Tyneside friends! I'll be giving this talk at St. Joseph's, Gateshead, at 2pm on Thursday 5 March (this week) at the invitation of the North East Catholic History Society - do come along if you're available!

Biological warfare in eighteenth-century Somerset? "I have write Andrew Cross for a Derection, but it is for that little illconcidderate thiffe looking Hellhound… that I have send this little present: it is a Scab or Two of the Small Pox which I Pick’d of my Arse: hoping it may send thee to Hell"

'[I] must advise... that you take Horse forthwith & ride with all possible speed to engage your mighty friends; for tho’ an Arch. Bishoprick may be obtained without any Application I never yet heard yt That Deanry was' William Holman to Moses Cooke on a vacancy of the Deanery of Bocking, 1714

1777: Wet, wet, rain with wind.

Always a pleasure to visit a new archive - and today it was @kebleoxford.bsky.social to view the Wilson papers Highlights included the extraordinary ‘Episcopalia’ memoranda book of Bishop Thomas Wilson of Sodor and Man Thanks to Peter for being so welcoming and for stimulating archival chat!

a fantastic few days @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social for @bsecs.bsky.social catching up with friends, hearing some fantastic papers, and presenting on a newly-discovered schoolbook of Laurence Sterne

Great to be back at the Roderic Bowen Library in Lampeter to co-host the Welsh Ecclesiastical History seminar Our speaker was the Revd Dr Leslie Griffiths, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, who shone a light on the pioneering Methodist reformer Revd Hugh Price Hughes (1847-1902)

Author and satirist Laurence Sterne was born #OnThisDay 1713. In 1740 he was given the living of Sutton-on-the Forest, North Yorkshire, and two years later cast his vote in the county by-election, supporting the Whig candidate, Cholmley Turner, who beat his rival by just over 60 votes. #HistParl

Had a great time at @uniofhull.bsky.social with an old friend to mark 20 years since starting my BA in History - fortunate to be there on an Open Day for an ‘all access’ visit!⏳

what would a Sterne conference be without subplots and serendipity? After hearing @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social fascinating keynote about the author and transatlantic material culture, I stumbled across this 1779 Angelica Kauffman print of Maria… thank/blame the fates

a wonderful few days in Liverpool with a digression of Sternean colleagues exploring the Terraqueous Globe - left with new ideas, and new friends

great to be back at my old workhouse East Riding Archives - first time since the building was remodelled. Some reassuring constants though - first document ordered has a reference no. written by yours truly some 15 years ago!

Has anyone out there worked on the periodical editor Robert Heath (d. 1779)? Ladies Diary, British Palladium, etc. Currently working on a 1768 letter from Heath and turning up lots of biographical leads for his (obscure) early life, and would like to make sure I’m not wayyy off the mark

‘the gauntlet of interruptions’ Robert Heath describes travelling from Fleet Street to Piccadilly, 1768

Archbishop Drummond x2

Does anyone have access to example of the handwriting of Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst (1684-1775)? Thanks in advance!

Thrilled to be joining a digression of Sternean colleagues later in the year - I’ll be presenting a paper titled ‘’Travelling Is To Be Recncil’d To Mankind In General’ - An Early Reading of A Sentimental Journey’

oops, exceeded my daily views limit on FindMyPast - first time that’s happened!

Probate copy of the last will of Caesar Ward, bookseller and printer of York, dated 10 November 1759 - his wife and executrix Ann Ward continued his trade and printed the first volumes of Sterne’s ‘Tristram Shandy’ just weeks later

apparently today is #CrocodileDay, which is the perfect excuse to post this plate from Samuel Wesley’s ‘Dissertations on the Book of Job’ from 1736

16-22 June is Refugee Week. #Hull, like elsewhere in the UK received citizens from abroad because of the instability and upheaval caused by the French Revolution and resulting Napoleonic rule, like Samuel Jacobs of Poland mentioned here @hulllibraries.bsky.social

IMPORTANT #BSECS2026 NEWS! Registration for #BSECS2026 opens on Sunday 1 June! Submit your CFP on the theme of 'Big & Small' and join us for our 55th annual conference 7-9 Jan 2026 @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social #18thC #skystorians 🗃️ Click on the link for the full CFP www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Read my essay ‘Patronage, Performance, and Reputation in Sterne’s Early Clerical Career, 1737-42’ (2022) for free @livunipress.bsky.social !

📚 Most read in The Shandean this week: 'The Life of Books in Tristram Shandy' by Judith Hawley Read it online: bit.ly/Books-Shandean ‪‪ @drwilliams.bsky.social ‪ @shandyhall.bsky.social @lsternetrust.bsky.social @antiquaries.bsky.social‬ @llc-rhul.bsky.social‬

Wonderful to be back at The Bar Convent to speak about Jaques Sterne and his campaign of nastiness against Catholics in York after the ‘45

partying like it’s 1765 courtesy of @gilbertwhites.bsky.social

“motley emblem of my work!” as Sterne said

We’ve had a wonderful time hosting an international conference this week ‘Gilbert White and his Contexts’. Truly interdisciplinary much like White himself with literary historians, ecologists, educators, biologists, theologians and historians and everything in between!

Cheers to the organisers, hosts, and participants of #GilbertWhiteConference for a really stimulating few days! And what better way to toast this success than with a nanobrew from @gilbertwhites.bsky.social made to his own recipe!

an intrepid start for me and my co-panellists on our way to #GilbertWhiteConference in (usually) sunny Selborne, with thanks to our hosts @stephholtnh.bsky.social @brycchancarey.bsky.social

You can now access a beta version of the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). A bibliography of about 500,000 records, the ESTC aims to record every distinct letterpress item produced before 1801 in the English-speaking world. Explore the catalogue: datb.cerl.org/estc/

Delighted to have chaired the John Wesley Lecture last week @lincoln.ox.ac.uk - a really excellent presentation by @markkirby.bsky.social youtu.be/2C6jwsAgbZo?...

Who is an archivist’s favourite Happy Days character? The Fondz

British Methodist Buildings update! 167 striking new photographs added mostly from 1960s-80s, originating with the former Home Mission Division. Can we reach 1 million views this year..? Explore now: flic.kr/s/aHBqjC7Mah

We do out best at the archives to uncover #HiddenHistories. Our volunteers index and digitise our records so you can access them more easily. Take the 1905 inebriates register - now digitised for you to search and view on our Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photo...#HiddenHistories.#Archives30

To think, these days I have to go out of town to get my ostrich feathers dyed

Viewers of our lunchtime talk today very much enjoyed learning about the Society for the Reformation of Manners by Dr Daniel Green of Oxford Brooks University. Don't miss our next talk on 8 April by Mike Rymer on Hull Grammar School: 1330 to the Present Day!

‘Farewell then admirable Yorick!’ Laurence Sterne died on this day 257 years ago

This #WomensHistoryMonth we're revisiting a post originally shared on @victoriancommons.bsky.social, where Dr Kathryn Rix explored how over half a century before the 1918 Representation of the People Act, Lily Maxwell was able to cast her vote: historyofparliament.com/2025/03/14/l...

These early 20th century drawings from the Syon Abbey archive are by an anonymous sister, who - despite her 'horror of spiders' - did try her best to like them! 📷 EUL MS 389/CRE/5/3 #SaveASpiderDay #NationalSaveASpiderDay #Spiders #SyonAbbey #Nuntastic #Archives

Delighted to be at the Central Library in Manchester for the launch of the new @methodist.org.uk archivists’ handbook

Thrilled with the bumper turnout for my Lunchtime Talk at the Hull History Centre - nowt puts bums on seats like tales of vagabonds and moral iniquity All the more satisfying to be speaking in a room with the original records on display, no doubt to facilitate real-time fact checking

This is my Internet Archive Scholar fan art <3

mesmerised by this arresting photograph by Hugh Welch Diamond of a patient of Surrey Lunatic Asylum, 1850s

We've created a new Starter Pack of #History institutes and research centres in the UK & Ireland bit.ly/3F3Eo2M Please do share. There will be gaps and recommendations are welcome. We hope this pack helps you keep in touch with work by and for historians in the UK & Ireland #Skystorians.

Great to be back in Lampeter @lampetersoc.bsky.social @uwtsd.bsky.social for the Welsh Ecclesiastical History Seminar - an excellent paper by Dr Eryn White @aberuni.bsky.social

In February 1642, the Clergy Act 1640 came into force. This act forbade persons in holy orders sitting in parliament, and also from voting in elections. Find out more about how similar clear-cut bans of clerical MP's proved difficult to enforce:

Two copies of a book that doesn’t exist

‘One advantage of travelling is to be reconciled to mankind… we have no more reason to despise… or be displeasd with a forrigner for not acting & thinking as we do than for their religion or language, full as their complection being black, the effect of a scorching Sun' www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/13...

Maria, 'A Sentimental Journey' by Laurence Sterne https://www.wikiart.org/en/joseph-wright/maria-a-sentimental-journey-by-laurence-sterne-1777