Footnotes to History

This book brings a novel focus to social history. It is a study of a group family-- an extended family closely structured though marriages that were either internal or with trusted associates. Its members strove cooperatively for their own mutual benefit. This kind of social entity evolved down the centuries, reaching its zenith in the early nineteenth century. The family portrayed, the Pennells, provides a supreme example of such a united body. John Wilson Croker, his two half-nieces...
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This book brings a novel focus to social history. It is a study of a group family-- an extended family closely structured though marriages that were either internal or with trusted associates. Its members strove cooperatively for their own mutual benefit. This kind of social entity evolved down the centuries, reaching its zenith in the early nineteenth century. The family portrayed, the Pennells, provides a supreme example of such a united body. John Wilson Croker, his two half-nieces and his best friend all married into it. The size of this group familygave ample scope for marriages between cousins. Most men in it gained prestigious appointments through Croker's patronage, but at the price of giving him their unswerving loyalty. From diaries, personal letters, newspaper articles, Chancery papers and Government documents, the book brings the character of family members to life and shows how they interacted. Their personalities are portrayed through a wealth of entertaining anecdotes recorded by thei