| Abstrakt: |
This article analyses the complications arising from the sale of the property of the dean and chapter of Lichfield after the English Civil War in so far as they involved the Gells of Hopton in Derbyshire, long-standing tenants and collectors for the chapter. It argues that political and administrative change challenged pre-existing social hierarchies as officials gained authority from their relationship to a newly powerful state, and from ideological commitment to parliamentary regimes, and shows how Civil War divisions interacted in complex fashion with tense pre-existing relationships. The power of the Gells was somewhat eclipsed, although their energetic defence of their interests enabled them to survive the strains of the Interregnum and the resurgence of the Episcopal church at the Restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
