‘The Honour & Credite of the Whole House’

ABSTRACTA concern with honour was ubiquitous in early modern England. Yet analyses of honour among the social elite in the period have been surprisingly restricted in scope, focusing most often upon the issues of honour-based violence and sexual propriety. This article considers an often overlooked source of honour, family unity, and examines it through the efforts of several families to heal rifts between various members of the family. In a social landscape which placed a high premium on the observation of proper forms of obedience and deference within the family, unity within a family mattered a great deal and had the ability to affect the honour of its members.