Archaeology and History

Photo of Dr James Davey

Dr James Davey

Senior Lecturer in Naval and Maritime History

J.Davey3@exeter.ac.uk

4580

01392 724580

Overview

I am a historian of Britain and its maritime world, focusing on the Royal Navy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My research and teaching look beyond the traditional remit of maritime history to analyse the political, social and cultural forces which created the Navy, and which were in turn shaped by its activities. My most recent book Tempest: The Royal Navy and the Age of Revolutions was published by Yale University Press and argues that this tumultuous period saw sailors become ideaologically engaged and politically active. I have co-edited two books - A New Naval History and The Maritime World of Early-Modern Britain that explore the ways in which maritime and naval history can engage with wider historical scholarship.

In 2020-21 I was the Kemble Fellow in Maritime History at the Huntington Library in California, US. More recently, I co-organised a conference at the Huntington Library entitled 'Maritime Histories From Below'.

I am a member of the University of Exeter’s Centre for Maritime Historical Studies. I am also the Director of Postgraduate Research for the Archeaology and History Department. Prior to working at Exeter I was a curator at the National Maritime Museum.

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Research

I use the history of the Royal Navy to engage with broader historiographies, and I am committed to exploring the different ways naval and maritime history can be conceived. My research falls under these main headings:

Radicalism, revolution and the maritime world

My most recent book project investigates the relationship between naval sailors and the 'Age of Revolution'. Publihsed by Yale University Press, this book argues that sailors were important political actors: they were conscious of wider social and cultural change, and had agency in the events of the day. This project also considers the response of the British state – through the guise of the Admiralty and other naval administrative bodies – to potential subversion in the navy’s ranks, and places their actions in the wider context of state oppression in the era.

The practice of naval and maritime history

I am currently researching an article that considers the first works of naval history produced in England in the early 1700s. I have also co-edited two volumes of essays that highlight new approaches and perspectives on naval and maritime history. The first, entitled A New Naval History and co-edited with Quintin Colville, was published by Manchester University Press in 2019. The second, entitled The Maritime World of Early-Modern Britain and co-edited with Richard Blakemore, was published by Amsterdam University Press in 2020.

Visual and material culture

My research uses visual and material culture to explore ideas of representation and identity. I have published on eighteenth-century naval balladry and material consumption more broadly, considering how people from across the social spectrum thought about the navy and naval service. I have also co-written a popular book on naval caricature in the second half of the eighteenth century which showcases the work of satirists such as James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson.

The development of the British state

This was the main focus of my PhD thesis and subsequent monograph. I am interested in how the increase in size and capability of the Royal Navy influenced the development of government bureaucracies and led to an increase in centralised administration. My work has also explored how ideas of professionalism and meritocracy were inculcated within the British state, and the emergence of a ‘contractor economy’ in the eighteenth century.

The maritime history of the Baltic region

Much of my early research concerned Britain’s economic and diplomatic relationship with the nations surrounding the Baltic Sea. Throughout the eighteenth century, Britain was reliant on the resources and trade of the Baltic region, which prompted numerous strategic challenges. I have published chapters and articles exploring Britain’s numerous economic and naval interventions into the Baltic region, placing this issue in the wider context of European diplomacy in the long eighteenth-century. In November 2015 I was awarded the Jan Glete Prize for Maritime History for my work in this area. 



Research collaborations

I have successfully secured funding for four PhD projects via the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Scheme, and am keen to develop further research collaborations.

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Supervision

I welcome enquiries from students working on aspects of British naval and maritime history. I would be particularly keen to supervise students in the following areas:

  • War, society and culture in the long-eighteenth-century
  • The politics and ideaology of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
  • Literature and propaganda relating to maritime endeavour
  • The representation of the maritime world in art and culture
  • The development of the British state

Individuals interested in discussing a potential PhD topic should email me a 500 word outline of their proposed research topic and a copy of their CV. 

Research students

I have supervised three PhD's through to completion:

  • Dukhee Yun, ‘Early-Modern British Infantry Combat: Its perception, Realities and the Question of Modernity, 1642-1745’, University of Exeter
  • Catherine Beck, ‘Patronage and the Royal Navy, 1775-1815’, University College London
  • Anna McKay, ‘The history of British prison hulks, 1776-1864’, University of Leicester

I currently supervise the following PhD students:

  • Sam Jones, 2019 - present, ‘Back from the Brink: Laying the Foundations of the Modern RNLI, 1850-1883'
  • Lisa Wojahn, 2022 - present, 'Royal Naval Officers’ Wives in the Long Nineteenth Century: Characteristics,Courtships, Contributions, and Community'.
  • Luke Walters, 2022 - present, 'Black Banners and Letters of Marque: Unlocking the World of Privateers and Pirates in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries'.
  • Tom Gayton, 2023 - present, 'A comparative study of Dorset during the first English Civil War (1642 to 1646) and the conflict’s various effects on costal, urban and garrison communities'.
  • Hannah Gibbons, 2023 - present, 'Maritime Matriarchs: women, credit, goods and services in the dockland communities of eighteenth-century London'.

I have successfully secured funding for two other PhD projects via the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Scheme and am keen to develop similar collaborations at the University of Exeter.

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2023 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |

2023

  • Davey J. (2023) Lawless Mobs and a Gore of Blood: Naval Mobilisation and Impressment, Yale University Press, 27-62. [PDF]
  • Davey J. (2023) Tempest The Royal Navy and the Age of Revolution, Yale University Press.
  • Davey J. (2023) The War at Sea: Trafalgar and Beyond, The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars, Cambridge University Press, 563-585, DOI:10.1017/9781108278096.028. [PDF]

2021

  • Davey J. (2021) Britain’s European Island-Empire, 1793–1815, Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail, Oxford University Press.

2020

  • Davey J, Blakemore R. (2020) The Maritime World of Early Modern Britain.

2019

  • Colville Q, Davey J. (2019) A new naval history, Manchester University Press.

2018

2017

2016

  • Davey JP. (2016) ‘Atlantic Empire, European War and the Naval Expeditions to South America, 1806-07’, The Royal Navy and the British Atlantic World, c. 1750–1820, Springer.

2015

  • Davey J. (2015) In Nelson's Wake: The Navy and the Napoleonic Wars, Yale University Press.

2014

2013

  • Davey JP. (2013) The Naval Hero and British National Identity 1707-1750, Maritime History and Identity The Sea and Culture in the Modern World, I.B.Tauris.
  • Davey JP. (2013) Representing Nations: The War of 1812 in Caricature, Broke of the Shannon and the War of 1812, Seaforth Publishing.
  • Colville Q, Davey J. (2013) Nelson, Navy & Nation: The Royal Navy and the British People, 1688-1815, Bloomsbury Publishing.

2012

2011

2010

  • Davey JP. (2010) The Repatriation of Spanish soldiers from Denmark, 1808: The British Government, Logistics and Maritime Supremacy, The Journal of military history, volume 74.

2009

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External impact and engagement

I ensure that my work is disseminated to the widest possible audiences, whether though exhibitions, lectures, media appearances and popular books. My background in museums has shown me first-hand how academic research can be shared in popular formats to engage new audiences. I have been involved in outreach work with people of different social backgrounds, families, schools and adult-learners, as well as co-curation work.

Specific projects I have worked on include:

I continue to be involved with projects at the National Maritime Museum, and I am keen to develop new opportunities for public engagement with other cultural heritage centres.



Contribution to discipline

I have served on the Council of the Society for Nautical Research since 2011, and joined its Publications Committee in 2014. I was a Council member of Navy Records Society between 2014 and 2018. In 2019 I joined the Council of the British Commission for Maritime History. I am also joint-editor of the Journal for Maritime Research and from 2017 I have been a panellist on two awards recommended by the Institute of Historical Research: the Alan Pearsall Fellowship in Naval and Maritime History and the Sir Julian Corbett Prize.

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Biography

I grew up by the sea in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. I hold degrees from King’s College London and the University of Oxford, and completed my PhD at the University of Greenwich in 2010. From 2011 to 2017 I was a curator at the National Maritime Museum, employed across a range of projects. During this time I was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Greenwich for three years and also held honorary fellowships at University College London and the University of Leicester.

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