📢FIRST FEATURED WILL OF 2026📢 'if it shall please God to afflict me before my Death’. Emily explores the will of Mary Young, who anticipated that she might lose mental or physical capacity at the end. #EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

🎄CHRISTMAS BLOG POST!🎄 A silly gift for you all: I dug through The National Archive wills looking for Christmassy names. There were a lot, inc: Mr 🎅 Christopher 🍮 ❄️ Green Thomas 🦃 Theophilia 🛷 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... 📜 #EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social

December's 'Will of the Month' post is live over at @materialwills.bsky.social 👇 Featuring parrots, Spanish wine, Venetian carpets & a commissioned altarpiece featuring the testator 🧔‍♂️🖼️ @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social #history #SkyStorians #EarlyModern

📢 NEW 'Project Progress Update' Blog Post! 📢 We've recently reached a very significant project milestone, and thought this would be the perfect moment to provide a research update: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... Featuring @zooniverse.bsky.social news, and a sneak peek at our database! 📜✍️💻

New paper out now with Laura Newman and David Green on poor eyesight in the UK Post Office - a pretty common cause of retirement until the end of the nineteenth century - t.co/sm6kUga1tM

Couple of wills talks coming up: I'm presenting to the Devonshire Association, Tavistock & West Devon branch on Friday. Then next Friday @bhamhistory.bsky.social & I are giving a talk at a joint Devon History Society & Devon Archaeological society workshop at Devon Heritage Centre. 🗃️

We're excited to share the final version of our paper, where we demonstrate how confounding remains a thorny problem for claims about causal genetic influences on human behavioral and socioeconomic outcomes. (w/ @jedidiahcarlson.com @oliviarxiv.bsky.social Ruth Shaw @arbelharpak.bsky.social) 🧵👇

📜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...

Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/

It's been a busy week for the project! 1. A huge milestone: we're delighted to share that our @zooniverse.bsky.social volunteers have now checked ALL images! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who has contributed. We're going to pause Zooniverse for now while we evaluate if more training is required. 🧵1/4

📢 NEW Will of the Month Post 📢 October's will is an unusual & poignant example of a married woman who made a will Margery Gadyng died in childbirth in 1540 - she declared her will to the midwife & women attending her, leaving them bequests of ribbons & rosaries sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Looking forward to speaking at this with @bhamhistory.bsky.social next week - on all things to do with Digitization & Citizen Science 📜💻 @emeccwarwick.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social @zooniverse.bsky.social @transkribus.bsky.social #history #citizenscience #skystorians #digitalhumanities

🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Autumn 2025 Newsletter for the @materialwills.bsky.social project coming soon - make sure you're signed up to our mailing list to receive a copy! 👇

@greenleejw.bsky.social has written a blog about the amazing maps he created for 'Deserted Wives'! With help from @bhamhistory.bsky.social, we recreated jurisdiction boundary lines & his final maps really underpin the book's thesis. Deserted Wives has 30% off: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...

📢NEW POST!📢 This year I had the thrill of collaborating with Chris Hoban, a brilliant composer, arranger, songwriter & performer. In this post I explain what we got up to👇 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... #EarlyModern 🗃️ #CreativeHistories @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social

We post regularly over on our blog - this includes our 'Will of the Month' series, as well as other discussions of research and project updates 📜✍️📚 We've now been writing blog posts for 18 months: you can search and filter all of them to find what you're looking for 👇 #skystorians #history

📢WILLS WEBSITE UPDATE📢 I've just added some new 'tags' to the index page of our blog, making it easier for you to find posts and full transcriptions about the wills we've featured #EarlyModern 🗃️ sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

We include a full transcription as part of every 'Will of the Month' post! 📜✍️ We've now made 20 transcribed wills available, featuring the lives of a range of men and women who lived in early modern England (and further afield)👇 @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social 🧵2/2

The August 'Will of the Month' post is now live over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog 📜 It explores the will of a Huguenot silk weaver who left money to the French church & bequeathed the tools 'belonging to a Weavers' Trade' @uoearchhist.bsky.social #history #earlymodern #skystorians 1/2 🧵

In 1908, means-tested, non-contributory Old Age Pensions were introduced in Britain, payable from the age of 70. Here, incredibly, are photographs of two of the first citizens to claim them (plus a dog).

We've done it: 60 blogs over our 60th Anniversary Year! Check out all 60 #Campop blogs here www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/, and keep your eyes peeled for occasional blogs to follow in the same space! @camunicampop.bsky.social @camunigeography.bsky.social @camhistory.bsky.social

📢 New Will of the Month post 📢 How do we write about those who left little behind, both in terms of possessions, & evidence in the historical record? 📜 This month's post explores the life of a servant woman, Mary Carlton, who had few objects to bequeath other than her 'box' 🧵1/2 #skystorians

The @transkribus.bsky.social "Egerton: English Secretary Hand" model is now public! app.transkribus.org/models/publi.... We have a website with sample transcriptions for different hands, information about our training conventions, and more: sites.northwestern.edu/egerton/

If you'd like to see what we got up to, one of our postgraduates [ @kmbarton.bsky.social ] did an absolutely amazing job of live posting on this thread 👇 #EarlyModern 🗃️ #transcribaton #crowdsourcing #DigitalHums @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social sky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social

Campop blog #59: Some say rises in lone motherhood since c.1950 indicate breakdown of the nuclear family & call for returns to Victorian values. But 19C levels of lone parenthood & reconstituted families were similar to today's ... @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...

This is happening this afternoon - we'll be posting throughout the session, including details of talks being given by members of the research team 📜✍️ You can follow along with the hashtag #transcribathon

If you're planning to drop in on our hybrid historic wills transcribathon tomorrow, here's the running order of talks from the research team 📜✍️ Find this and further info on the Eventbrite page at: willstranscribathon.eventbrite.com #skystorians #history #tudors #earlymodern #citizenscience

Campop blog #58: Malthusian ideas about the effects of population pressure on resources and the environment are still widespread. But what did Malthus actually say? And was he right? Romola Davenport explains. @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...

Will Johnson and Barbara Tearle have also generously shared their research notes too, so you can browse a spreadsheet summarising Edward's bequests, a biography, tally of objects and glossary too. sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... #EarlyModern 🗃️

📢 NEW Will of the Month Post! 📢 This month's post is a very special collaboration with 2 of our @zooniverse.bsky.social volunteers - Will Johnson & Barbara Tearle They've put a huge amount of work into researching the life of the testator, Edward Fetiplace 🧵1/3 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

📢WILLS TRANSCRIBATHON KLAXON📢 Join us on Thursday 24 July to transcribe wills and go behind the scenes of the wills project! In person and on Zoom - full details & registration here: willstranscribathon.eventbrite.com #EarlyModern 🗃️ #transcription @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social

📢 A NEW WILLS PROJECT EVENT! 📢 📅 Thursday 24 July 🕐 1-4pm BST Join us online or in person in Exeter for a hybrid wills Transcribathon 📜✍️ Transcribe on Zooniverse alongside like-minded volunteers & help transcribe as many wills as possible! Sign up here: willstranscribathon.eventbrite.com 🧵1/2

Objects of the day: 'Itm vj quysshons of tapstre worke with flowers and ij dogges feightynge for a bone'. This is from the June will of the month - blog post coming soon! 🗃️ #EarlyModern 🌺🐕🐕🦴

NEW VIEWPOINT ARTICLE: 'Digital Tools and the Promise of a New London History', by @timhitchcock.bsky.social, available open access. A little 🧵about its significance.

Many thanks to Zooniverse for featuring us on their 'Around the Zoo' series! It's a quick intro to the project and explanation of how we are working with volunteers to transcribe 25,000 historic wills. #EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYkN...

We're delighted that our project has been featured in a brand new @zooniverse.bsky.social video! 📽️📼 Researchers @jwhittle.bsky.social @lsangha.bsky.social & @bhamhistory.bsky.social explain what it's all about📜 @uniofexeternews.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk 🧵1/2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYkN...

Campop blog #50: In 2021, 76% of UK women with children at home were employed: a century earlier about the same % were engaged in 'home duties'. @awakelam.bsky.social explores patterns and implications from the 1921 census @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/05...

Join the @materialwills.bsky.social project in Exeter on Wed 18 June, 6.30pm, for a FREE PERFORMANCE 🎵🎸🎹 An evening of songs & stories inspired by early modern wills 📜 Sign up below: ✍️ #History #Skystorians #EarlyModern @leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeternews.bsky.social

Campop blog #49: Levels of self-employment were low in mid-20th century UK: Bob Bennett explains how much higher they were in the 19th century, as well as who was self-employed and why @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/05...

An exciting week for the project: our Technical Expert Mark has shared the first version of our 16th century will transcriptions 📜👀 Our next 'Will of the Month' blog post is also #Tudor themed - we're writing about the will of one of Mary I's Ladies-in-Waiting - stay tuned 📻 #history #skystorians

We enjoyed being part of a fantastic workshop yesterday 🎵🎨 Creative Fellow Chris Hoban performed songs about early modern wills - then participants worked with Double Elephant Print Workshop to make lino cut ballad 'woodcuts' 📜 A sneak peek here - more to follow! #skystorians #history #EarlyModern

📜 NEW WORKING PAPER 📜 What was the true case fatality rate (CFR) of smallpox? My new paper with Romola Davenport (Cambridge) revisits this question using 18th-century data from Sweden and Iceland—and challenges the long-held belief that smallpox CFRs were 20–30%. 🧵👇 1/6

Some more fantastic recent discoveries in the Tudor wills 📜 on our @zooniverse.bsky.social site: - 'young beastes of her choosing' 🐇 - 'cheese of her own making' 🧀 - A garlic-head cup 🧄 #skystorians #history #EarlyModern You can catch up on some of our other favourite finds in the thread below 👇

new Skin and Bone data wrangling post, on reducing varied descriptions into a small number of usable categories for analysis skin-and-bone-in-london-1760-1901.github.io/posts/catego...

📢 March's 'Will of the Month' post is now live on our blog 📢 This post explores the will of Elizabeth Thomlinson, the widow of an East India Company chaplain. 📜 They both died in Calcutta in 1720, after many years on the South Atlantic island of St Helena 1/3 🧵 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

This month's 'Will of the Month' post moves beyond our usual focus on England & Wales - it explores the will of a woman involved in the East India Company, who died in Calcutta in 1720 📜 #skystorians #earlymodern #history @uoearchhist.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social @leverhulme.bsky.social

🚨If you missed the Wills Project Webinar yesterday the recording is now available: 🙋 Progress towards transcribing 25,000 wills 🧀 Objects found 🎵 Collaboration with musician 📜 What happens once the wills are transcribed? #EarlyModern #MaterialCulture 🗃️ @leverhulme.bsky.social youtu.be/XnNF9j1HfKU

📢 WEBINAR NEXT WEEK! 📢 We're hosting a Zooniverse progress update Webinar on Wednesday 19 March @ 14.00 GMT We'll: Share some exciting volunteer finds 📜 Share updated stats about project progress 📈 Answer questions submitted in advance 🙋 Joining info: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... 🧵1/2

New paper on postal workers and trust now out in Social History, all about mail theft and sick pay, co-authored with David Green and Natasha Preger: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....