ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates an instance of such anxiety by exploring a crucial and, as we will see, potentially unstable stage in conventional governing masculinity the intergenerational handover of patriarchal manhood. The puritan minister, Samuel Rogers, in 1636 recounted conferences at the Barringtons' seat and described how 'we fast and pray at Hatfield [and] we give the whole day to God sweetly; in public and private together'. It should also be noted that the following analysis of governing masculinity carries with it specific influences of class and religion. As the 1630s wear on, we start to pick up hints that the exertions of these proxy patriarchs have not been in vain. This case study of the Barringtons of Hatfield Broad Oak indicates that, in some instances, the hegemonic form of governing masculinity in the early seventeenth century patriarchy was not simply a paradigm imposed by men but rather a complex and negotiated outcome of contemporary gender relations.
