© MindMagic Ltd. (1999)
This draft of a petition against an illegal alehouse rehearses a number of common themes from the rhetoric of the reform of manners, such as illegal drinking, non-observance of the Sabbath and sexual incontinence. John Smyth of Nibley, who drew up the petition and whose clerk and son are to promote it, is often quoted by historians for his support of sports and 'other like sociable meetings, Church-ales, Wakes, Saints Feast-daies, etc.' and his criticism of the puritans as rigid Catos and 'men of too sterne judgement' in his Description of the Hundred of Berkeley. This petition is a reminder to beware of equating a desire for reform of manners with puritanism. It is clear that Smyth supported traditional pastimes and activities which were located within the established community, but disapproved of threats to good-neighbourliness. Although George James belonged to a family with deeper roots in Nibley than either Smyth or Archard, but he is presented as a threat to the community into which he was born as a result of his poverty, his subjection to his wife and his encouragement of undesirable strangers.
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| © MindMagic Ltd. (1999) |