Land, kinship, and life-cycle - Richard Michael Smith

These essays in Land, Kinship and Life-Cycle present detailed case studies from English rural communities over the period 1250-1850, these essays reveal that much land was transferred between living persons who were related neither by blood nor by marriage and that kin were often not the only members of work groups or assistance networks in the countryside. Although the focus is on the strata of English society below the landed aristocracy and the urban merchant elites, the preoccupation with those holding land whether under freehold or customary or copyhold tenure is tempered by essays that investigate the economic problems in the lifecycles of the property less or those unable through, for example, illness or age to work and manage their property.