The Family

Abstract

‘Woo be to the and thy house for there is nothing in thy house butt blasfemy, wickednes, hoor hunting, dronkenes, myschief and all naughtines, happie are they that never came to yt’. Thus Lady Margaret Stanhope harangued her husband Sir Thomas, perambulating the courtyard of Shelford, Nottinghamshire, on a bitter winter’s day in the 1580s. She had already, according to her husband, so far forgotten the norms of a patriarchal society as to seize from his hands the rod with which he threatened to beat her, broken it, and then torn off his ruff and part of his beard. Having thrown a candlestick and joint stool at him she left the house in fury, only to return four hours later swearing and cursing when the servants would not allow her entry. After breaking a window she finally gained admittance by demolishing a plaster wall! Next day, locked in the parlour by her irate husband, she appeared at the window screaming to passers-by that he intended to murder her. Thereafter the quarrelling pair sought the intervention of ‘friends’ and two local JPs arranged an informal separation.