Document Type
Article
Peer Reviewed
1
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Abstract
This paper explores the role of trust and trustworthiness in the masculine gender identity of the fifteenth-century bailiff and medical practitioner John Crophill (d. c. 1485) who resided in Wix, Essex. Drawing on evidence from his personal notebook, the work argues that Crophill was aware of the need to construct his trustworthy reputation, a requirement enacted via his own interaction with other individuals. A consideration of three separate elements of his persona (party host, craft master, and probable involvement with childbirth) provide a structure for the paper, as Crophill seemingly negotiates his own relationships with both male and female individuals, negotiations that ultimately allow the middling layman to position himself as the most trustworthy individual in all three social environments.
Keywords
identity, self, gender, masculinity, trust, trustworthiness
Recommended Citation
Shah, Rehan "John Crophill: A Trustworthy Man in Fifteenth-Century Rural England (GMS Essay Prize article)." Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality 57, No. 2 (2022) : 165-184.
Comments
https://doi.org/10.32773/JQMZ7719