2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Common soldiers and their families in eighteenth-century Britain
| Project/Area Number |
25884031
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
History of Europe and America
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| Research Institution | Gifu University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
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| Keywords | イギリス / 陸軍 / 兵士 / 軍事社会史 / 長い18世紀 / 定住資格審査記録 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The aim of this project is to provide a detailed picture of the 18th-century British soldiers and their families by examining the settlement examination records of three parishes in England (St. Martin in the Fields in Westminster, Chelsea in Middlesex and Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire). The analysis of the soldiers’ occupations before enlistment, their literacy and rented property, their reasons to have been a soldier, and their lives after disbandment shows that the majority of the soldiers were ordinary plebeians that had, at the time of enlistment, been in their typical course of life. Similar conclusion can be drawn about their wives. These findings indicates strong homogeneity between the military and civilian society, which was maintained by an incessant flux of people. These grassroots links and human mobility were the most essential factors that enabled the 18th-century British state to secure military manpower on an unprecedented scale without recourse to conscription.
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| Free Research Field |
人文学
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