Frederic Seebohm (historian)

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For other persons named Frederic Seebohm, see Frederic Seebohm (disambiguation).
Frederic Seebohm
Born November 23, 1833
Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Died February 6, 1912 (aged 78)
Occupation Economic historian
Nationality British
Notable work(s) The English Village Community Examined in its Relations to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry

Frederic Seebohm (November 23, 1833 – February 6, 1912) was a British economic historian, born in Bradford. He became a barrister in the Middle Temple in 1856.

His English Middle Community (publ. 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), and that the continual aggression of native and foreign leaders the village community had degenerated into the manor, in which the tenants, originally free, became serfs. Seebohm attempted to show that there is no satisfactory ground for believing that the free community ever existed in England.

He emphasised similarities between the Roman villa and the manor, the implication being that the mediæval manor can be explained as an amalgamation of the Roman villa with the Germanic tribal system.

He was the grandfather of Frederic Seebohm, Baron Seebohm (1909 - 1990), the British life peer and banker.

[edit] Partial bibliography

  • (1865) The Crisis of Emancipation in America
  • (1867) Oxford Reformers: John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More
  • (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
  • (1902) Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law
  • (1914, posthumous) Customary Acres and their Historical Importance

[edit] References