Professor Jonathan Barry

MA DPhil(Oxon) FRHistS

Emeritus Professor

Overview

My research is on the middling sort and on provincial society and culture in England from 1500 to 1840, with particular emphasis on Bristol and the South West, on towns, and on religious and medical history, including the history of witchcraft. I am happy to supervise on most aspects of early modern history, with particular interest in urban, regional, medical, religious or intellectual history. I have recently completed a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator award in Medical Humanities, leading a research project (with Dr Peter Elmer) on 'The Medical World of Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland c.1500-1715' (2012-18), from which several articles have been published and three books are in preparation. I co-edit the series Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic and Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine, and two of my books have recently appeared in the former series, Witchcraft and Demonology in South-West England 1640-1789 (2012) and Raising Spirits (2013). I am a general editor of the Bristol Record Society, and I have recently edited or co-edited its volumes for 2012, 2017 and 2018. I am co-organiser of the Pre-Modern Towns Group. I am currently co-supervising 7 doctoral students, including two overseas students with scholarship and a Wellcome-funded mature student. I retired on 31 December 2020 so I am now an Emeritus Professor at Exeter, as well as holding a guest professorship at LMU in Munich (2021-3) where I now live.

Research

My research examines the provincial society and culture of England from 1500 to 1840, with particular emphasis on Bristol and the South West, on towns, and on religious and medical history, including the history of witchcraft.

As part of my work as Director of the Centre for Medical History, I received a Wellcome Senior Investigator award (£923,000, 2012-17) for 'The Medical World in Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland c.1500-1715'. I was supported on this project by four Research Fellows, including Dr Peter Elmer as Senior Research Fellow. This will lead to a number of publications, including two monographs, one by myself on medical practice in Bristol c.1500-1800, and the other (with Dr Elmer), on the medical world of early modern Britain, as well as a monograph on the career of the late Stuart London practitioner and writer William Salmon. I have also published articles based on this research in Medical History, Bulletin of the History of Medicine and Science in Context. We are also creating an online database of medical practitioners in England, Ireland and Wales c.1500-1715 and other resources for early modern medical history. I work closely with the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renissance (based in Pisa) an co-edit the series supported by the Centre, Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine, and a jointly-edited volume on Santorio Santorio and early modern medical experimentation is due to be published in 2021 in this series.

I continue to publish on the history of witchcraft and magic, following my two recent books on this subject, both published in the series Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic, which I co-edit with Owen Davies and Willem de Blecourt. I have recently written 2 essays on the occultist and polymath John Henderson (1757-88) and a study of Maltese inquisition case involving witchcraft accusations, as well as a chapter on the publishig history of compilations of witchcraft stories c.1660-1830 (whose online version has had over 1000 downloads)

I am co-editor of the Bristol Record Society (in 2012 I edited the Diary of William Dyer: Bristol in 1762 for the series, in 2017 I assisted with the volume Religious Ministry in Bristol 1603-1689 and I am co-editor of the 2018 volume, The Bristol Hearth Tax 1662-1673. An article comparing burial arrangements in Bristol and Exeter c.1530-1850 appeared in Urban History in 2019.

I co-founded the Centre for Medical History at Exeter in 1997 and I have been heavily involved in tis development ever since. I am committed to interdisciplnary work with the sciences and medicine. I was involved in a successful funding application to the EPSRC for 'The Exeter Science Exchange: Trading Ideas to Promote Multi-disciplinary Collaboration' (£600,000,2010-13) as co-investigator responsible for the 'Communications' strand, and in the Wellcome-funded project supporng the Centre for Biomedical Modelling andAnalysis, with particular responsibility for the public engagement strand and the links with medical humanties.

Recent and upcoming conference/seminar papers

In April 2013 I gave the Goodrick-Clarke Memorial Lecture at Exeter on John Beaumont and esotericism
In April 2014 I gave a paper on 'Medical Practice in Bristol, c. 1500 - c. 1800' at the Landscape of Occupations workshop at Exeter and at the European Social Science History Conference in Vienna.
In 2014-15 I gave papers at the Intitutute of Historical Research (13 November, on John Henderson), the University of Cambridge (27 November, on Medical Practice in S-West England c.1500-1715), a Bristol conference on Romanticism and Revolution (28 February on More, Henderson and Romanticism in Bristol) and the Regional History Centre seminar series at the M-Shed Bristol (19 March, on my recent book, Raising Spirits), and attending a workshop in Malta on an AHRC-funded project on magic and the inquisition in early modern Malta (April).
In 2015-16 I gave papers on early modern medical education to a workshop on 'knowledgeable youngsters' in Utrecht (June 2016) and a conference in Cambridge on education in early modern England. I gave a paper on medical practice in Restoration London to the Scientiae Conference in Oxford (July 2016).
in 2016-17 i gave a paper on urban burial locations c.1500-1840 at the European Association of Urban Historians Conference at Helsinki (August 2016)

I also co-organised the following conferences (at Exeter unless indicated):

Medical practice in early modern Englad, Ireland and Wales (Sepember 2017)
Corpuscularianism in early modern Europe (Pisa, June 2017)
The landscape of occupations (April 2014)
The importance of place in medical practice (September 2006)
Social Identity in early modern England (2003)

Research collaborations

Since 1985 I have worked closely with many bodies interested in south-western history, initially through the Centre for South-Western Historical Studies (1985-2000), and later through the HLF-funded VCH project (c.2001-10) as well as other collaborations. I co-supervised an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award on Exeter's early modern cloth industry in partnership with Tuckers Hall Exeter (2011-14), and another doctoral student on early modern Exeter who worked at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum I have been actively involved the Centre for Regional History at UWE since its start and assisted in the development of Bristol history museum at M-Shed; I am also involved in Bristol history as co-editor of the Bristol Record Society.

Academically I have collaborated closely with Dr Margaret Pelling (Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford); Prof. Patrick Wallis (Department of Economic History, LSE) and Prof.Maarten Prak (Hitory, University of Utrecht) in common in interests in apprenticeship, citizenship and the middling sort, currently with particular reference to medical practice in early modern Europe.

I am currently working closely with the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, based in Pisa, and its Director Dr Fabrizio Bigotti, with whom I co-edit Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine.

From January 2021, although I shall remain an Emeritus Professor at Exeter, I will also be a Guest Professor in Early Modern History at LMU in Munich, working closely with Prof. Arndt Brendecke and his project on Cultures of Vigilance.

Supervision

I am happy to supervise on most aspects of early modern history, with particular interest in urban, regional, medical, religious or intellectual history. I like to supervise jointly with a colleague, holding joint supervisions and so ensuring that the student gets the benefit of broad support. This has included cross-disciplinary supervision with colleagues in English and Classics and I am keen to maintain this, both at Exeter and as part of the AHRC's DTP programme with other universities in the consortium. I retired on 31 December 2020 so i am now an Emeritus Professor at Exeter, as well as holding a guest professorship at LMU in Munich (2021-3) where I now live, so I am unlikely to take on further research students unless there are exceptional reasons to do so, but I shall see my current students to completion.

I am currently co-supervising students working on:

Astrology and medical practice in England c.1580-1700 (Wellcome funded)
Fairies and healng in medieval and early modern England (Canadian scholarship)
Law, gender and society in early modern India (Commonwealth scholarship)
The trading community of Exeter c.1450-1580
Thomas Vaughan and early modern alchemy
Women travellers in Europe c.1780-1840
Bankruptcy in eighteenth century England

For my previous research students, see the section on 'research students' in this profile.

Research students

The topics that I am currently supervising are listed in the 'research supervision section'. Below is a list of successful Phd students for whom I was lead supervisor.

Research students recently supervised:

Simon Magus - Rider Haggard and the Imperial Occult

Kate Osborne, 'Exeter c.1550-1610'

James Camp: external supervisor for PhD at Bath Spa University on 'Medicine in later Stuart Bath'

John Macmillan,'The Port of Bristol in the Later Eighteenth Century'

Jess Monaghan, 'Feigned Illnesses in Eighteenth-Century England' (AHRC funded)

Catherine Tremain, 'Masculinity in Eighteenth-Century Provincila Press'

Lisa Jarman: 'Galenism in Early Modern England' (Wellcome funded)

Tim Beattie: 'South Sea Privateering Voyages in the Eighteenth Century'

Natasha Mihaliovic: 'Death and the Dead in Eighteenth-Century England' (AHRC funded)

Anthea Davies: 'Physicians in the West Country and East Anglia in the 18th Centur'y (Wellcome Trust funded)

Tom Blaen: 'Lapidaries in Early Modern England' (University funded)

Jonathan Harlow: external supervisor for a University of West of England PhD on a Quaker merchant in 17th Century Bristol

Ian Mortimer (AHRB funded): 'Medical assistance to the dying in provincial Southern England c.1570-1720' (winner of Alexander Prize of Royal Historical Society in 2004 for essay based on this research; author of a series of acclaimed bipgraphies of medieval leaders and the best-selling Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England and Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England.

David Reeve: 'Wimborne Minster 1620-1690' (now in charge of modern records section of Dorset Archives Office).

Mariko Mizui (funded by Japanese Government): "The interest groups of the tin industry in England c.1580-1640' (now lecturing at a Japanese university)

Priscilla Flower-Smith: 'Landowners on the Devon-Somerset Border 1660-1715'

David Cullum (ESRC-funded): 'Society and economy in west Cornwall c1588-1750', awarded Ph.D. in 1994 (became a census demographer for Gloucestershire County Council).

Mary Wolffe: 'Gentry government of Devon 1625-1640' (subsequently published as Gentry leaders in peace and war: the gentry governors of Devon in the early seventeenth century (University of Exeter Press, 1997)

Publications

External impact and engagement

I have acted as a historical consultant to Devon County Council, the Museum of Bristol and the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. I have recently been involved in an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award in partnership with Tucker's Hall, Exeter, on the social history of the cloth trade in Exeter c.1580-1720, and a doctoral thesis on Exeter c.1540-1620 being undertaken by Kate Osborne, then the Education Outreach officer at Royal Albert Memorial Museum. I am a trustee of the Kent Kingdom Trust, which distributes funds to the R.A.M.M. and Exeter City Library to support educational work.

I have mentored and supported public engagement work associated with a range of medical history/humanities projects, including the work of the Centre for Biomedical Modelling and Analysis at Exeter, and the postdoctoral fellowship of Dr Fabrizio Bigotti on Santorio Santori, which included work with the Eat Devon branch of the University of the Third Age in reconstruction of his medical experiments and instruments from c.1600.

Contribution to discipline

Co-editor of Bristol Record Society.

Co-organiser of the Pre-Modern Towns Group.

Co-editor of Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic

Co-editor of Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine

Member of the edtorial board of Clio Medica

Media

In recent years I have offered advice to a number of radio and TV programmes, such asr a programme by Tony Robinson on Monmouth's Rebellion (autumn 2014).

My recent appearances in person have included:

A 5-minute slot on Radio 4's Sunday programme on the dissenters' graveyard in Exeter
Interviewee for the Exeter section of a programme on William of Orange's landing in England during the final programme of a major series on the Durch Golden Age on Dutch public TV.
One of two historians interviewed on the impact of Keith Thomas's book Religion and the Decline of Magic for a one hour recording in an educational series on key texts in modern historical writing, aimed at university and sixth-form students.
Interviewee of Ian Hislop for his three part Radio 4 series on the Middle Classes in British History

Teaching

I retired on 31 December 2020 so I am now an Emeritus Professor at Exeter, as well as holding a guest professorship at LMU in Munich (2021-3) where I now live. I shall not, therefore, be doing any standard teaching at Exeter after the academic year 2020-21.

Modules taught

Biography

Current position: Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History. I

I was a History undergraduate at Cambridge and spent a year at Harvard before starting a doctorate at Oxford in 1978 under the supervision of Keith Thomas on the cultural life of Bristol 1640-1775. From 1982 I was a researcher at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine in Oxford, assisting Charles Webster, as well as teaching part-time at Brasenose College. In 1985 I became a Lecturer in History at Exeter. I have been active in the Society for the Social History of Medicine, the Pre-Modern Towns Group and in regional/local history at south-western and national level. In 1995 I became Head of the then Department of History and Archaeology. In 1998 I became founding Head of the School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies, and was re-elected for a further five years from 2003. In 2005 the School expanded to become the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, under my Headship (until 31 July 2008). I was then Dean of Taught Programmes of the University 2008-12. I helped to found the Centre for Medical History at the University (with Prof. J. Melling) in 1997, and I am currently its co-Director. In 2012 I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award in Medical Humanities for a five-year project with Dr Peter Elmer on 'The Medical World of Early Modern England, Ireland and Wales c.1500-1715' which (with a one-year extension) ran until August 2018. I will be retiring on 31 December 2020, when I shall be moving to Munich (where I will be a guest professor at LMU 2021-3), but I will remain an Emeritus Professor at Exeter and continue some doctoral supervision for the next few years.

Series editorships

Bristol Record Society (since 2012)

Co-editor, Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic (since 2005)

Co-editor, Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine (since 2018)

Exeter Studies in History, University of Exeter Press, 1989-2000.

Studies in the Social History of Medicine, Routledge, 1991-7.

External activity

Member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Social History of Medicine (1986-96)

Member of the Southern History Society committee (1991-8).

Member of Council of Devon and Cornwall Record Society (1993-2003)

Member of Board of Centre for Regional History, University of West of England (1998-)

Member of the editorial board of the Cambridge Urban History of Britain (1990-9)

External examiner for BA programme in Economic and Social History at Leicester (1994-7).

External examiner for MA programmes at Goldsmiths and Royal Holloway, London (1997-2001).

External assessor of History programmes at Roehampton Institute (1998).

External for PhD and MPhil awards (since 2000) at Durham, Bristol, Oxford, UCL, Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin.

QAA Institutional Auditor/Reviewer 2003-12

Historical consultant to Devon County Council, the Museum of Bristol and the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

Referee for promotions committees, grant awards (AHRC, Wellcome, Leverhulme, etc), publishers (OUP, Yale, Routledge, Palgrave, Manchester UP, etc), journal articles (Albion, Historical Journal, Social History of Medicine, History, etc)

More information

Series editorships

Co-editor, Cultures of Magic, Palgrave, since 2005. (6 volumes currently contracted to appear 2006/8)

Exeter Studies in History, University of Exeter Press, since 1989.

Studies in the Social History of Medicine, Routledge, 1991-7.

External activity

Member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Social History of Medicine (1986-96)

Member of the Southern History Society committee (1991-8).

Member of Council of Devon and Cornwall Record Society (1993-2003)

Member of Board of Centre for Regional History, University of West of England (1998-)

Member of the editorial board of the Cambridge Urban History of Britain (1990-9)

External for PhD and MPhil awards (since 2000) at Durham, Bristol, Oxford, UCL.

QAA Institutional Auditor since 2003

Historical consultant to Devon County Council, the Museum of Bristol and the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

Referee for promotions committees, grant awards (AHRC, Wellcome etc), publishers (OUP, Yale, Routledge, Palgrave, Manchester UP, etc), journal articles (Albion, Historical Journal, Social History of Medicine, History, etc)

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