I should like to express my thanks to a number of individuals and institutions who have provided advice and facilities. In particular I am grateful to those who read earlier drafts of this book and helped me to think more deeply about its subject: Keith Wrightson, Bob Scribner, Peter Burke, Peter Laslett and Roger Schofield. The doctoral dissertation which provided the foundation for the present volume was supervised in turn by Donald Coleman, Christopher Smout and Tony Wrigley. I have also benefited from conversations with my colleagues at Clare College, Cambridge, where I held a research fellowship between 1981 and 1983, and with staff and students in the Department of Modern History at the University of St Andrews where I lectured in the academic year 1983–4. The facilities provided by the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure were invaluable and I should also like to express my thanks to those departments in the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge which (unwittingly) provided resources for my work. Assistance afforded by the staff of the following record offices is also acknowledged: Scottish Record Office, British Museum, National Library of Scotland, Public Record Office, Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic (Durham University), Northumberland County Record Office and St Andrews University Library.