📢 New 'Will of the Month' Post over at @materialwills.bsky.social For May we look at the will of Mary Skelton, who died in Greenwich in 1725, and used her will to call out her son's undutiful behaviour 👇 @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social #history

Many congratulations to @emilymayvine.bsky.social whose excellent 'Birth, Death & Domestic Religion in #EarlyModern London' has been shortlisted for the RHS first book prize! 🗃️🥳👏

📢 NEW PROJECT BLOG POST 📢 Something a bit different from our 'Will of the Month' posts... 📜 Our Principal Investigator, Jane Whittle, explains the different ways we can approach and work with 30,000 will transcriptions 🧵1/3 #EarlyModern @uoearchhist.bsky.social sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

How @camunicampop.bsky.social researchers are turning static snapshots of Victorian Britain into dynamic life histories. The team are linking over 200 million census records, revealing how people moved, worked and lived in ways never before possible. 🔎 Read on 👉 www.hist.cam.ac.uk/news/tracing...

There's a new 'Will of the Month' post over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog! 📜 Read on to find out about the will of Sir Francis Cottington, who left money and jewellery to Catholic institutions in Valladolid 👇 #Skystorians #History @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social

May I present the best tombstone in Bath Abbey

The Wills Project went to Bath!

New version of the WP by @patrickwallis.bsky.social @aucointaylor.bsky.social @markhailwood.bsky.social @justincolson.bsky.social @jwhittle.bsky.social and David Chilosi! doi.org/10.17863/CAM...

BONUS: me, @bhamhistory.bsky.social and @emilymayvine.bsky.social from the material culture of wills project will be there at lunch if you want to come and talk to us about crowdsourcing volunteers, Handwritten Text Recognition, wills as songs, huge datasets ... or anything else! 📜🗃️ #EarlyModern

📢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