ABSTRACT

Vital as the local community was in the lives of sixteenth-and seventeenth-century people, it was not the basic unit of society. That distinction, as Richard Gough well knew, belonged to the family. The family was the basic unit of residence, of the pooling and distribution of resources for consumption. For many a small farmer and craftsman it was also the basic unit of production. Through the family, society reproduced itself; children were born and reared and property was transmitted from generation to generation. Within the family, individuals found security and identity and the satisfaction of both physical and emotional needs not catered for by other social institutions. The family was fundamental.