Category Archives: Early Modern

Women, gender and non-lethal violence in Quarter Sessions petitioning narratives

Posted on 13 August 2020 by

Cleaned-up and slightly extended version of a paper presented at the conference Gender and Violence in the Early Modern World (University of Cambridge, 23 November 2019). Introduction In 1594 Allys Whittingham, William Bealey and Margery his wife petitioned Cheshire Quarter … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime/Law, Early Modern, Women/Gender | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Bluestocking Corpus: Letters by Elizabeth Montagu

Posted on 31 March 2020 by

This post for Women’s History Month 2020 explores the Bluestocking Corpus of Elizabeth Montagu’s letters, created by Anni Sairio. This first version of the Bluestocking Corpus consists of 243 manuscript letters, written by the ‘Queen of the Blues’ Elizabeth Montagu … Continue reading →

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Calendars of State Papers Domestic on the Internet Archive

Posted on 7 February 2020 by

Among its many other wonders, you can find a marvellous run of 16th- and 17th-century CSPD on the Internet Archive. But they’re not consistently titled, and there are duplicates of many volumes, so it’s not easy to piece them together. … Continue reading →

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Gender, institutions and the changing uses of petitions in 18th-century London

Posted on 23 April 2019 by

An extended version of my paper for the April 2019 workshop held by the AHRC Research Network on Petitions and Petitioning from the Medieval Period to the Present, on the theme Petitioning in Context: when and why do petitions matter? … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital History, Early Modern, London Lives Petitions, Women/Gender | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Civil War Petitions in Denbighshire

Posted on 27 March 2018 by

I note that the website for Civil War Petitions: Conflict, Welfare and Memory during and after the English Civil Wars, 1642 – 1710 is up, with the first batch of petitions (I think) due later this year. And there are … Continue reading →

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Settlement and Removal: Poor Relief and Exclusion in 18th-century London

Posted on 20 May 2017 by

From the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1662, or so-called “Settlement Act” onwards, various pieces of 17th- and 18th- century legislation formally codified entitlement to parochial poor relief by “settlement“. The main ways of gaining a settlement … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Modern, London Lives Paupers, Plebeian Lives, Women/Gender | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Women’s History Month 2017: Afterthoughts

Posted on 31 March 2017 by

To wrap up this month, this post is just a few notes – half-formed thoughts, not ‘conclusions’ – on some recurring themes that struck me as I was writing and researching posts (and shaped some of my choices as the … Continue reading →

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Women Petitioners: Belinda Sutton, an ex-slave in Massachusetts

Posted on 29 March 2017 by

In February 1783, Belinda Sutton petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a pension from the estate of Isaac Royall Jr, her late master. (In this petition she names herself simply ‘Belinda, an Affrican’, but in later documents she gave the … Continue reading →

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