Overly sincere social media posts give me hives but I couldn't let #tdov pass without thinking about how grateful I am to be surrounded by support and love (even if sometimes its the baffled but well meaning kind). At the moment the world and this government don't make it easy but still we thrive!

Really pleased to share my (open access!) article on immigration control in early modern England, feat. rights-bearing subjects, rightsless migrants, and experiments in immigration control

The Wills Project went to Bath!

Some gentle hillfort strolling from this weekend. I love it when the sky looks so flat and grey that the hills almost look like a cutout, it's otherwordly.

This #MosaicMonday we're celebrating the new season. Here's a close up of the figure of 'Spring' with a basket of flowers in one hand a small bird in the other at Chedworth Roman Villa, Gloucestershire. 📷Ian Shaw

Alice Culpeper sold Aurum Potabile after Nicholas died to support herself and daughter. Second hubby John Heydon, left her and spitefully published her recipe, the 🐍 Well, Alice got herself a midwifery license in 1665. Go Alice! #WomensHistoryMonth #earlymodern EEBO, H1670; LMA

LB Southwark installed a blue plaque to honour Una Marson at her former home in Brunswick Square, Camberwell in 2009 and a new library in Walworth was named after her in 2024

Caution - cute content... First Hazel dormouse found at Nymans, West Sussex. 📷 Kate Gould

Regret to announce that we’ve reached Wrong Coat season. Every coat you wear from now til mid April will be The Wrong Coat for the weather

It’s worth squinting to read the inscription on this one - a strong ending Monument to Ann Gaderen (d.1699) at Whitchurch, Bucks 👇

How does that song go? I like big books and I cannot lie

☞ ☞ ☞ the index finger is a pointing gesture to be found in manuscript and print traditions. It was used to draw the reader's attention to a certain part of a text or image. This slow-moving thread highlight a few of them:

Oh, the grand old duke of york He ██████████████████ He ██████████████████ And he ██████████████████

The Roman Pharos (lighthouse) at Dover, still standing after almost 2,000 years! 🤩 It is the tallest surviving Roman structure in Britain, and one of only three surviving lighthouses from the former Roman Empire! Dated 1st-2nd century AD. 📷 me #Archaeology

Pleased to report some swan-tastic action over in the #palaeography realm of Bluesky today 🦢

Interesting will of the day 💌 in 1606 Thomas Williams of Camarthan remembered four "reputed daughters" and two "reputed sons" in his will, with at least two of his daughters having different mothers (both spinsters!). Both boys received property and money and each daughter got £5 and 20 sheep 🐑🐑🐑🐑

You know its time to give up on working for the day when you find yourself distracted for over an hour playing a online game you found about listing as many animals from memory as possible

anyway the consultation shuts tomorrow, one minute to midnight UK time: www.gov.uk/government/c... Amnesty have some good guidance here. Go on: media.amnesty.org.uk/documents/Am...

We've just reached another milestone - the 100th article in our Historian's Watch series! The piece is fascinating, too: it's an unflinching look at colonial anxieties about 'aggressive Black men' and how these fears became embedded in British immigration debates.

📢NEW POST: a report on Chris Hoban's recent performance of music inspired by our wills at a sold gig for Topsham Folk Club 📢 📜🎶🎻🪗🪕 @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social

Couple of pictures to summarise the first week of my trip to London; lots of time spent at the national archives, many hands washed (and rewashed), several museums visited, plenty of cat hangouts, a couple of late nights out, and one very muddy cemetary walk.

🐍 #NationalSerpentDay is dedicated to snake appreciation, understanding their role in ecosystems, and helping to overcome fear or misconceptions about them, such as this one... This #myth was likely based on #oarfish sightings. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2014/10/the-... #ILoveBHL 📖 🧪

📜Bequest of the day📜 Royalist Sir Nicholas Crispe asks for an autopsy in his 1666 will: 'I would have my body opened that the Phisitiones may see the cause of my soe long shortnes of breath to be helpfull to my Posterity that are troubled with the same Infirmity'. #EarlyModern 🗃️

📢 In Case You Missed It! 📢 January's 'Will of the Month' blog post is now live 📜 Read all about a Yorkshire widow's 'Living Will', as well as her ownership of 'global goods': tea, coffee, china, and a ladle for serving punch (made with sugar & spices) ☕🫖 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

What a beautiful write up in The Guardian. It's been an honour to be involved in this exhibition and I'm so excited to see it in full when it opens this weekend - if you're in Plymouth it's a must-see!

I wrote a short blog on the Court of Orphans probate inventories held @thelondonarchives.bsky.social A fascinating source for anyone researching early modern social history or material culture 📜 Link below 👇 www.thelondonarchives.org/blog/the-pro...

Today is “Take a Walk Outdoors Day”! So: grab a good book (preferably from De Gruyter) for a sunny bench, wrap up warm, and head out into the fresh air! #brueghel #earlymodern

📣DEADLINE EXTENDED! We are delighted to announce that we're extending the deadline for applications to our 50th anniversary conference! At this busy time, we want as many people as possible to have the chance to apply. Now accepting applications until 23 Jan! socialhistory.org.uk/events/confe...

Its on days like this, wet and windy and wild, that I'm very glad for work that lets me work from a large mound of blankets

Someone’s not looked at a single early modern history book before opening their mouth, clearly. By 1600, over 4,000 immigrants lived in England’s second largest city, Norwich - one in three people in the city had not been born in England.

Everytime I think I've got a handle on the different ways family descriptors were used by people in the 17th century, I come across another funny one; "my neece grace browne daughter of my sonne John"

This year, as a Caird Research Fellow at Royal Museums Greenwich, I developed a new research project on occupational health, disability, and welfare in the British Royal Navy during the French Wars (1793–1815). Read some of my preliminary findings here: www.rmg.co.uk/stories/mari....

The British Library have a searchable interim Archives & Manuscripts Catalogues up & running: searcharchives.bl.uk (posting for all the folks who, like me, had somehow managed to miss this important development)

Started keeping a little folder of screenshots on my laptop called "places I've zoomed from". It's a lot of picnic benches and GWR trains. What can I say I'm an out and about kind of guy

Here from the same fabulous series by George Spratt is "The Connoisseur." (I like this art-lover's monocle and also the smaller picture that she's carrying as a reticule, the strap around her wrist.)

If your choice is between an existential risk to your organisation, vs being a fascist collaborator, and you make the difficult choice to be a collaborator... ...then you are still a collaborator.

Today is World AIDS Day. The Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) has 200+ sources on the history of HIV/AIDS. You can also consult BBIH’s free readings lists on LGBTQ+ histories and the histories of infectious diseases to learn more about recent scholarship on this topic buff.ly/OK5HSbu

Looking forward to rocking up at #imc2026 to talk about all the fun (and surprising!) things you can find in the wills of single men across early modern England, alongside other fascinating talks on fatherhood, masculinity, and emotions on the Constructing Masculinities Panel.

Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research? We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections. Find out more: collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/

Have I sailed as close as you are legally allowed to do to have a nose at the SS Montgomery? Of course. Moment I knew she existed, I was out there faster than Jay Hulme when he spots a rickety ladder in a church. Here she is:

Moving... Listening... Reacting... Sampling... You can listen to the #futuresonair recordings on @soundartradio.bsky.social now, to hear me and many other much more eloquent and interesting researchers talking about our research and interests. soundartradio.org.uk/services/fut...

📜WILLS ON THE RADIO!📜 The brilliant Chris Hoban was on local radio talking about the wills project and playing some songs! This one is perhaps my favourite: based on the will of London widow Alice Walter, proved September 1665. TNA PROB 11/317/428. #EarlyModern 🗃️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXwB...

🎆 It's Bonfire Night🎆 To celebrate we're showing our copy of 'The second booke teaching most exactly, the composing of all manner of fire-works for tryumph and recreation' by John Bate, published in 1635 (shelf marl: S PAM 479).

Producer: "we've seen you explore churches and the theme is 'abandoned spaces' so we were wondering if you had a faith space that fit the..." Me: "I have 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖛𝖊" Producer: "you? what?" Me: "Let Me Tell You About 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖛𝖊" Producer: "does it fit our brief for the..." Me: "𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝕾𝖙 𝕽𝖔𝖇𝖊𝖗𝖙"

Happy #Halloween 🎃Since this fellow was so popular we are once again sharing spooktacular illustrations of Vampyroteuthis. The 'vampire squid from hell' is neither squid nor vampire, using sticky filaments to feed on marine snow 📖 Reports from the German Deep-Sea Expedition 'Valdivia' 1898-1899

And here we all are, not being at all self-conscious about having our photo taken and enjoying Harry's visualisation of our bequests.

Join us next Thursday (30/10, 5.30 pm) for Dr Emily Vine’s (@emilymayvine.bsky.social) talk on ‘Birth, Death and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London’! You can sign up to join in-person (IHR Wolfson Room, NB02) or online via Zoom here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

One of our PhD students Jane Tozer recently visited @nationaltrust.org.uk Ham House during their 'Open Cabinets' event while researching 'japanning' - furniture finishes that imitated East Asian lacquerwork. The cabinets are opened only twice a year - Jane captured this beautiful photograph:

📅 Save the Date! 🎉 To mark 50 years of the Social History Society, we’re hosting a Social History Festival with @ihr.bsky.social! 🗓️ Fri 24 April 2026 📍 Senate House, University of London Panels, a keynote + hands-on activities! 💡 Want to contribute? 👉[email protected] More info coming soon!

You'll have to excuse my absence I've been roving around, gadding about, meandering, ambling, bunking off, and generally poking things with sticks.