There's still space on my Summer course. I promise a week of highway robbery, pickpockets, pirates, burglary, murder, execution, & more. It'll be great fun!
Crime & Punishment in Early Modern London & the Home Counties | Oxford Lifelong Learning, University of Oxford share.google/sEp55JVrpBtZ...
Really enjoyed writing this one ✏️
Archdeacon of Norwich's court, November 1608
👨⚖️
Thomas Deynes of Gunthorpe, Norfolk is charged, among other things
'for running neighing after Richard Mutton's maid...'
🐴
#earlymodern #truecrime
Spotted at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo: Sandra Gamarra Heshiki’s collage of European portraits painted over with Indigenous South American pottery, collapsing longstanding divides between European high art and Indigenous ‘anthropology’ in museums. #earlymodern
Folklore forecasts less desirable #Easter gifts from birds, should you neglect to wear new clothes
🕊️💩
Easter finery traditions solidified during the commercial revolution of #earlymodern England
👗🎩
But have roots in #medieval quarter days & livery
👇
ludicrushistories.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/p...
After our fabulous week long residential workshop in Bath last week, it's proving to be a busy time for the wills project team.
We'll be circulating our latest newsletter next week if you want to get up to speed on our progress to date:
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Effigies of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York from their tomb in Westminster.
Middlesex Sessions of the Peace, March 1632
👨⚖️
Edward Clarkson of Westminster, yeoman is charged
'for taking brasse from H 7 tomb'
👑
#earlymodern #truecrime
Delighted that my new article in @historyworkshop.org.uk, co-authored with @drhollyfletcher.bsky.social, is now published! Thanks to all who read and heard earlier versions of this @wellcometrust.bsky.social funded research :)
academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-... [track.smtpsendmail.com]
Thoughtful and beautifully-written review of The Experience of Work in Early Modern England in @lrb.co.uk by @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social.
It's surreal to see #earlymodern deponents and workers like Lucretia Harward getting their day in the 21st-century sun! www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Thanks to @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, @aucointaylor.bsky.social, @hkrobb.bsky.social (via @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social), for reminding me that my kids are slackers. 🗃️
Lovely discussion of *The Experience of Work in Early Modern England* in the LRB:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Shout out to brilliant photographer Steven Haywood, who has made a video about my work with musician Chris Hoban.
Chris and I discuss what we did, and how the experience has influenced our work 👇
#CreativeHistory 🗃️ #EarlyModern @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=foIP...
Our new WP 'combines occupations with work tasks as ways of measuring structural change in the #earlymodern economy'.
We highlight significant structural change, industrializing towns and cities, and a much more important service sector than measures based on job titles alone typically capture.
I read this as Feight onne. As in 'And make a fight, one for our King'. Onne is an alternate Scots spelling for one. And if you look closely, the t and o in feight and onne aren't actually joined up. Whereas elsewhere here most of the letters in a single word are joined. That's my take!
I completely forgot I made this... a big list of English judicial records, 1500 to 1800, published and often online!
To anyone interested in our medieval studies programme, we have some scholarships for international students. Various links to follow in a thread. 1/6 www.lincoln.ac.uk/course/medstdma
🚨NEW Blogpost🚨
We all know about the #OldFirm. But what's the 'oldest firm' in the history of Scottish #football?
⚽🏉
The answer takes us back to #medieval and #earlymodern St Andrews, where university and city invested in an unlawful game.
👇
ludicrushistories.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/t...
Players fight over the ball at the Shrove Tuesday Sedgefield Ball Game 2025 Image Credit Sarah Caldecott
#ShroveTuesday football in County Durham has a #medieval pedigree. Thomas Marshall of Wolviston was injured playing on the day in 1380.
In 1492 the priory halmote allowed the illegal game to be played in Billingham during Shrovetide.
About 10 miles away, Sedgefield still hosts an annual game.
'I would set off, with some sense of what I might be looking for, and see what I stumbled across...'
Is going for a walk a valid methodology for a historian? And if so, how much theory do you need to read before you start?
Some thoughts in my latest blog post:
manyheadedmonster.com/2026/02/10/i...
A very detailed embroidering depicting men and women undertaking various work tasks. These include spinning, harvesting wheat, picking fruit, sheering sheep, carrying water and so on. Each task is labelled with the name of the month. Credit: The Labours of the Months, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
📢JOYCE YOUINGS MEMORIAL LECTURE📢
Prof. Jane Whittle: Work & gender, status & power: the surprising history of everyday chores in early modern England
🗓️ 28 January, 3pm
📍 Uni of Exeter & Zoom
All welcome at this public 🗃️ lecture, register for your place: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-joyce-...
A frosty churchyard
Kick started the new work year with another installment of my 'research walk', retracing the parish boundaries of 17thC Portishead for my book on 'Everyday Life in the 17thC Village'. Got a taste of the 'Little Ice Age' - a period of colder temperatures that impacted the 17thC - by going out in -1!
Today is #PloughMonday. Thomas Tusser called it one of the feasts 'belonging to the plough' that employers in #earlymodern England should never forget.
Here I explore these holidays where work & play mingled: how the festive shaped #labour relations.
ludicrushistories.wordpress.com/2026/01/12/f...
Yesterday I resumed my 'perambulation' of the 17th century parish boundary of Portishead, the subject of my current research on 'Everyday Life in the Seventeenth Century English Village'. My 'research walk' started where the parishioners would have done, at the church...🧵
Pudding season approaches; #Thanksgiving is here.
Closing my seasonal series of posts marking the publication of our new book, I revisit a case where food takes the plate
Featuring industrious duckwives, wisemen & gossiping quarrymen
#earlymodern
ludicrushistories.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/t....
Late 17th-century English needlework showing typical labours of the month. Focus shows a woman picking apples in October, and a woman spinning in November.
Line graph titled Autumn Sectors shows an indexed monthly distribution of Commerce and Food Processing Tasks where 100 is the monthly average and both Commerce and Food Processing rise during the autumn quarter of October, November and December to an annual height of over 140 in December.
Cosy season is well upon us
Curl up w/ a warm drink & NEW post on CUP's blog:
The #Autumnal Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England
This seasonal celebration of our new book features apples & pears, cider & ale, meat & markets, & the #Christmas milling craze
cambridgeblog.org/2025/11/the-...
Should have said, it's 6-8pm on 27th November at @guildhalllibrary.bsky.social 🙄
@markhailwood.bsky.social has written about candlelight in the context of work and time in early modern England. Not so much about books but other forms of labour
🐏 👨👨 @nicolemaceira.bsky.social will join us this week to discuss contrasting depictions of animals and humans in post-Reformation thought, and their importance in the development of the Reformed faith in Scotland.
To mark #Halloween & publication of 'The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England', (now available in print & free online), this blogpost revisits the magiconomy.
🧙🎃
Highlights include a magical service paid for with bacon and pigeons.
🥓🪶
#history
ludicrushistories.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/t...
Very much looking forward to Polly Lowe @polly-lowe.bsky.social speaking this Wednesday on bound labour and Scottish miners in the 18th c. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social Everyone welcome - either in person or hybrid, but please register at www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
