Mortgages and the Kentish Yeoman in the Seventeenth Century

This chapter looks at mortgages among yeomen in the county of Kent, England, where land was largely enclosed and the prevailing system of land tenure was gavelkind, characterised by freehold tenure and partible inheritance. It was a county of widespread land ownership and renowned prosperity, where small estates predominated. The use of mortgages during the period 1550–1700 is examined using title deeds for a single administrative area or ‘hundred’ where the history of the property and the participating families can be reconstructed. It finds that the market in finance among yeomen was a notably local one, neighbour lending to neighbour. There is little evidence of usury laws affecting the market; interest rates were related to the expected return on land rather than the maximum statutory rate. There was an increase in the volume of transactions after 1630, but, although this is suggestive, the volume is insufficient to indicate that the significant legal developments in the period were a stimulus. Such evidence as there is suggests that capital so raised was put to a variety of uses, but that failure to repay and sale of land was a frequent outcome.