Frederic Seebohm (historian)
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Frederic Arthur Seebohm, D.Litt. ''(hon)'' (23 November 1833 – 6 February 1912) was a British
economic historian Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...
. He is notable for his emphasis on continuity between the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods.


Life

Seebohm was born in Bradford, West
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
. He was the second son of Benjamin Seebohm (1798–1871) and Esther Wheeler (1798-1864). Benjamin Seebohm was a wool merchant at Horton Grange, Bradford, the family having moved to England from
Waldeck-Pyrmont The County of Waldeck (later the Principality of Waldeck and Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire and its successors from the late 12th century until 1929. In 1349 the county gained Imperial immediacy and in 1 ...
in Germany.Harvey, P. D. A.
Seebohm, Frederic (1833–1912)
''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' (Online ed. Ed. David Cannadine). Oxford: OUP, 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2017 (subscription required)
Frederic was the great-grandson of philanthropist and Quaker
William Tuke William Tuke (24 March 1732 – 6 December 1822), an English tradesman, philanthropist and Quaker, earned fame for promoting more humane custody and care for people with mental disorders, using what he called gentler methods that came to be ...
, and the younger brother of steel manufacturer and ornithologist
Henry Seebohm Henry Seebohm (12 July 1832 – 26 November 1895) was an English steel manufacturer, and amateur ornithologist, oologist and traveller. Biography Henry was the oldest son of Benjamin Seebohm (1798–1871) who was a wool merchant at Horton G ...
(1832-1895). Frederic was educated at
Bootham School Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The schoo ...
(a Quaker school in
York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
). He became a barrister in the
Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...
in London in 1856. The following year he married Mary Ann Exton. Seebohm and his wife set up their home in
Hitchin, Hertfordshire Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people, a tribe holding 300 ...
. Though he was a well-respected legal mind, it was as a social and economic historian that Seebohm truly made his mark. Notably, his seminal work ''English Village Community'' (published in 1883) placed him in the foremost rank of economic historians. Before this work, the prevailing view held that primitive Anglo-Saxon society consisted of communal groups of freemen holding land in common ("the Mark"). However, due to continual aggression from native and foreign leaders, the village community was held to have degenerated over time into a more hierarchical social structure ("the Manor"), in which the tenants, originally free, became serfs. However, Seebohm's analysis demonstrated that there was no satisfactory ground for believing that the free community ever existed in England. In his cogent alternative analysis, Seebohm emphasised similarities between the
Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...
and the manor, the implication being that the medieval manor can be explained as an
amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...
of the Roman villa with the Germanic tribal system. He received the honorary degree ''
Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...
'' (D.Litt.) from the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
in May 1902.


Descendants

Seebohm and his wife had six children (a son, Hugh, and five daughters). In 1891, their daughter Juliet married renowned surgeon Sir Rickman Godlee, himself a Quaker and the son of a
Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...
barrister. Seebohm was the grandfather of
Frederic Seebohm, Baron Seebohm Frederic Seebohm, Baron Seebohm, TD (18 January 1909 – 15 December 1990), was a British banker, soldier and social work innovator. Early life and background Lord Seebohm's father was Hugh Exton Seebohm and grandfather was the historian F ...
(1909–1990), the soldier, banker, and innovator of social work. He was also the great-grandfather of the biographer and broadcaster
Victoria Glendinning Victoria Glendinning (''née'' Seebohm; born 23 April 1937) is a British biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist. She is an Honorary Vice-President of English PEN and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. She won the James Tait ...
.


Partial bibliography

*(1865) ''The Crisis of Emancipation in America'' *(1867) ''Oxford Reformers:
John Colet John Colet (January 1467 – 16 September 1519) was an English Catholic priest and educational pioneer. John Colet was an English scholar, Renaissance humanist, theologian, member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, and Dean of St Paul's C ...
,
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
, and
Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
'' *(1871) ''On International Reform'' *(1874) ''Era of the Protestant Revolution'' *(1883) ''The English Village Community Examined in its Relations to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry'' *(1895) ''The Tribal System in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
'' *(1902) ''Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law'' *(1914, posthumous) ''Customary Acres and their Historical Importance''


References


External links

* * * * * * * * Seebohm, Frederic (1891), " French Peasant Proprietorship Under the Open Field System of Husbandry". In: ''The Economic Journal'' (''EJ''), Vol. 1, pp. 59–72 (in
Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually re ...
) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seebohm, Frederic People educated at Bootham School 19th-century English historians Economic historians British medievalists Writers from Bradford British Quakers 1833 births 1912 deaths Anglo-Saxon studies scholars