'Ingenious & learned gentlemen' - social perceptions and self-fashioning among parish elites in Essex, 1680-1740

Alan Everitt's well-known characterization of parish elites as the 'pseudo' -gentry has precluded further study of their social aspirations and identit y. Recent research has emphasized the varied nature of literary definitions of gentility, but has not examined their relationship to social practice. This study focuses on a network of parish rulers and vestrymen in rural Ess ex, and their social and intellectual self-fashioning through the pursuit o f natural science and history. Following Shapin's isolation of social genti lity as a key component in constructing scientific credibility, the study s hows the effects of parish elites to conform to ideals of 'gentlemanly' obj ectivity, learning and erudition. In doing so, they moulded this acquired s tatus to their circumstances, to break out of circumscribed, contingent soc ial hierarchies in the parish. Gentility was employed as a new currency, to supersede existing, local tokens of status, to be reputed 'a better man an d more excellent' than mere inhabitants of 'the town.' Yet the study also i llustrates the social limits of this acquired status, and the fears of step ping outside this familiar local 'sphere.' The study emphasizes that for th ese parish elites the attainment of gentility was a mixed blessing - a move from the small, secure pond of parish status to the deeper, hostile waters of a more universal status criterion.