Women (and Men) on the Move: Scots in the English North c. 1440

Abstract

Alien subsidies suggest that many men and few women immigrated to England between 1440 and 1487. This article examines the one exception to this pattern: the large numbers of Scotswomen assessed as aliens in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Northumberland in 1440. It considers why so many women are found in these particular returns, what we can know about them, and how this knowledge might change our histories of women, labor, and mobility in both Scotland and England.I n the mid-fifteenth century, somewhere between 1 and 2 percent of England's inhabitants (about 6 percent in London) were immigrants. Most-about three-quarters-came from a handful of nearby realms: from France, Scotland, and Ireland, or from the Low Countries and German states (often collectively called "the Dutch"). 1 Many settled, or at least were recorded by head-counters, near to their points of entry-Scots in the north of England, Irish in the southwest, Dutch in East Anglia, French all along the south coast, and a great variety in London. The vast majority of these immigrants were men or boys-about 85 non-native-born males reported for every 15 females. Real numbers were not as out of kilter as these reported numbers, for enumerators rarely recorded wives and probably under-recorded unmarried women (a common problem in medieval tallies). Yet even allowing for these slippages, the sex ratio of England's immigrants was dramatically askew. Many different sorts of "aliens" moved to England in the fifteenth century, but most were men and boys.This essay examines the one exception to this rule: the plethora of immigrant women who were recorded in 1440 as living and working in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Northumberland. Encompassing England's northern marches with

The origin of the Portuguese Drummonds

“…In the absence of a heritable surname or as a way in which to differentiate an individual from another, an identity could be formed on the grounds of origin or location, occupation, characteristic or patronym (Steiner 2007: 248;Hough & Izdebska 2016: 215, 224, 242, 244). Given this context, João Escórcio as a 'man from Scotland' seems plausible when we note the tendency for similar bynames to point to origin (Thomson 2000;Løfsgård 2016;Bennet 2018;Havinga 2020). In support of this view, Escórcio's contemporaries are typically identified by Portuguese patronyms (for example, João 'Rodrigues' as the 'son of Rodrigo' or as indicating his progenitor) or locative bynames (for example, João 'do Porto' as 'of Oporto', Portugal) (Costa 1995: 4, 122), while, in contrast, his own identity is founded upon a deliberate association with Scotland.…”

“…However, an alternative and perhaps more recognisable understanding of the byname is, simply, as a 'man from Scotland' (Hammond 2007: 42). In the Iberian world in the 16th to 18th centuries, it was not uncommon for men from the British Isles, including Scotland, to be recorded after their place of origin in official records (McLoughlin 2014: 7), 3 and this, too, occurred throughout Europe from Paris in the 13th century (Devine 2003: 7) to Bologna in the 15th century (Dean 2019), andelsewhere (Thomson 2000;Løfsgård 2016;Bennet 2018;Havinga 2020;Ormrod et al 2020). The byname did not change from a suggestion of origin, in northern Europe, until the mid-17th century (Christensen 1970: 128).…”

“…Much has already been written on the topic of Scottish migration within Europe during the 16th and 18th centuries, stretching from Norway (Løfsgård 2016) and Denmark (Christensen 1970) to Poland (Ozog 1995;Devine 2003;Bajer 2012;Kowalski 2015) and Germany (Dunlop 1942;Ditchburn 1988), as well as within the British Isles (Thomson 2000;Bennet 2018). The movement of Scots in the Iberian world is an area that has been subject to comparatively little focus (McLoughlin 2014), and it is a demographic that is almost entirely absent from Portuguese scholarship concerning the 15th century (Marques 1987;Albuquerque & Vieira 1988).…”

Double Disadvantage or Golden Age? Immigration, Gender and Economic Opportunity in Later Medieval England

“…Drawing on the returns of the alien subsidy, a tax imposed specifically on immigrant residents in England, Bennett showed how, around the middle of the fifteenth century, high numbers of female Scots crossed the border to work as servants and labourers in the north of the country. 10 This article will explore how immigration, gender and economic opportunity intersected in England during the fifteenth century, exploiting the same sources utilised by Bennett. The returns of the alien subsidy do not only inform us about Scottish men and women, but about a much wider range of immigrants in England.…”