Dr. Emily Rhodes
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erhodes.bsky.social
Dr. Emily Rhodes
@erhodes.bsky.social
4.7K followers 1.2K following 54 posts
Recently completed PhD in Early Modern History at Christ's College, Cambridge

Petitions, mothers, gender, family, community, crime and poverty in 17th and 18th century Britain
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erhodes.bsky.social
Dr. Emily Rhodes @erhodes.bsky.social · Nov 12
Hello to all my new followers!

I am a recently submitted History PhD student at Cambridge who uses petitions to study early modern mothers, family, community, poverty, crime and war in the British Isles.

I also have two kitties, Evie and Mr Knightley, who are the only ones who get me any likes!
erhodes.bsky.social
Love finding a petition in the wild at the Oxford Castle and Prison
July 27, 2025 at 12:04 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
And overall, it has been a very eventful month!
July 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
First thing I did was come to change my name here…

Officially Dr Rhodes!
July 25, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
The social historians of the 70s were a grimly cynical bunch
June 29, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
iamhectordiaz.com
A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope
May 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
womenshistnet.bsky.social
Exciting news! 🎉 The Women's History Network is now accepting submissions for the WHN Undergraduate Dissertation Prize 2024-2025. 🏆

Learn more about the submission guidelines and apply here: womenshistorynetwork.org/whn-undergra...

#WomensHistory #UndergraduateResearch #History #ResearchPrize
May 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
onslies.bsky.social
More excellent sneaking in of the #EarlyModern: @brodiewaddell.bsky.social mentioning @erhodes.bsky.social’s brilliant article on paid childcare and asking what the change over time is: more of degree than of kind? #QMCBS
Women as child carers: Arranging and compensating mothering in early modern Lancashire
This article uses a database of fifty petitions submitted to the Lancashire Quarter Session Courts between 1660 and 1720 to locate mothers who cared for non-kin children in early modern England. Wh...
www.tandfonline.com
May 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
Life would be much easier were it academically acceptable to use the phrase 'baby daddy' when writing about unmarried parents.
April 29, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
How did women carrying for non-kin children seek recompense for their 'mothering' labour in #EarlyModern England?

New #OpenAccess addition to the #PowerOfPetitioning annotated bibliography from @erhodes.bsky.social:
petitioning.history.ac.uk/2019/05/13/p...
Screenshot of article: Rhodes, Emily. ‘Women as child carers: Arranging and compensating mothering in early modern Lancashire’, History of the Family, 30:1 (2005), pp. 108-124. Abstract: This article uses a database of fifty petitions submitted to the Lancashire Quarter Session Courts between 1660 and 1720 to locate mothers who cared for non-kin children in early modern England. While boarding children with non-kin was a practice not unknown to historians, the identities and experiences of the women who provided the childcare have hitherto been largely absent from previous scholarships. These petitions were brought by women who were not receiving the appropriate or arranged financial compensation for their caring responsibilities. Through their descriptions of disorder in their arrangements, we can uncover not only the attributes of the carers and their lived experiences but also more broadly what early modern English society expected from them. In addition, these petitions allow for a deeper understanding of how the practice of boarding children operated within and without the confines of the poor laws. Given the importance of child-rearing and the belief that it was a female task, this mothering gave common women authority that would otherwise be less accessible to them. This article thus argues that women understood the wider significance of this labour and used the influence it offered them to their advantage in their petitions. More broadly, then, this article provides a re-examination of the relationship between women, the poor law and authority in early modern England.
April 24, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
How did the narrative of a cordwainer's wife about her disabled son, 'which she wrote her own self', fit into the religious politics of #EarlyModern England?

*NEW* #OpenAccess article by Laura Seymour, the first publication from #WrittenWorlds our project! 🗃️

Read it here: doi.org/10.1080/0268...
Screenshot of the title and abstract for: 'A cordwainer’s wife in high politics: a microhistory of Mrs Caute' Abstract: This article introduces a hitherto unstudied pair of seventeenth-century texts, by the cordwainer’s wife Sarah Caute, which exercised political influence at the highest levels. Caute relates how in 1683–4, whilst in London, she experienced a sudden desire for herself and her six-year-old son Mathew to be baptised by Thomas Ken (1637–1711), who was then the prebend of Winchester (he would soon, in January 1685, be consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells). Since he was a year old, Caute narrates, Mathew did not speak or walk and suffered ‘violent fitt[s]’ which ‘took him of his leges and his teeth fell out of his head at the roots…till they were all out’. Caute’s story reached the ears of Charles II and James II; thereby, she participated personally and in absentia in elite negotiations of confessional identity. Caute’s texts challenge the notion that non-elite women’s writing is scarce and of limited political interest.
March 24, 2025 at 9:17 AM
erhodes.bsky.social
This weekend I had the pleasure of seeing A Tryal of Witches at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. What a great performance that really understood how witchcraft allegations could spread and grow
March 17, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
earlymodernemma.bsky.social
📢 My article on parents' letters to/about ill children is out in an exciting special issue, 'Mothers and Fathers in Medieval and Early Modern Europe', ed. @erhodes.bsky.social & Alice Whitehead. It's full of fantastic contributions to the history of parenting! 👇
www.tandfonline.com/toc/rhof20/3...
The History of the Family
Mothers and Fathers in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Volume 30, Issue 1 of The History of the Family
www.tandfonline.com
February 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
Nearly three years ago, Alice Whitehead and I hosted a conference on the history of parents. As baby PhD students at the time, we were honoured to be asked by @timriswick.bsky.social to edit a special issue of The History of the Family on the conference theme. The finished product is available now:
Introduction to the special issue mothers and fathers in medieval and early modern Europe
This special issue explores lives and experiences of mothers and fathers from across medieval and early modern Europe, c.1000 to 1800. It investigates mothers and fathers from a parent-focused pers...
www.tandfonline.com
January 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
As it is official today, I am really pleased to say that I passed my viva in December! Thanks to my excellent examiners, @brodiewaddell.bsky.social and Samantha Williams, I had a thoughtful and stress-free examination. Endless thanks will always be due to my supervisor, Elizabeth Foyster.
January 27, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
fjolagud.bsky.social
This is a sewing pattern. It is also a page from a late 14th century manuscript that is one of two primary sources for an important Icelandic saga (Sturlunga saga), but that was probably not important to the 17th century person who really needed a sewing pattern.
#upcycling
Sewing pattern for part of a shirt. It is clearly made from a dark brown manuscript page with small lettering written in two columns.
January 24, 2025 at 9:17 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
Mr Knightley looking like an Elizabethan courtier with his cone-replacement ruff. Though much more adorable than the portraits.

(He’s fine. Just over-grooming)
November 14, 2024 at 9:46 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
To my new followers: do check out my recent research into early modern foster mothers!
pharostutors.bsky.social Pharos Tutors @pharostutors.bsky.social · Nov 14
A rare collection of 300-year-old petitions has revealed the legal battles of foster mothers to get financial help for taking in parentless children, according to a researcher.
Cambridge study reveals legal woes of 17th Century foster mums
Cambridge University PhD student Emily Rhodes says the issue resonates with today's foster carers.
buff.ly
November 14, 2024 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Have you been imprisoned for debt in eighteenth-century England?

Giles Jacob has very helpfully provided a model petition for you to request your release!

#PowerOfPetitioning #EarlyModern 🗃️
The Modern Justice, 1716: books.google.co.uk/books?id=NJq...
Image of a printed book showing a template of a petition entitled 'A Petition of a poor prisoners to be discharged where is debt is under £10'
November 12, 2024 at 8:40 AM
erhodes.bsky.social
Hello to all my new followers!

I am a recently submitted History PhD student at Cambridge who uses petitions to study early modern mothers, family, community, poverty, crime and war in the British Isles.

I also have two kitties, Evie and Mr Knightley, who are the only ones who get me any likes!
November 12, 2024 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
tomaashby.bsky.social
I have created a starter pack for scholars of the long seventeenth century! I will be adding to it; do comment or message if you would like to be added - & share!

go.bsky.app/BtkNcRq
November 9, 2024 at 12:37 PM
erhodes.bsky.social
Cambridge friends:
This evening at 5.15pm in the Christ's College Portrait Room I will be presenting a paper based on my PhD research to the Early Modern British and Irish History seminar entitled 'Petitions, Mothers and Community in Early Modern England and Wales'. Do join if you can!
October 30, 2024 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
lsangha.bsky.social
If you would like to know more about Emily Rhodes' research see this blog post

#EarlyModern 🗃️

manyheadedmonster.com/2024/05/21/c...
October 3, 2024 at 7:50 AM
erhodes.bsky.social
I'm really delighted to say that my new article on non-kin childcare and petitions is now available to read open access in the History of the Family, and that the research has received some media coverage as well!

www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cambridge study reveals legal woes of 17th Century foster mums
Cambridge University PhD student Emily Rhodes says the issue resonates with today's foster carers.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 3, 2024 at 9:08 AM
erhodes.bsky.social
Here’s a very merry boy celebrating his first birthday today!
December 1, 2023 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Dr. Emily Rhodes
joshgondelman.bsky.social
I know it happens every year, but I would bet my life that it's never gotten this dark this early before in my life.
November 20, 2023 at 11:20 PM