue: 3, Pages: 679-697
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:This article examines memories of the births of feudal heirs to consider both what witnesses remembered from their past and how they remembered it. It argues that in the early sixteenth century jurors' memories revolved around the life-course markers of birth, marriage, and death, and were recalled in parallel with the same events in the lives of their neighbors. By the later sixteenth century written records came to play a greater role in the process of proving age, as witnesses were increasingly likely to present and witness a fathers record of his sons birth rather than recall their own involvement in the event. This shift reflects the ways in which both literacy and family records were rooted within the household, and allows us to see the ways in which the bureaucratic process of proving age changed in response to the changed literacies of English jurors.
ISSN:2326-0726
Contains:Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal