There was a useful discussion on Livinghistory.co.uk about creating a persona/characterisation , so I though that would be a useful start for my Merchant characterisation for Kentwell Hall this summer past. Within living history and re-enactment there is some controversy as to the need for a substantial "back story" such as this. If all you are is a humble soldier who will appear only in the battle at an historic event and spend the rest of the time chatting with your mates with a few(?) cans on the plastic camp site then this sort of research is not really necessary. On the other hand someone who completely immerses themselves in such a role to the exclusion of all else might be though to be a little weird. However if you seek to portray social history either in the first or third person such a story is useful. If you make your living out of these portrayals, as we do, it is essential to have done a reasonable amount of historic research for each role. You might think I have gone "over the top here" but each of our roles has at least this amount of research and often much much more.

So here is:

William Stile, a rich merchant 

Time line

Follow the link for a list of important dates in the life of William Stile. They relate to the events that have affected his life as a relatively wealthy member of middle class Tudor England. They are personal anniversaries and political and social changes that have some impact on his life and events that he might reminisce about

"I keep six honest serving-men    
(They taught me all I knew)    
Their names are What and Why and When     

And How and Where and Who"    
                                                   R Kipling     

Who are you?

William Stile. I was born in 1533, the son of Humphrey Stile of Melford in Suffolk, England, a Barber Surgeon by trade. I am now 51 years of age. I am usually addressed as "Master Will".

Where do I live?

Now I live in Manytre (Manningtree), Suffolk just south east of Melford along the River Stour. Here I dwell in a large house by the river next to my warehouse and close to the wharf where my ships and barges are loaded. The house is similar to Paycocks. It has a large hall with a gallery and several rooms on the ground floor, one of which is my "closet" (office). Upstairs we have several chambers for sleeping and outside we have a garden and access to the warehouse and the wharf I was born in Melford in Suffolk.

What do you eat?

Breakfast? Bread and cheese and sometimes a collop of bacon with a small ale to drink.

Dinner (the midday meal) consists of pottage made from roots, worts (leaves) and gourds (beans and peas) and maybe a pie of flesh made in a coffin.

Supper was the main meal of the day with several courses including roast flesh with wine to drink.

On Wednesdays (from 1562), Fridays and Saturdays (from 1554) I eat no flesh, only fish.

Where does your food and drink come from? Much of the food is bought at the local market by my cook but we occasionally afford such items as dates, limons and portingales (oranges and lemons), sugar and spices which were imported by members of my extended family. We would in fact eat up any of the expensive imported food that we normally traded in which was getting near the end of its "shelf life". Waste not want not. We grow our own herbs in our garden. Link to cookery book.

How is the food cooked? We have an extensive kitchen with a large fireplace, a bread oven and some (char)coal griddles used to fry food in a small pan or make sauces in small quartites. There my cook and a maid make all the meals and bake the bread. Unusually they so not make butter and cheese but take it from my stock. Our ale, wine and beer is traded from other merchants. The food would have been boiled, roasted or fried. Because we bring in seacoal from Newcastle as part of our business we use this to cook with, rather than wood. Again we would be using the poorer quality stuff akin to "Nutty Slack" (a mixture of very small lumps and grains of seacoal), although there was a sale for this in the Lime Burning industry.

What did I wear?

What clothes do you wear? I wear a shirt or smock with frills at the arms and neck, braes (underpants) and a coif all of fine linen. I change this on a regular basis, at least once a week and for important occasions. This would form my "underwear" and it protects my valuable clothing from me!! It would be washed in soap and water regularly and bleached white using lye. I also wear ruffs at the neck and wrists. My doublet and hose are made from the best woolen broadcloth. The doublet is in the latest fashion with a peascod at the waist and tabs at the shoulders. It has braid decoration. My hose are paned and padded with canions on the lower thigh. My tall hat is made from felted rabbit fur. I have a long fur lined gown for the colder weather. I wear patterns or galoshes as an overshoes The outer clothing would be brushed to keep it clean and hung within the garderobe to help deter the moths and lice.

Who are your family?

I am a widower with no children. My father is Humphrey Stile (died 1561) and my mother is Alys Stile, nee Clotworthy (died 1563), my uncle is Edmund Stile (died 1564), formerly of the Muscovy Company of London. I was apprenticed to my Uncle Edmund at the age of 14 in 1547 the year good King Harry (Henry VIII) died. My older brother Thomas runs the family Barbering business in Melford. My three brothers, Thomas, Nicolas and Oliver and I were left £25 each by my uncle Edmund. I have several nephews and nieces.

How do you earn your living?

My father was a Barber Surgeon and my elder brother Thomas was to inherit the business so I was apprenticed, at the age of 14, to my uncle Edmund. Edmund who was a member of the Grocers Company of London and dealt in spices he was also a shareholder in the Muscovy Company. For the next seven years I lived in my uncle's house in Cheapside in London. My brothers Nicholas (died 1615), and Oliver Stile have an interest in the Barbery trade and import sugar, figges, currants,sultanas, raisins and dates from Cyprus. When I finished my apprenticeship in 1554 at the age of 21 I became my uncle's factor. In 1555 I am appointed to look after his overseas dealings with the Muscovy Company until 1557 and then for two years in Antwerp to keep me out of the way of religious persecution in England. I return in 1559 having had enough of overseas adventures and become my uncles agent distributing his spice goods to Suffolk and Essex and bringing butter, cheese and dried ap plea and pears to London.

After my Uncle's death in 1564 I take this over as my own business although I have been trading in my own right since my Muscovy voyage. I now buy butter, cheese,cloth and corn in Suffolk and Essex and have them transported to London. My share in the Yarmouth herring fleet is also sold in London and also in Norwich. Corn is sent to Berwick to feed the garrison of English soldiers there and the ships return with seacoal from Newcastle to be sold in Lynn, Yarmouth, Suffolk, Essex and London. In return I bring luxury goods from London to be sold to the gentry in Suffolk and Essex along the rivers Stour and Orwell.

How were my goods tranported?

Much of the heavy goods travel by sea and river to and from London by my own ships and barges.

However some urgent items go by the independant common-carrier either on the sea or by road:

What kinds of money

do you use?

I deal in England in pounds, shillings and pence. There are other denominations - a groat 4d, and angel 6s 8d. The Mark at 13s 4d is a unit of calculation only. Being an old man I would use a counting board (also called an abacii) to add numbers together using the Roman numeral system rather than the "algorist" method of using Arabic numerals added in the head or on paper.

See picture on the right for comparison of methods

Navigation on the Stour

Most of my good would travel by ships at sea or on "lighters" by river. In the Tudor period, "Lighters" are barges that might carry up to 10 tones . They are flat bottomed and pulled by a horse.

By road a pack horse might carry one-eighth of a ton by river 10 tons, then it would pull 80 times as much in a lighter by water. A considerable increase in efficency not to be ignored even if the distance travelled might be three or four times as long.

Of course there were risks in any form of transport. By land there might be footpads to ambush you. By sea there are storms, pirates, sea monsters. By river there are the millers wiers that block you way.

Click on the link for more

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This site is under construction and the notes below wait to be considered

What are the relative values of the different kinds? How much does dinner at the inn cost? How much does a horse cost? How much does a skilled worker make per month?

What is your religion? What did people believe? What is your religion? What duties (prayers, fasts, dietary restrictions, etc.) does it impose? What do you (your persona) know about its doctrines and history?

Who is your immediate overlord (title and/or name)? Who is your ultimate overlord? Who was in charge?

How did you pass on knowledge? Did they go to school? What technology was important or new? What happened in this century? Some famous fourteenth century people. What sorts of wild animals live in your area? Which are dangerous? Which are good to eat? How are the latter hunted?

What was their view of death?

What insults and swear words did they use which would be acceptable if used in front of a modern audience?

What language did they speak? What language(s) do you speak? What language(s) do other people in your town (city, barony.) speak?

Did people travel?

What did they do for fun?

What system do you use to describe what time it is? When does one day end and another begin? How do you tell time (sundial? clock?)?

What system do you use for describing dates? What is your calendar like?

Can you read? If so, what have you read? What poems, tales, etc. have you heard told?

What do you know about history? Have you heard of Alexander the Great? Julius Caesar? Charlemagne? Vergil? Saladin? What do you "know" about each?

What do you know about geography? What is the most distant country you have heard of? The most distant country you have met someone from?

What crops are grown in your part of the world? What goods, if any, are exported, and how are they transported? What goods are imported?

If you or one of your friends wrote a poem, what form would you use? What about a song?

What "mythological" beasts do you know about? Which ones do you believe in? What do you believe about them?

Most of these questions are specific to your persona and so may seem to violate the requirement that the answers be researched instead of made up. But in most cases, although research may not tell you for certain what would be true of your persona, it will limit you to a few alternatives. A twentieth century American might plausibly have any of a number of different things for breakfast, but there are far more things that he would not have.

One final remark. Some of you, after reading the list (and perhaps making some additions of your own) will conclude that only a professional scholar can stay in persona. There are few things that must be done perfectly in order to be worth doing, and staying in persona is not one of them. The more such questions you can answer the better a job you can do. Finding the answers-recreational scholarship-is one of the things the Society is about. And fun.