Brodie Waddell
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brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Brodie Waddell
@brodiewaddell.bsky.social
5.4K followers 660 following 600 posts
Early Modern History at Birkbeck, University of London | Likes: archives, fatherhood, footnotes, the seaside. | Dislikes: Henry VIII, cars, inequity. My research: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/8004317/brodie-waddell
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brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · Nov 11
Welcome new followers! I'm a historian of #EarlyModern England at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social, currently working on two projects: the #PowerOfPetitioning (petitioning.history.ac.uk) and the #WrittenWorlds of non-elite writers (writtenworlds.org). 🗃️
Front cover of The Power of Petitioning in Early Modern Britain, edited by Brodie Waddell and Jason Peacey. Screenshot of the landing page for the Written Worlds project website.
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Feeling unwholesomely pleased with myself after submitting a co-authored article only about two months later than planned.
November 7, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
cathfletcher.bsky.social
ICYMI yesterday afternoon a fantastic new digital resource pulling together data on the Roman road network has just launched. Explore at:
itiner-e
itiner-e.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
ihr.bsky.social
The Curriers' Prize is now open! Submit your best unpublished essay on any aspect of London's history, and you could get a £1,000 award!

Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize
The Curriers’ Prize
The Worshipful Company of Curriers, has established an essay prize on the history of London, in association with The London Journal Trust and the IHR.
www.history.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 12:12 PM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
A question for #EarlyModern #skystorians: What does 'exped' mean as a response to a petition, in this case to the 17th-century House of Lords?

I'd assumed 'expedite', but that doesn't quite make sense in some contexts. 🗃️ Examples here:
www.british-history.ac.uk/petitions/ho...
November 5, 2025 at 1:24 PM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
240,000 pages of manuscript and printed sources at your fingertips, now with much improved usability! 🗃️📜
timhitchcock.bsky.social Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · 8d
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
London Lives
www.londonlives.org
November 5, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
jenbaird.bsky.social
I'm so proud of what we're building!

www.bbk.ac.uk/news/meet-th...
Meet the first recipients of the Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies scholarships
This autumn, three students began their postgraduate degrees at Birkbeck as the first recipients of the new Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies scholarships.
www.bbk.ac.uk
October 23, 2025 at 10:08 AM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
In my first-year #EarlyModern class this week at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social, we did primary source analysis focused on the age-old problems of sex, drugs and rock n roll (comic adultery, disorderly alehouses, and unlicenced musicians).

Still buzzing from such an engaged group of students! 🗃️
Magdalene College - Pepys • 21803 1675-1696 ? The Country Cuckold: / OR, / The Buxome Dames Frollick in a Field of RIE, / with her Lusty Gallant. Complaint to the Norfolk Quarter Sessions, 1622. Norfolk Record Office, C/S 3/23a Personal exceptions against the present alehouse-keepers in Harpley. Against Thomas Laskey: 1. The seventh of September last past, townsmen were drinking in the house most part of the night. 2. The 17th of September were the like company drinking most part of the afternoon: the one of which company committed manslaughter the night following; and another standing by. 3. The smith's man after he had there been drinking was so outrageous as he threatened to beat down his master's shop and to draw his knife. 4. Item some admonishing the wife of Thomas Laskey to keep better order or else that her alehouse-keeping must go down: her answer was: a turd in their teeth that should go about to put it down. Against Bartholomew Collison: 1. In the house of Bartholomew Collison upon the 15th day of September being Sunday were the servants of townsmen drinking and card playing, and that in service time. 2. Also upon another Sabbath before the former was another company drinking. 3. Also upon the Sunday after Candlemas Day last past divers of the town were likewise drinking the most part of the day. Witnesses to the articles abovewritten: To the first can witness Thomas Michell and William Starling. To the second can witness two servants of Anthony Simpson. To the third can the Smith and his wife testify. To the fourth Cicely Seggar and George Gogges. To the articles against B: Collison, James Ingledew can speak to the first and William Wilson. To the second Thomas Bateman can affirm. To the third can testify Jonas Thorpe with the wives of Robert Bateman and Walter Platfoote. 2 October 1678, order of the Norwich Mayor’s Court Norfolk Record Office, NCR Case 16a/25, f. 33. Upon complaint of the Weights [i.e. Waits] of this City against Daniell Hot, George Ellis, Samuel Suffield, Mathew Crotch & Thomas Turner that they notwithstanding they were not bound apprentice to the Science of Musick doe goe from howse to howse & play not onely in the day but at unseasonable times in the night to the great prejudice of severall persons & their friends in this City & also to the Weights of this City, It is ordered for the future that if they or any other person besides such as are the Weights of this City shall in Companyes play in any part of this City eyther in the publique or private houses unless it be in the Assizes weeke, at the Sessions at the Guild time or the choice of parliament men shalbe punished according to the lawe.
November 5, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
willpooley.bsky.social
“If the point is that we need to restore these human stories, why frame them within law's stories first?”

Some thoughts on history, law, storytelling and Mrs Burns

williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/h...

🗃️
Her Story
Valerie Margaret Small was born in 1941. In her teens, her domineering father was sick and bedridden, and she was expected to look for work. She trained as a tailor and then, aged 19, took driving …
williamgpooley.wordpress.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
davelifelines.bsky.social
County boundaries weren't always as neat as we'd like them to be. The area around Meppershall in Bedfordshire was particularly complicated giving rise to this cartographical equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders:

HARTFORD SHIRE intermixed with BEDFORD SHIRE
The Limits uncertain

#MappyMonday
HARTFORD SHIRE intermixed with BEDFORD SHIRE The Limits uncertain Mapmaker: Jefferys, Thomas, -1771. Title: The County of Bedford, surveyed anno 1765 and engraved / by Thomas Jefferys. Date: 1765 https://maps.nls.uk/view/262718874
November 3, 2025 at 9:48 AM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
I rashly promised to bring in a "fun" primary source for our optional extra class on my first-year Early Modern World module tomorrow.

I've got a couple ideas but what's your favorite #EarlyModern source to throw at first-years? Max 1-2 pages. Any topic! 🗃️
November 3, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
aucointaylor.bsky.social
To mark #Halloween & publication of 'The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England', (now available in print & free online), this blogpost revisits the magiconomy.
🧙🎃
Highlights include a magical service paid for with bacon and pigeons.
🥓🪶
#history
ludicrushistories.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/t...
The Magiconomy of Early Modern England
This post is part of a series marking the print and online Open Access (free) publication of The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. The book is co-authored by Jane Whittle, Mark Hailwood, …
ludicrushistories.wordpress.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
ihrscb.bsky.social
A quick reminder that Dr Emily Vine @emilymayvine.bsky.social will be speaking TODAY on 'Birth, Death and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London' from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm in the Wolfson Room (NB02 at the IHR) and online, via Zoom! ✨ www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Birth, Death and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London
Society, Culture and Belief, 1500-1800 Seminar- Session 2
www.history.ac.uk
October 30, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
earlymodernjohn.bsky.social
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
New #EarlyModern hearth tax transcriptions for Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Norwich published #OpenAccess online!

In Offley 1663, Sir Brocket Spencer, baronet, had 24 hearths, while Widow Pilgrim was ‘poore and not able to pay’. 🗃️

Explore 370,406 others here: gams.uni-graz.at/archive/obje...
October 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
annacusack.bsky.social
Just your periodic reminder that there is an early modern pub night once a month for PhDs and ECRs and anyone else who'd like to join in London. If you'd like to be added to the mailing list please DM me.
Woodcut of four individuals around a table which has tankards of ale on it and a candle in a candle stick. One individual on the right as you look at the image is smoking a pipe and standing. The others are sitting. They are dressed in late Elizabethan or early Stuart clothings with some hats with feathers. One individual may be a woman the other three are male.
October 27, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
katrinanavickas.bsky.social
A reminder that my book on the history of protest is now published. It is superbly produced with a great cover. Buy it now from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social
Contested Commons Formidably erudite, compellingly argued, and dryly humorous, Contested Commons will change the way you think about the politics of space, the "myth of the commons", and the history of England since the eighteenth century: MATTHEW KELLy, author of The Women Who Saved the English Countryside "Starting with Kennington Common, and ranging from Steeple Bumpstead to Sheffield, Stonehenge and Brixton, and with a cast that includes ramblers, ranters, revolutionaries and ravers, this is a superb, sweeping but fine-grained history. It's also a highly necessary, politically urgent reminder of what public space is - places for everyone, owned by everyone, accessible to everyone, whether carefully tended or wild - and what it isn't, the tradition of pseudo-public space that runs from Victorian parks to privatised malls.' OWEN HATHERLEY, author of A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain
October 27, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
willpooley.bsky.social
I’m old enough to remember when everybody agreed that higher education was a “market” and offering “choice” was how the universities were meant to grow

on.ft.com/3WTwBue
Graphic shows % of universities undertaking various cost cutting measures, comparing spring 2024 with spring 2025. Course closures, cutting optional modules, compulsory redundancies, and department closures have all surged
October 27, 2025 at 7:32 AM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Birth! Death!! Domestic Religion!!!

Come along (or join online) to hear @emilymayvine.bsky.social's talk at the @ihr.bsky.social next Thursday.
ihrscb.bsky.social IHR Society, Culture & Belief, 1500-1800 @ihrscb.bsky.social · 21d
Join us next Thursday (30/10, 5.30 pm) for Dr Emily Vine’s (@emilymayvine.bsky.social) talk on ‘Birth, Death and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London’! You can sign up to join in-person (IHR Wolfson Room, NB02) or online via Zoom here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Birth, Death and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London
Society, Culture and Belief, 1500-1800 Seminar- Session 2
www.history.ac.uk
October 24, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
jonathanhealey.bsky.social
Braudel for the win
yougov.co.uk YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 22d
FT columnist Janan Ganesh recently wrote of his conversion to the 'Great Man' theory of history - but only a minority agree

-History is primarily shaped by major figures: 27%
-Primarily shaped by broad social / economic / cultural / tech changes: 51%

yougov.co.uk/topics/enter...
October 22, 2025 at 5:23 PM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Thank you @lflannigan17.bsky.social for this really thoughtful review of our #PowerOfPetitioning book! doi.org/10.1093/ehr/...

She's right that 16th-century petitions don't get enough attention here, but you can read the 'ambitious' book for yourself to find out more: uclpress.co.uk/book/the-pow...
Screenshot of Laura Flannigan review of The Power of Petitioning in Early Modern Britain, ed. Brodie Waddell and Jason Peacey, The English Historical Review, 2025;, ceaf189, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceaf189
October 20, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
tedmccormick.bsky.social
my thoughts on generative AI in the classroom
memoriousblog.com/2025/10/18/w...
Why I am not using AI in the classroom
Last week I spoke with some of my colleagues about the “challenges” posed by generative AI to our teaching. As anyone who follows me on Bluesky — or followed me on Twitter, prior …
memoriousblog.com
October 18, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
markhailwood.bsky.social
Final post in my series on 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England'. It focuses on the heartbeat of the premodern economy.... the harvest.

manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/16/t...
The Experience of Work in Early Modern England IV: Harvesters
This post is part of a series that marks the publication of The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. The book is co-authored by monster head Mark Hailwood, along with Jane Whittle, Hannah Ro…
manyheadedmonster.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:16 AM
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
'the importance of petitioning as a prosaic, everyday feature of early modern governance'

Don't have time to read this new article by @allankennedy.bsky.social right now but keen to learn more about the #PowerOfPetitioning in early modern Scotland! 🗃️

#OpenAccess here: doi.org/10.1080/0260...
October 15, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
markhailwood.bsky.social
As the agricultural cycle starts to wind down for the winter, my next post on 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' looks forward to its resumption in the new year, when...

‘Ploughmen go whistling to their toils’

manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/14/t...
The Experience of Work in Early Modern England III: ‘Ploughmen go whistling to their toils’
This post is part of a series that marks the publication of The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. The book is co-authored by monster head Mark Hailwood, along with Jane Whittle, Hannah Ro…
manyheadedmonster.com
October 14, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Brodie Waddell
willpooley.bsky.social
one of the astonishing things about working in a UK uni in the last decade is complete DISCONNECT between (on one hand) hostile media stories, ill informed govt policy, end of unis as we know them

and (on the other) the joyful work of actually talking w/students and discovering new things together
October 14, 2025 at 7:47 AM