Gentility in Early Modern Wales

Winner of the 2024 Francis Jones Prize for Welsh History. Early modern Wales was a place of opportunity for the gentry. The Acts of Union with England granted them powers to govern their local communities, the Reformation enabled them to add former monastic lands to their estates, and burgeoning global expansion encouraged them to seek fortunes abroad. Early modern Wales was also a place in transition. The gentry navigated a complex relationship with their English neighbours and found themselves cultivating a new identity as Cambro-Britons. This book is an exciting new study of how one Welsh gentry family, the Salesburys of Rhug and Bachymbyd, negotiated the changing expectations of gentility in early modern Wales. From this in-depth analysis, the book finds that the Welsh gentry were status-conscious and opportunistic, but Welshness remained fundamental to their sense of self. This is further enhanced by considering the early modern Welsh gentry within a wider global context for the first time. This book is freely available on a Creative Commons licence thanks to the kind sponsorship of the libraries participating in the Jisc Open Access Community Framework OpenUP initiative.

'Sadie Jarrett has produced a deeply researched and impressively wide-ranging study of the Salesbury family across the early modern period. This important book not only enriches and extends our knowledge of one of north Wales’s leading dynasties, it also contributes substantially to the scholarship on gentility, politics, family and elite culture in this transformative period of Welsh history.', Lloyd Bowen, Reader in Early Modern and Welsh History, Cardiff University

'In this acute and engaging study, the author casts revealing new light on a Welsh ruling class whose horizons extended from Wales to the British Atlantic world. Exploring a wide range of themes through the experiences of one gentry family, this book makes a significant contribution to the social history of early modern Wales.', Huw Pryce, Professor Emeritus of Welsh History, Bangor University, and Honorary Professor, Cardiff University