Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies

Photo of Professor Henry French

Professor Henry French

BA, PhD Cantab., FRHistS

Professor

h.french@exeter.ac.uk

4184

01392 724184

Overview

I am interested in the following research subjects:

  • The identity and composition of the ‘middle sort of people’ in provincial England 1620-1750. I have published a number of articles on this subject in Past & Present, Social History and Historical Journal, and have written a monograph study, published by Oxford University Press in July 2007.
  • (in association with Prof. R.W. Hoyle, of the University of Reading) land ownership in Essex and Lancashire, concentrating particularly on the decline of the small farmer, 1500-1800. We have published several articles on this theme, including one in Economic History Review in 2004, and have published a monograph on the land market in the Essex village of Earls Colne, 1500-1750, with Manchester U.P. in March 2007.
  • Long-term processes of change in notions of masculinity among the landed elite in England, between the later seventeenth and early twentieth centuries, and I was awarded an AHRC standard research grant to pursue this research, which resulted in a monograph authored with Dr. Mark Rothery (Exeter), published by Oxford University Press in March 2012.
  • Urban common field agriculture and the effects of enclosure 1550-1800, on which I have written two articles in the Agricultural History Review 2001 & 2003; I have also published a chapter on urban commons in R. W. Hoyle (ed.), Custom, Improvement and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain (Ashgate, 2011). I aided in the identification of at least 160 urban common lands as part of my consultancy work for English Heritage on their Town Commons project.
  • Research into the politics of the small, pocket-borough of Clitheroe, in the period 1660 to 1780, which has been published in Northern History.
  • Research into poor relief payments and their effects on the household economy of families, particularly in Terling, Essex in the later eighteenth century. This was published in S. Hindle, A. Shepard & J. Walter (eds), Remaking English Society: Social Relations and Social Change in Early Modern England (Boydell & Brewer, 2012), with additional articles in Economic History Review and Continuity and Change in 2015.
  • The Hearth Tax and distribution of wealth in Essex 1662-85, published in the British Record Society Hearth Tax Series.

My undergraduate teaching includes modules on:

  • HIH 1521 Marriage & The Family, 1500-1800 - [Sources & Skills] module on the experience of marriage and family life in early modern England.
  • HIH 2203A Crime and Society in England, 1500-1800 [Option] - on the relationship between types of crime and society in early modern England, particularly the link between ordinary people and the legal process, and crime in popular literature.
  • HIH3618 Power Elites [Comparative] - on the origins; social, economic, political, religious and cultural bases; development over time and power struggles within European nobilities from the 9th century through to the 20th century.
  • HIH 3137-8 [Special Subject] Life in an English Village, Earls Colne, 1450-1750 - an in depth look at some big historical debates about the origins and effects of capitalism, class and religious change in a small place - the Essex village of Earls Colne - using a large collection of electronic sources, allowing detailed insights into the ways that big historical forces played out on the experience of daily life in the past.

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Research

My main research interest has been the identity and composition of the ‘middle sort of people’ in provincial England 1620-1750. I have published a number of articles on this subject, and have written a monograph study, published by Oxford University Press in July 2007.

Following publication of this book, my research interests in identity shifted to questions of masculinity and gender identity among the gentry in England, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, I researched two themes: a) the ways in which social norms about appropriate male behaviour were translated into practice in families; b) long-term processes of change over time, in norms and behaviour. Both aspects will allow me to make a critical assessment of existing ideas on elite masculinity in this period. To pursue this research, I received two externally-funded research awards for two related projects. These were: 1) British Academy Small Grants Award SG-46123 ‘Practices of politeness: changing norms of masculinity in landed society, 1660-1800’awarded 04/07, funding one 0.2 researcher for 4-months; 2) AHRC Research Grants (Standard) App. Id. AH/E007791/1 ‘Man’s Estate: Masculinity & Landed Gentility in England, 1660-1918’, awarded 06/07 – 37 months funding for 2 researchers (one for 2.5 years, the other for 1 year) to start 09/07 + 1 funded Ph.D. studentship. This resulted in an Oxford U. P. monograph (Man's Estate. Landed Gentry Masculinities, 1660-1900) authored with Dr. Mark Rothery, published in March 2012. We also published an article on elite masculinity and travel in Social History in 2008, and a chapter in Sean Brady & John Arnold (eds), What is Mascuilinity? (Palgrave 2011). As part of this research, I organised the conference 'Engendering Gender: Production, Transmission and Change 1450-1950' in 2010. I have also published an article on gender, political reputation and memory in C. Fletcher, S. Brady, R. E. Moss & L. Ryall (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Political Culture in Europe (Palgrave, 2017), and on family memory and social identity among the Gentry in England, 1600-1750, to be published in Historical Research.

My second area of research has been in association with Prof. R.W. Hoyle, of the University of Reading, into land ownership in Essex and Lancashire, concentrating particularly on the decline of the small farmer, 1500-1800. We have published several articles on this theme, and completed a monograph on the land market in the Essex village of Earls Colne, 1500-1750, with Manchester U.P. published in March 2007.
Following on from this research, I developed an interest in the neglected subject of urban common field agriculture and the effects of enclosure 1550-1800. I have so far published two articles on this subject, and a chapter in a recent book edited by Richard Hoyle, Custom, Improvement and the Landscape in Early Moden Britain (Ashgate, 2011). I have recently published an article on religious and social change in Earls Colne, 1560-1640 in T. Dean, G. Parry & E. Vallence (eds), Faith, Place and People in Early Modern England: Essays in Honour of Margaret Spufford (Boydell Press, 2018).

I have recently considered both these aspects (gender and agrarian history) in a rountable discussion published in Historia Agrariahttps://www.historiaagraria.com/en/issues/ana_cabana_henry_french_colin_r_johnson_leen_van_molle_micheline_carino_jose_vicente_serrao-gender_and_rural_history_a_roundtable

My research interests in Lancashire have included research into the politics of the small, pocket-borough of Clitheroe, in the period 1660 to 1780, and I published an article on this theme in 2004.

I am also interested in the Hearth Tax and distribution of wealth in Essex 1662-85, and collaborated with the British Record Society Hearth Tax volume for Essex.

I was also involved in the AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship project headed by Prof. Oliver Creighton (Archaeology), and the Poltimore House Trust, entitled 'Community and Landscape: Transforming Access to the Heritage of the Poltimore Estate', which engaged with community groups in Poltimore (just outside Exeter) to research the history and development of Poltimore House between the 15th and 20th centuries. This has community-based research has continued for a decade, and will result ion a publication on the Poltimore Estate and the village of Poltimore, 1911-24.

Most recently, I have begun to research the history of poor relief in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth century, particularly on the Essex village of Terling. This work was inspired by the task of writing an essay for the feitschrift volume for Prof. Keith Wrightson, published in 2013. Since writing this essay, I have continued research on this subject, because it has become clear that although so much research has been undertaken on the subject, we still do not understand some very basic questions. These include: how much did recipients get in poor relief each week? How often did they receive poor relief on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis? How long did they receive poor relief, and in which parts of their lives? How 'dependent' did they become on relief, and did this change as economic circumstances changed between c. 1760 and 1834? These studies have been published Economic History Review and Continuity and Change in 2015. 

I am currently working with Prof. Ralph Fyfe in Geography at University of Plymouth as co-investigator on a Leverhulme Trust funded research project, 'A Landscape Transformed: The Reclamation of Exmoor Forest' from 2020-2022. In 1818 the Royal Forest of Exmoor (20,000 acres of upland moors) was sold by the Crown Commissioners to John Knight, an iron founder from the West Midlands. He set about the largest single land reclamation scheme in southern England, on a scale comparable to canal building or the construction of the railways in the period. This project wll sed new light on this dramatic and fundamental transformation of the Royal Forest and place it within its historical context, combining influence (why and where did the major landscape designs emerge?), process (how the upland landscape was transformed), and ecological perspectives (how did landscapes and ecological systems change?). THis project is interdisciplinary, combining research on a new cache of Knight family papers discovered in 2016 with palaeoecological analyses of vegetation change (pollen and non-pollen analyses), using precise chronological frameworks based on a new southwest UK tephra stratigraphy developed by Ralph Fyfe.

See https://www.exmoorher.co.uk/theme/tem18

For more detail, see my Academia.edu page.

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Supervision

I am particularly interested to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on various areas of seventeenth and eighteenth century social and economic history, including those on themes such as demographic or agricultural change, the social order, gender identity, crime, government, poverty, marriage and the family, industries and regions. I am also happy to supervise dissertations on other early modern themes, such as seventeenth century politics, popular religion and culture, and aspects of women's history. I can also give advice on using a range of sources particularly those relating to parish government, estate management, government and poor law administration, and printed pamphlets and newspapers.

Research students

Kevin Cahill working on landownership in Devon from the Return of Owners of Land in 1876 to c. 1950

Heather Walker working on British women travellers in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

Robert Nantes working on bankrupts and bankruptcy in England from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries

Derek Janes working on the business career and smuggling activities of John Nisbet of Tweedmouth, 1750-1800

Marion Hardy working on travellers in Devon parishes 1600-1780

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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 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2000 | 1999 |

2023

  • French H. (2023) The Social Topography of a Rural Community: Scenes of Labouring Life in Seventeenth-Century England, FAMILY & COMMUNITY HISTORY, volume 26, no. 3, pages 271-274. [PDF]
  • French H, Baker L. (2023) 'The result never quite equalled the promise': risk, reward and reclamation on Exmoor, 1840-1897, Agricultural History Review, volume 71, pages 45-65.
  • Rowney FM, Fyfe RM, Baker L, French H, Koot MB, Ombashi H, Timms RGO. (2023) Historical anthropogenic disturbances explain long-term moorland vegetation dynamics, Ecol Evol, volume 13, no. 3, DOI:10.1002/ece3.9876. [PDF]

2022

  • French H. (2022) - Landless and pauper households in England c. 1760-1835: A comparison of two southern English rural communities, Landless Households in Rural Europe, 1600-1900, Boydell & Brewer, 139-170.
  • French H. (2022) Land Reform in the British and Irish Isles since 1800, FAMILY & COMMUNITY HISTORY, volume 25, no. 3, pages 264-266. [PDF]

2021

  • French H. (2021) Estate landscapes in northern Europe, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 69, no. I, pages 162-164. [PDF]
  • French H. (2021) Rotten Bodies: Class and Contagion in Eighteenth-Century Britain, AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, volume 126, no. 3, pages 1315-1317, DOI:10.1093/ahr/rhab413. [PDF]
  • Cabana A, French H, Johnson CR, Van Molle L, Carino M, Serrao JV. (2021) Gender and Rural History: A Roundtable, HISTORIA AGRARIA, no. 85, pages 7-36, DOI:10.26882/histagrar.085d08g. [PDF]
  • French H. (2021) ‘Sighing for Past Greatness’? Dynastic Senses of Family Identity in England c. 1650-1800, Genealogy and Social Status in the Enlightenment, Liverpool University Press, 85-109. [PDF]
  • French H. (2021) Women and the Land 1500-1900, JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES, volume 60, no. 1, pages 180-181, DOI:10.1017/jbr.2020.166. [PDF]

2020

  • French H. (2020) “… a great hurt to many, and of advantage to very few“. Urban Common Lands, Civic Government, and the Problem of Resource Management in English Towns, 1500–1840, Rural History Yearbook, volume 2019, pages 50-75. [PDF]

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

  • French HR. (2014) An Irrevocable Shift: Detailing the Dynamics of Rural Poverty in Southern England, 1762-1834: a case study, Economic History Review: a journal of economic and social history, pages 1-37. [PDF]

2013

  • French HR, Hoyle RW. (2013) The character of english rural society.
  • Creighton OH, Cunningham P, French H. (2013) Peopling polite landscapes: community and heritage at Poltimore, Devon, Landscapes, volume 34, no. 2, pages 61-85.
  • French HR. (2013) Parenting in England, 1760-1830: Emotion, Identity, and Generation, AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, volume 118, no. 3, pages 928-929, DOI:10.1093/ahr/118.3.928a. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2013) The Social Order of England, 1600-1800, Palgrave Macmillan.

2012

  • Rothery M, French H. (2012) Courtship and Marital Life, Making Men: The Formation of Elite Male Identities in England, c.1660–1900, Bloomsbury Academic, 117-154, DOI:10.1007/978-1-137-00281-5_5.
  • French H, Rothery M. (2012) Man's Estate: Landed Gentry Masculinities, 1660-1900, DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576692.001.0001.
  • French HR, Rothery M. (2012) Man's Estate: Masculinity and the English Landed Elite, c. 1680-1900, Oxford University Press. [PDF]

2011

  • French H. (2011) Warwickshire hearth tax returns: Michaelmas 1670, with Coventry Lady Day, ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, volume 64, no. 3, pages 1030-1032, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00597_6.x. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2011) Lost Londons: Change, Crime and Control in the Capital City 1550-1660, CULTURAL & SOCIAL HISTORY, volume 8, no. 2, pages 277-278, DOI:10.2752/147800411X12905280235133. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2011) Three centuries of a Herefordshire village. Putley, 1685 until now (the people, their lives, the farming, the buildings), AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 59, pages 137-137. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2011) Datchworth Tithe Accounts, 1711-1747, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 59, pages 135-136. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2011) ‘Fitting In’: the two sides of community in English villages, c. 1500-1650, Trouver sa place. Individus et communautés dans l'Europe moderne), Collection de la Casa de Velazquez/Centre Roland Mousnier.
  • French HR, Rothery M. (2011) ‘Hegemonic Masculinities? Assessing Change, and Processes of Change, in Elite Masculinity, 1700-1900’, What is Hegemonic Masculinity? Historical Dynamics from Antiquity to the Contemporary World, PalgraveMacmillian, 139-167.
  • French HR. (2011) ‘The Common Fields of Urban England: Communal Agriculture and the “Politics of Entitlement” 1500-1750’, Custom, improvement and anti-improvement in Early Modern Britain, Ashgate, 149-175.

2010

  • French HR. (2010) A lost frontier revealed. Regional separation in the East Midlands, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 58, pages 285-286. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2010) Parish Government, The Elizabethan World, Routledge, 147-164.
  • French HR. (2010) Law, politics, and society in early modern England, ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, volume 63, no. 1, pages 237-238, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00511_3.x. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2010) ''The Government of the Parish'', The Age of Elizabeth, Oxford University Press.

2009

  • Pratt D, Schofield PR, French H, Kirby P, Freeman M, Greaves J, Pemberton H. (2009) Review of periodical literature published in 2007, ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, volume 62, no. 1, pages 153-202, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00465.x. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2009) The establishment of the Hearth Tax, 1662-66, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 57, pages 281-282. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2009) How Bedfordshire Voted, 1685-1735: The Evidence of Local Poll Books, vol 2, 1716-1735, HISTORY, volume 94, no. 316, pages 536-537, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2009.00468_31.x. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2009) Land, agriculture and industry in north-west Essex. Spotlights on a land remembered, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 57, pages 284-285. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2009) An archaeology of town commons in England: 'a very fair field indeed', AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 57, pages 278-279. [PDF]

2008

  • PRATT D, SCHOFIELD PR, FRENCH H, KIRBY P, FREEMAN M, GREAVES J, PEMBERTON H. (2008) Review of periodical literature published in 2006, The Economic History Review, volume 61, no. 1, pages 183-230, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00422.x.
  • French HR. (2008) How Bedfordshire voted, 1685-1735: The evidence of local poll books, vol 1, 1685-1715, HISTORY, volume 93, no. 311, pages 428-429, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2008.431_31.x. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2008) Perceptions of Retailing in Early Modern England, SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL, volume 39, no. 4, pages 1112-1113. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2008) Writing early modern history, EUROPEAN HISTORY QUARTERLY, volume 38, no. 3, pages 513-515, DOI:10.1177/02656914080380030633. [PDF]
  • French HR, Rothery M. (2008) 'Upon Your Entry into the World': masculine values and the threshold of adulthood among landed elites in England 1680-1800, Social History, volume 33, no. 4, pages 402-422, article no. 2.

2007

2006

2005

  • French HR. (2005) Seven households: Life in Cheshire and Lancashire, 1582 to 1774, BUSINESS HISTORY, volume 47, no. 4, pages 602-603. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2005) Landholding and land transfer in the North Sea area (late middle ages - nineteenth century), AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 53, pages 264-265. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2005) 'This little commonwealth':: Layston parish memorandum book, 1607-c.1650 & 1704-c.1747, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 53, pages 253-254. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2005) Transforming English rural society. The Verneys and the Claydons, 1600-1820, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 53, pages 110-111. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2005) People, landscape and alternative agriculture: Essays for Joan Thirsk, ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, volume 120, no. 487, pages 778-779, DOI:10.1093/ehr/cei254. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2005) London in the later Middle Ages: Government and people, 1200-1500, HISTORY, volume 90, no. 298, pages 266-267. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2005) All my worldly goods II. Wills and probate inventories of St. Stephen's parish, St. Albans 1418-1700, HISTORY, volume 90, no. 300, pages 624-625. [PDF]

2004

  • French H, Barry J. (2004) Identity and agency in England, 1500-1800, DOI:10.1057/9780230523104.
  • French H, Barry J. (2004) 'Identity and agency in English society, 1500-1800' - Introduction, IDENTITY AND AGENCY IN ENGLAND, 1500-1800, pages 1-37. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2004) Field systems in Essex, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 52, pages 209-210. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2004) The murder of Mr Grebell: Madness and civility in an English town, HISTORY, volume 89, no. 296, pages 647-649. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2004) The Creation of a Pocket Borough in Clitheroe, Lancashire, 1693-1780: 'Honour and Odd Tricks', Northern History, volume 41, no. 2, pages 301-326.
  • Barry J. (2004) Identity and Agency in English Society, 1500-1800, Palgrave Macmillan.

2003

  • French HR, Hoyle RW. (2003) English individualism refuted -: and reasserted:: the land market of Earls!Colne (Essex), 1550-1750, ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, volume 56, no. 4, pages 595-+, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2003.00263.x. [PDF]
  • French, H.R.. (2003) Urban common rights, enclosure and the market: Clitheroe Town Moors, 1764-1802, Agricultural History Review, volume 51, no. 1, pages 40-68.
  • French HR. (2003) William Windham's green book, 1673-1688, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 51, pages 122-123. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2003) The history of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1690-1715, HISTORY, volume 88, no. 292, pages 696-697. [PDF]
  • French HR, Hoyle RW. (2003) English Individualism refuted and reasserted: the land market of Earls Colne (Essex), 1550-1750, The Economic History Review, volume 56, no. 4, pages 595-622, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2003.00263.x.
  • French HR. (2003) Two capitals - London and Dublin 1500-1840, HISTORY, volume 88, no. 289, pages 132-133. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2003) Provincial towns in early modern England and Ireland: Change, convergence and divergence, HISTORY, volume 88, no. 290, pages 316-318. [PDF]

2002

  • French HR. (2002) The politics of the excluded, c.1500-1800, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 50, pages 275-277. [PDF]
  • French HR. (2002) Negotiating power in early modern society. Order, hierarchy and subordination in Britain and Ireland, AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW, volume 50, pages 275-277. [PDF]

2000

1999

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External impact and engagement

In Feb. 2009, the Poltimore House Trust approached University of Exeter for academic support and guidance about the preservation of the house and grounds, and to help prepare a Heritage Lottery Fund bid. It quickly became clear that instead of academics supplying ready-made expertise, the site (and PHT’s 300-strong volunteer base) offered an opportunity to engage more fully by creating a group of volunteer researchers who could recover and take ownership of the house’s past.

The overarching aims of the AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship were for the project team (Henry French, Oliver Creighton, Penny Cunningham, Project KT Research Fellow) to work in partnership with the PHT to generate public understanding of the multi-layered history and archaeology of the building and its surrounding landscape, and to sustain this by involving local communities in the research and presentation of this heritage. Between Sept. 2010 and July 2012 the project focused on two elements:

  1. Working with volunteers to trace the history and evolution of the Poltimore House gardens and estate landscape primarily through detailed documentary research on the 18th and 19th centuries, through census and local newspaper archives, gravestone surveys, and detailed map analysis, and by contextualising these findings within a longer archaeological/landscape history timescale.
  2. Leading teams of volunteer, non-professional researchers in methods of archaeological research (field-walking, geo-physical surveying, landscape archaeology).

The first element drew upon my research experience as leader of an AHRC standard research grant on the landed elite between the seventeenth and late nineteenth centuries, and Prof. Creighton’s experience in community archaeology projects, specifically his role as a co-director of a major AHRC-funded research project investigating Wallingford in Oxfordshire. The second had input from the PI & CI, and was led by the Knowledge Transfer Fellow, Dr. Penny Cunningham, drawing on her experience in XArch, community archaeology project.

Working alongside PHT, the project developed on-site educational activities with primary and secondary schools in East Devon, plus A-level students from Exeter College. During the course of the project 721 school pupils from 7 partner schools in Devon participated in 18 training and outreach events mapped to the National Curriculum (including on-site training workshops on masonry recording, archaeological survey, landscape analysis and visits to schools), including a film made by Broadclyst Community Primary School (http://elac.ex.ac.uk/poltimore-landscapes/page.php?id=152). This portfolio of sources, objects and resources has enabled PHT’s Volunteer Manager, Simon Tootell, to provide on-site School visits, and continued curriculum engagement with Broadclyst Community Primary School in 2012-13.

This volunteer network is continuing historical and archaeological landscape research in the area beyond the lifetime of the AHRC-funded project, through the creation (in October 2012) of the Poltimore History & Archaeology Group, (PEHAG) enabling the public to take forward research on this site and transfer that understanding to other historic landscapes. I am currently the chair of this group, and volunteers are working on a series of projects, including further work on the landscape history of the estate in Poltimore village post-1800, research into the gardens and gardeners at Poltimore House, research on the building history of the house in the eighteenth century, and a project to uncover the history of the vollage during World War One.

Academic research on Poltimore House has led to a jointly-authored peer-reviewed journal article published by Landscape History in 2013.

In addition I have served as a trustee for a number of regional organisations. These include:

  • Southwest Heritage Trust - which manages the records offices of Devon and Somerset, as well as the Museums service, Historic Environment record and a number of historic sites and landscapes in Somerset.
  • Devon & Exeter Institution - a historic library and literary institution, founded in 1815, located in the Cathedral Close in Exeter

I have served on the advisory boards of two HLF-funded research projects in Devon and Dorset, representing the History department at Exeter:

Advisory Board Member, ‘Devon Remembers’, Devon County Council First World War Commemoration Co-ordination committee, 2013-date.

Dorset Heritage Centre, ‘Home and Away’ Bankes Family of Kingston Lacy HLF Project, Steering Committee Member, 2015-8.



Contribution to discipline

Fellow of Royal Historical Society, elected Sept. 2004.

British Agricultural History Society, Chair of the Executive Committee, 2016-date.

Reviewer of Periodical Literature, England 1500-1700, Economic History Review, 2005-8.

AHRC Peer Review College member, Academic, 2010-18.

British Academy Hearth Tax Project Steering Committee member 2012-date

I have undertaken peer reviews of journal submissions for Economic History Review, Social History, Journal of British Studies, Cultural & Social History, Agricultural History Review, and Gender and History, among others

In addition to the AHRC and ESRC in the UK, I have reviewed project grant proposals for Social Science & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Council for the Humanities.

In addition to being a periodical literature reviewer for Economic History Review and book reviews editor for Agricultural History Review, since 2001 I have written reviews for the following journals:

American Historical Review, English Historical Review, Economic History Review, Social History, Cultural & Social History, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Sixteenth-Century Journal, Agricultural History Review, Local Population Studies, Business History, European History Quarterly, Family & Community History, & Archives.

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Teaching

Modules taught

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    Biography

    I took my first degree and doctorate at the University of Cambridge (in 1989 and 1993 respectively), the latter under the supervision of Keith Wrightson and Margaret Spufford. Since then, I have taught at the Universities of Central Lancashire, Manchester, Essex, and East Anglia, before coming to Exeter in 2001, being promoted to Professor of Social History in 2009. My own research has focused on the definition and social identity of ‘middle sort’ within rural society in the seventeenth century. I have published articles on this subject in a number of journals, and completed a monograph on this subject which was published by Oxford University Press in July 2007. Having worked on two research projects with Prof. Richard Hoyle at the University of Central Lancashire between 1994-99, I am also co-author of two articles on land ownership and the decline of the small farmer in early modern England. Prof. Hoyle and I published a monograph study with Manchester University Press of land ownership in the Essex village of Earls Colne in March 2007, entitled The Character of English Rural Society, 1550-1750: Earls Colne revisited. In recent years, I have pursued another theme in agrarian history – the fate of the urban common lands – in two articles published in the Agricultural History Review. I am also the editor (with Jonathan Barry) of a series of essays on the subject of ‘Identity and Agency in Early Modern England’, published by Palgrave Press in 2004, based on a research colloquium held at Exeter in September 2002. I was awarded an 3-year AHRC research award in June 2007, to study masculinity and the landed gentry between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries, with Dr Mark Rothery. This project resulted in a Oxford U.P. monograph published in 2012, and a number of subsequent publications. Since 2010 I have also been engaged in long-term research on poverty and poor relief through a series of detailed parish case studies, which has resulted  in a number of publications in international academic jourtnals. Between 2010 and 2016 I was Head of Department in History at Exeter, and am currently serving as Interim Head of Department between Jan. & July 2020.

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    More information

    Head of History, 2010-

    Head of History Undergraduate Affairs Committee, 2007-8
    Fellow of Royal Historical Society
    Executive Committee Member, British Agricultural History Society, 2000-
    Book Reviews Editor, 'Agricultural History Review', 2008-

    Executive committe member, British Records Society Hearth Tax project, 2011-

    Peer Review College member, Arts & Humanities Research Council, 2010-13

    Reviewer of periodical literature 1500-1700, 'Economic History Review', 2006-8

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