Dylan reflects on a will that contains mainly financial bequests, and comments on different ‘styles’ of will-making 📜💸 He also reflects on the process of this type of archival research more broadly 📝 Thank you Dylan for sharing your research! @uoearchhist.bsky.social #skystorians #history 🧵2/2

It's a very special 'Will of the Month' post over at @materialwills.bsky.social - transcribed & researched by Dylan Cox, a 3rd year History student @ @uoearchhist.bsky.social Dylan shares some really nice reflections about the process of researching the will of a C17th London gentleman #EarlyModern

I really enjoyed speaking about my new book with Dr Miranda Melcher for the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast 📖 Now available online! 👇📻 newbooksnetwork.com/birth-death-... @universitypress.cambridge.org @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uniofexeternews.bsky.social

Delighted to share that my first book The Experience of Work in Early Modern England (co-written with the fantastic @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, and Hannah Robb) has been published and is available free and Open Access! doi.org/10.1017/9781... #earlymodern #economic #history

In Case You Missed It: Last week we circulated our Autumn 2025 Newsletter 🍂✉️ Want to catch up on what we've been up to recently? You can now read it over on our website 👇 #history #EarlyModern #skystorians

Today's featured title: "Birth, Death, and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London," by Emily Vine, Cambridge University Press, 2025 @emilymayvine.bsky.social @universitypress.cambridge.org resolve.cambridge.org/core/books/b...

We'll be sending out our Autumn 2025 Newsletter tomorrow 🍂✉️ Sign up to our mailing list before then to receive a copy in your inbox! 👇

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

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! 👇

📢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

In case you missed it: A fantastic @materialwills.bsky.social post all about some of the project's creative collaborations #history #skystorians #earlymodern

Japanner, Horse Boiler or Oatmeal Man - which is leading the 'best testator occupation' race for you? 🪑🐴🥣

Jukes listed his occupation as a 'Japanner' ('japanning' is a European imitation of East Asian lacquerwork), which is interesting, but not as interesting as Thomas Dugdale of Dirty Lane, Southwark, who described himself as ... 'Horse Boiler'. 🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

When John Jukes wrote his will in 1784 he said he didn't mind where his grave was so long as it wasn't damp.📜🪦💧 'i will and desire to be buried in a decent manner, if in the country to be buried at jedgly, if in london where you please, but let it be a dry ground and a good stone over'.

Are you curious about the potential for archival practices to shape the study of emotion; why there are letters in the English State Papers labelled 'mad'; or how the culture & politics of Elizabethan England shaped people's experience of distress? Find out here! doi.org/10.1017/S008... #earlymodern

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

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 🧵

A reminder that every @materialwills.bsky.social will of the month post includes a full transcription of the featured will. We now have a collection of 20 wills, from across the 16th-18th centuries 👇 #EarlyModern 🗃️ sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

📢AUGUST WILL OF THE MONTH📢 Emily Vine's top new post explores the 1726 testament of a Frenchman who fled to England to escape religious persecution. #EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

August's 'Will of the Month' post is live over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog 📜 We've been thinking about community & craftsmanship in the will of a French Protestant refugee, and the 'Huguenot' trades of silk-weaving, silversmithing, and watchmaking ⌚ #history #earlymodern #skystorians 👇

Editing revised chapters for the forthcoming 2nd edition of our guide to #EarlyModern 🗃️ sources today👌 The revised volume will also include 3 new chapters: Part 1 'Sources': - Digitised Sources Part 2 'Histories': - Race - The Body, Mind & Emotions.

Excellent programme! If I were not already committed to various trips in September, I'd be there #EarlyModern 🗃️

📢WILL KLAXON!📢

My new book 📕 The Story of Tudor Art 🌹 comes out on 25th September. It’s the first book ever (!!) to look at art from across the whole sixteenth century in England and I can’t wait to share it with you.

#cfp for the 2026 Conference of the History of Women Religious of Britain and Ireland, ‘Women Religious: Patronage & Networks from Medieval to Modern’ taking place at Queen Mary University of London on 11/12 June. Please share widely #nuntastic historyofwomenreligious.org/call-for-pap...

#MedievalSky #EarlyModern If you're working on any aspect of the life-cycle (eg birth, marriage, baptism, leaving home, death, childbearing, etc) and want to present at the Life Cycles Seminar at IHR I'd be keen to hear from you! Echo chambers are never good, so it's always worth casting the net.

In 1585 Katherine Doylye [!] had a dedicated 'cheese chamber' in her home stocked with a full complement of cheese making equipment and 80 cheeses worth £2 13s 4d. 📜🧀 Inventories in Oxfordshire, 1965, p. 193. @cheeseandpeople.bsky.social

A sunny weekend trip to see my book in the @universitypress.cambridge.org bookshop! 📚 I recently wrote about the book for the publisher's blog: cambridgeblog.org/2025/07/expl... And if you have £90 to spare, you can buy it here: www.cambridge.org/9781009457231 (but message me for a 20% discount!)

Absolutely thrilled to announce that my article on sermons published by Catherine of Braganza's command as queen dowager has today been published open access by English Historical Review: academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-... . It has been a long time coming, having originally been 1/

I'm thrilled to have been published in Past & Present. Diving into the fractious politics of rich-country macroeconomics after 1973, I use the neglected case of protectionist Keynesians to rethink what happened, and why. I highlight statecraft, geopolitics, and Maier's 'territoriality'. (1/2)

Delighted that the print copies of my first book 'Birth, Death, and Domestic Religion in early modern London', just published with @universitypress.cambridge.org, have arrived! 📚📚📚

What a day - Chris Hoban performed a wills song at Sidmouth Folk Festival, with The Lost Sound Dartmoor Folk Choir! It's about the will of John Lux, a mariner from Powderham. He instructs that his trumpet should be sold so his ship's company can have a party #EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk

We never imagined that one of our wills would end up on the main stage at the legendary Sidmouth Folk Festival! Thanks so much to Chris Hoban for making it happen 👏📜🎺🗃️

Alice! Top work @hagenilda.bsky.social @cordeliabeattie.bsky.social @sharonhoward.bsky.social et al! www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

This week we also published our July 'Will of the Month' blog post 📜 It attempts to uncover details of the life of Mary Carlton, a housemaid who died in 1785 and left little behind. You can find out more about Mary's life below 👇 3/3🧵 bsky.app/profile/mate...

Collectively 3494 classifications were completed on @zooniverse.bsky.social - a huge achievement and a very happy project team 2/3🧵 👇 @uoearchhist.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk @dhlabexeter.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social #history #skystorians #earlymodern bsky.app/profile/mate...

📢 In Case You Missed It! 📢 It's been a busy few days on the wills project 📜✍️ Last week we held our hybrid transcribathon - joined by around 80 people in Exeter and around the world 🌍 @kmbarton.bsky.social did a great job of live posting - you can catch up here 👇 bsky.app/profile/mate... 1/3🧵

The CCS' James Kelly's article 'Women’s Agency, Discernment, and Choice in the English Convents in Exile, 1600–1800' has been published open access in @historicaljnl.bsky.social #firstview #nuntastic #skystorians #CathHist #history #Catholicism Read here: cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Although we know little about the testator, we can build up a picture by focusing on the small details in her will, and by bringing in context relating to female servants' lives in the eighteenth century. Read on to find out more about Mary Carlton: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... 🧵2/2

A new 'Will of the Month' post over at @materialwills.bsky.social - seeking to explore the life of an eighteenth-century servant woman. How do we access the lives of those who left behind little in the way of either objects or documentary evidence? 📜 #history #skystorians #earlymodern

Charmian Mansell's Female Servants in Early Modern England has been awarded the Thirsk Prize for Best Book in British or Irish Rural or Agrarian History by the British Agricultural History Society. 📖 bit.ly/9780197267585 @charmianmansell.bsky.social @britishacademy.bsky.social @braghs.bsky.social

📜 Thanks so much to all our volunteers who showed up for the #transcribathon today! 3494 classifications completed and one very happy project team!

17/🧵 the end of the thread! 🧵 Thanks to everyone who joined us in person and the 68 people that joined us online! 📜 Together we completed 3494 classifications! 📜 Join our mailing list for more information and future events: forms.office.com/e/JbUEq4Za1u

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

A great opportunity for an #EarlyModern history PhD student here - with @ihrscb.bsky.social and @ihr.bsky.social 👇

Fellow students: come to the #transcribathon - there’s marginalia!!! 🤩

5/🧵 NEXT UP @emilymayvine.bsky.social talking about family heirlooms and special objects that have been found in the wills! Including family portraits, clothes, and other household goods. We'll follow this with a short break, before continuing with talks about our new data #transcribathon

Great job presenting another speaker's slides, bravo Harry Smith #transcribathon

@materialwills.bsky.social Enjoying the talks so much it's hard to concentrate on transcribe simultaneously #transcribathon