Literacy, Social Structure and Local Social Dramas

Abstract

This paper starts by describing Roger Schofield's work on the measurement of literacy, and especially his use of the proportion of brides and grooms who could sign the marriage register to quantify the extent of illiteracy among different sections of society. The paper then discusses other potential sources of data on illiteracy. Frequently these sources describe local social events, in which the politics of the parish intersect the history of the nation, and social, cultural, and political history come together. Work using these sources can expose some of the intangibles of ideology, religion, and morality to which literacy only gestures. Linking these records to other local sources may reveal how kinship, neighbourliness, or economic associations drove participation in ritual, cultural, and quasi-political activities. The final part of the paper illustrates this using an extended example of the response of the local population to the wreck of a ship off the coast of Dorset in 1641.