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This thesis examines the community of water related tradesmen who worked in Newcastle upon Tyne and along the lower river Tyne during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Much of the published literature on the subject is confined to the study of the keelmen and the coal-carrying keels. The thesis re-examines the history of this community using a number of relatively unexplored sources. These include using the records of All Saints parish to examine the composition and dynamics of the population, re-examining the objective evidence for inward migration, particularly from Scotland and the Borders. A further study includes a detailed examination of probate inventories belonging to merchants and tradesmen working in Newcastle, and other communities along the Tyne, for evidence of working boat and ship ownership. These revealed a network of coal owners, merchants and hostmen controlling the coal trade locally, and a spectrum of water tradesmen, including keelmen and watermen, together with other groups including wherrymen and shipwrights. The study revealed an interweaving of the ownership of both ships and river craft, demonstrating the key role of shipwrights, not just as builders of ships and keels, but also as owners of significant quantities of these craft themselves, many of which they rented to hostmen. An examination of Newcastle Port Books showed not only the size of the coal trade, but also the enormous breadth of the non-coal trade into and out of Newcastle, one of the consequences of the growing wealth of Newcastle as a trading centre stimulating the consumption of a wide range of foodstuffs and luxury items. The thesis ends by examining the diary of an apprentice hostman who worked in Newcastle from 1749 to 1756, which highlights many of the changes occurring in Newcastle and the coal trade, and reinforces many of the observations made in the thesis.

Since this thesis is the first complete coverage of the diocese of Chester since 1895, it has been necessary to give a description of the structure and administration for a great deal of material has been revealed during cataloguing of the archives. A brief account of the predecessors of William Markham is essential for both he and Beilby Porteus built on foundations laid by those who preceeded them in office. It will be observed that Markham, due to his other additional and external duties, was unable to give his diocese the attention such an awkward area of country demanded. He his is best and showed a keen interest in the affairs of the diocese but was unable to reform abuses in appointment for he had not the time at his disposal. Beilby Porteus not only reformed these abuses but also instituted a form of written examination for would be ordinands and specified the course of study. As a parish priest he took a keen interest in the welfare of the clergy and his tenure of the see highlights the problem of finding assistant curates for the northern chapelries at a time when it was believed there were more clergy than livings. At the same time the poverty of many of his clergy led to Porteus making provision for them. In a dioces e so diverse as Chester, the problem of the Dissenters and Catholics was a more serious problem than elsewhere. The new industrial areas were becoming centres of Methodism and Dissent while the Catholics maintained their strongholds in northern Lancashire, both factors leading to problems which troubled the parish clergy. Education cannot be neglected for both the above groups as well as the Anglicans were exceptionally keen to provide educational facilities in the diocese. The Sunday School movement is markedly detailed in its archives in Chester. Since both bishops were members of the House of Lords it has been essential to account for their actions outside the diocese and see what effect these had on their domestic policy. Finally the problems of the new industrial society are outlined to show how few of the clergy or the bishops really understood the meaning of the changes. Shortage of new churches, old churches too small and combined with an unprecedented increase in population created situations which the old diocesan machinery was unable to solve.

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In these years parliament, particularly the House of Commons, greatly increased its authority. Naval administration and naval operations provided many of the incentives and issues that led parliament to increase its power and status. Despite the diversity of personalities and political outlook within parliament the majority in both Houses was united in certain attitudes which governed their approach to naval affairs. These attitudes, a consciousness of England's vulnerability to sea-borne invasion, a belief in English sovereignty of the seas, are described in the first chapter. In the same chapter the ways in which these attitudes were modified by the developments between 1688 and 1714, particularly increasing parliamentary knowledge of naval affairs and political organisation, are considered. The interplay between these attitudes, developments and the events of two wars provided the background to the legislation that affected the navy. The ways in which these laws were initiated and shaped by parliamentary activities are considered in the next five chapters. Each of these chapters deals with the contribution of parliamentary legislation to one aspect of naval administration- finance, provision of material, trade protection, manning and the maintenance of naval morale. The provision of money to the navy was the issue that interested most members of parliament and it was consideration of this topic that led to the most decisive acquisitions of parliamentary power. In a strictly naval context it was trade protection, most obviously the concern of a merchant minority that led to laws which greatly increased the strength and responsibilities of-the navy at the same time as they limited the authority of the monarch. The ways in which consideration of naval issues educated parliament in the techniques of power are obvious and more tangible than the contribution of parliament to the growth of British sea power. The last chapter assesses the parliamentary contribution to the dominance at sea which the navy gained between 1688 and 1714.

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