Month: April 2022

Arel, Maria Salomon. English Trade and Adventure to Russia in the Early Modern Era: The Muscovy Company, 1603-1649. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019. 

As the fog rolls over the port of Archangel, English merchants rush to get goods boarded onto ships. The naval goods bound for England have dried up over the last couple of decades and the tradewinds in Russia are changing for the worst. The Russian government would withdraw the special status enjoyed by English merchants where they did not have to pay Russian customs. The Muscovy Company was originally intended to find a northern passage to Asia. However, Richard Chancellor found the government of Muscovy in Present-day Russia. Chancellor was greeted by Muscovite officials and was sent to Moscow to meet Tsar Ivan IV. After meeting with the Tsar, Chancellor retired to London to discuss his findings with Mary I. Mary charted the Muscovy Company in 1555 and they immediately got to work sending goods between England and Russia. 

Maria Salomon Arel is a professor of History at Marianopolis College in Quebec, Canada. English Trade and Adventure is the first book that she has published, but she has written many articles that discuss trade and the Muscovy government in the 17th century. The articles have been published in academic journals and some have been turned into chapters for edited volumes. English Trade and Adventure was published by Lexington Books. Lexington Books specializes in published peer-reviewed books that are not affiliated with a University press. Arel breaks ground in her first book and she makes an outstanding argument that changes how we should view the Muscovy Companies’ decline during the English Civil War. 

Arel formats English Trade and Adventure in a chronological form that follows the formation of the company and many of the challenges it had to face over the 16th and 17th centuries. As the narrative progress, a fuller picture is made of the company and how it balanced changes in Russia with changes in England. Arel argues that the Muscovy Company was not pushed out of the region by the Dutch traders, as other historians have argued, but rather that the company took a backseat to the larger markets that opened up to England after the English Civil War. Arel uses unused Russian sources that show that the Muscovy Company was not killed but rather slowly died on the vine. Her argument refutes other arguments made by previous historians and uses sources both from England and Russia for evidence. The Muscovy Company has a complicated story that suffered from developments in both Russia and England that forced the company to decline. 

The English and the Dutch engaged in a protracted trade war that spanned the globe. In Russia, it was no different. Both countries vied to control the markets and as Russia consolidated power and turned towards the West, Russia wanted a greater say in their markets. England looked toward Russia as a source for raw materials it needed for the navy. England during the 16th and 17th centuries were on the verge of establishing a global empire and needed the rope to maintain their navy. Through Russia, England imported cheap rope that sustained the Royal Navy throughout this period. England set about constructing the port city of Arkhangelsk, in Northern Russia, to ship their goods. The Russian market also used English to export textiles created in England. The flow of goods between Russia and England was beneficial to both parties. 

The Muscovy Company continued to thrive up to the English Civil War. Arel points out that the schism that hit England also hit the Muscovy Company. The older merchants allied themselves with the Royalists, whereas the younger traders allied themselves with Parliament. The English Civil War was a major sticking point for the Russians. The Russian Tsar saw the company as turning their back on their sovereign and relations soured. However, relations did not cease and a new generation of traders was prepared to expand the economic reach of the English state. 

 Arel points out that the younger generation was using the ever-expanding English Empire to grow their trade partners. While working for the Muscovy Company, merchants would regularly trade for goods that would be shipped to the Americas or the powerful states of the Middle East. The younger merchants of the Muscovy Company were not bound by the traditional rules of an earlier trade. They were not members of elite families and were using new networks of trade to deal with more goods. Taking advantage of the increasing reach of English interests in the 17th century, the Muscovy Company was able to trade in a larger number of goods that were not bound for Russia or England. Some of the goods were destined for the Mediterranian and the Levant through the use of traditional Russian trade routes. 

Arel finds new Russian sources that point to English and Dutch cooperation while in Russia. The Dutch and English merchants would work together to pressure the Tsar to preserve special economic status that prevented an export tax. Her new sources fly in the face of previous scholarship that states the Muscovy Company was pummeled to death by the power of the Dutch Merchants. Arel argues that instead the Dutch and the English worked together in some instances until the Russian Tsar was unwilling to work with the English anymore. The Muscovy Company was overshadowed in English thinking by the larger markets and colonies that were established around the globe. 

Arel writes an original argument that is supported by both Russian and English sources. Her argument is original and turns away from the previous scholarship to provide a clearer picture. Previous scholarship has only used English sources to examine the Muscovy Company. Arel, on the other hand, uses sources from both countries to create an original argument that complicates the picture of the company. English Trade and Adventure sets out to chart a new course in the history of trade in Russia. Her structure and argument make for a fascinating read that challenges previous scholarship and opens a dialog on the history of the English trade in Russia. 

Reviewed by Tyler Thompson 

Dr. Sam White, the author of A Cold Welcome: The Little Ica Age and Europe’s Encounter with North America is a history professor at The Ohio State University, where he teaches courses on environmental history (in global and American contexts). White received his M.A. in middle East Studies and Modern History from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland before going on to gain his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2008. His first book on the Ottoman Empire during the “Little Ice Age” was very well received, winning prizes from Associations focused on the region much like A Cold Welcome, which has received awards from the Sixteenth-Century society in addition to many other accolades detailed on his university website[1]. To overly simplify things, Dr. White is very knowledgeable and highly regarded for his contributions to environmental history. This book is about how climate affected the initial European colonies in the Americas with special emphasis on how preconceptions and misconceptions about the New World’s climate negatively affected attempts to settle these areas as it colored the interactions between settlers and natives during a time of climate change known as the “Little Ice Age”.

The book is divided along geographical lines in that it focuses on each of the major Colonial Empires of the New World (Spanish, French and English) in turn and their efforts at colonization over the centuries. Within each of the subsections, the book maintains a chronological narrative as Dr. White seeks to demonstrate how chance and contingency played a massive role in the initial settlement of North America, especially on the matter of which settlements succeeded and failed.

Aside from the introduction which briefly discusses the Viking settlements in Greenland and ‘Vinland’ (modern day Newfoundland) Dr. White’s book begins with the Spanish and their first colonies in the Caribbean, followed by their efforts in Mexico and first settlements in Florida. Dr. White makes heavy use of both primary and secondary sources in his detailing of the many misconceptions that caused the Spanish colonists no end of difficulties in adapting to the environments they encountered. Indeed, the very first ‘story’ for lack of a better term that White tells us about the preconceptions held by European colonists was their belief in the old Greco-Roman idea that climate zones were effectively rings around the world and that the climate of the Old World at one latitude would be equivalently transposed to that of the New. Indeed, Dr. White points out in most European languages there was no word for ‘climate’ as we use it today, with instead the word latitude fulfilling the same role. I found the small narratives that Dr. White wove throughout his work to be very interesting and helpful in connecting with the otherwise seemingly disconnected source material, allowing for more ‘continuity’ between expeditions to the same region by the same state over the 16^th and 17^th centuries. As Dr. White states in his chapters on Spanish and French colonial efforts, expeditions to less inhabitable regions like Florida were often separated by years or decades, preventing colonists from ‘acclimating’ to the region’s climate or gaining a good sense of what to expect from the lands to their North.

As the book continues, Dr. White details how the preconceptions carried from Europe, combined with the often incredibly short-lived efforts by the initial colonies (not to mention the generally catastrophic climatic changes brought about by the Little Ice Age) led to the Spanish abdicating their claims to all the New World granted to them by the Pope in the Treaty of Tordesillas. These chance failures, Dr. White argues, directly led to the French and English colonial efforts along the Eastern Seaboard of the modern U.S. and Canada. The difficulties the French and English had in establishing their own permanent settlements led to Spain, under the leadership of Philip the II, to vacillate between destroying their rivals’ colonies as they did with the French in the Carolinas or ignoring their efforts, as exemplified by the English in Roanoke and later, Jamestown. Dr. White goes on to connect the effects of the Little Ice Age in Europe to these colonial expeditions, as the environmental turmoil on the continent made the objectively horrific experiences at Jamestown (starvation, disease, cannibalism) seem much less hazardous or at least bearable when compared to the tensions in Europe.

The book culminates in an in-depth discussion of the trials and tribulations of the Jamestown Colony, such as its overly optimistic plannings by the Virginia Company in London, its difficulties in establishing basic subsistence farming and its growing hostilities with the natives, with Dr. White closing off the ‘story’ of the Jamestown colony with a description of how the surviving settlers decided to abandon the colony and sail away only to run into their reinforcements arriving in the mouth of the Chesapeake, whose combined efforts allowed the colony to persist despite its perennial lack of food and hostile neighbors.

All-in-all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and will be honestly adding it to the list of books I would like to personally have a copy of. I would say that Dr. White does an excellent job of showing how the experiences of these initial colonists shaped the approaches of their respective nations and how relatively simple misunderstandings and preconceptions led to immense suffering on the part of colonists and lasting negative impressions regarding the viability of settlement in North America. This book, I believe, would be a good read for anyone interested in understanding how the environment has and can have a massive impact on the course of history and how the initial settlement of the Americas by Europeans was dictated by far more than economic, geographic, or political realities.

[1] https://history.osu.edu/people/white.2426

The author of this book, Dr. L. H. Roper, is a history professor at the New Paltz State University of New York who received his PhD in History from the University of Rochester in 1992. He primarily writes about Colonial America and has written many papers and two books (including this one) on the colonization of North America by the English in the 17th Century. According to his profile page on the State University of New York website, he is currently researching European colonization of North America and 17th century English activities in West Africa. In Advancing Empire, Dr. Roper’s initial argument seems to be that English Colonial efforts were not State directed or Imperial in the traditional sense of the word but were instead undertaken by private individuals and corporations with the bare minimum of State intervention, with what little state intervention often provided at the request of said individuals and corporations.

Dr. Roper’s primary argument makes the case that the British settlements in North America and the Caribbean were implemented and funded by private corporations so that the societal prerequisites for the forms of commerce these individuals were accustomed to could exist. In the northern colonies this was accomplished via direct settlement and indentured servitude while the Caribbean and in Southern colonies this was accomplished via the importation of slaves from Africa, with varying degrees of overlap between these two forms of colonization. Dr. Roper points to the large degree of overlap between those who were in charge of supplying slaves from Africa to the New World and those who traded New World products within Europe in support of his arguments and refers to sources such as cargo manifests and other financial documentation alongside many references to other scholarly works created in the last century.

Dr. Roper’s work is chronologically structured, with each chapter building on the developments of the previous. Chapter 1 deals with the basic organizational principles and initial goals of these early English colonial ventures, while Chapters 2 through 4 detail how local conditions in the Americas led to different approaches in the establishment of colonial societies. Chapters 5 through 7 show how these systems grew and evolved over decades as the political system in England shifted, with Dr. Roper specifically discussing how the interregnum allowed many of the individuals responsible for these colonial efforts to gain direct access to England’s governmental structure and thus gain the ability to direct the state in such a way that they hoped would benefit their endeavors. Dr. Roper does show that the efforts of these colonial ‘investors’ were not always successful in getting the results that they desired, with Dr. Roper concluding the book with an explanation of how the growing stakes and importance of these colonial and now Imperial ventures led to the breakdown of the mostly autonomous corporate backed efforts and the establishment of direct authority by the British government over their subjects commercial ventures and the ultimate ‘formalization’ of the British Empire.

Dr. Roper’s use of records on economic transactions and the cargo manifests of ships heading to and from the colonies to support his arguments on the nature of said colonies is interesting. Coupled with his points on how the ideals expressed by many of the figures involved in the running of the colonial enterprises often conflicted with the realities they themselves created in the colonies in their pursuit of profit, Dr. Roper effectively provides the reader with reasons to doubt the direct statements of these investors as to their purpose in establishing and supporting colonial endeavors. I was personally particularly interested in how Dr. Roper shows that the attitudes held by the backers of colonial projects in the New World did not significantly change after the English civil war and the Regicide. While Dr. Roper highlights the fractious nature of Interregnum politics discussed in Chapter 6 as the reason behind the earliest attempts by the English ‘state’ at providing a uniform stance on colonial matters and its overseas territories, the long-term effects on England’s colonial ventures of its initial indifference was not explored in this work.

While the subject matter was interesting and well-presented, with Dr. Roper often providing both interesting and compelling arguments for the complexities in the administrative minutia present in initially creating and governing the disparate territories of the ‘English overseas Emipre’, I overall do not believe he fully tied together the political developments within England and Europe to the attitudes of the colonial backers that he (in my eyes effectively) argued were most directly involved and responsible for England’s overseas possessions situation. I feel that his work would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of the direct testimony of those involved in these colonial ventures at all levels as the absence of many firsthand accounts or descriptions makes it difficult for the reader to understand how these various forms of society-building were perceived by those within them and those back in England.

In the end, I would say that this book would be of value to anyone wanting to learn more about the reasoning behind England’s early colonial/Imperial efforts and the lack of official support for most of these ventures. While I do have issues with Dr. Roper’s presentation of the colonial investor’s motivations and goals, I would still consider this work to be an excellent source of information on the interplay between English internal politics and the treatment of England’s overseas territories.

James Kelly

English Converts in Catholic Europe c.1600-1800

Cambridge University Press

 225 pp, $99.99

Publication date: 2020.

English Converts in Catholic Europe by James Kelly was published in 2020. Dr. James Kelly is a Sweeting Associate Professor in the History of Catholicism at Durham University. Dr. Kelly is a joint general editor of  five-volumes of The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism (OUP, forthcoming 2022). In addition,he is one of the co-editors of the book series, ‘Catholicisms, c.1450-c.1800’, published by Durham University IMEMS Press. His focus and interests are in post-reformation Catholic history in Europe, with a focus on Britain and Ireland, the focus of his research is on British and Irish catholic communities at home and in exile. Thus, his book on English converts in Catholic Europe is an area in which he specializes in.

Chapter 1 of Kelly’s book focuses on the recruitment process of the postulant’s choice of a covenant. This would lead to what he states is a main argument of the chapter; which was “on what basis did a postulant choose which convent they wanted to join?” What we would find out in that chapter and further on in the book is that many things went into deciding what convent they wanted to join, one of the factors that played a role in this was their nationality. Where they were from played a role in where they decided to go but the overarching theme that became clear the deeper that you go through the book was that your nationality could be different but, all converts still strongly believed that they were a part of the bigger umbrella that is the catholic church. This was despite the strife and conflicts that were ever present in the Catholic Church and within European politics. Chapter 2 focuses on the English exile converts and their commitment to the Council of Trent and its teaching on female religious life. The Council of Trent, in December 1563, at their 25th session made their rulings on male and female orders. In their ruling, they decided that female religious groups were to be enclosed (they removed themselves from the main religious body). Kelly ties in Chapter 1 in this chapter by pointing out that once a postulant chose their convent, it was the enclosed environment that the Council of Trent decided that they were to live by. In Chapter 3 we get to see how materials were incorporated into religious life. The Council of Trent shaped the way that Catholicism was run and viewed by others, their decrees made Catholic Europe shape into a more visual religion, paintings were being commissioned and the arts were present within monasteries and churches. The focus was on bringing people into worship, they wanted the world to see how great Catholicism was. This, as Kelly notes, was tied to previous and future chapters of his book, these decisions by the Council of Trent forced those in exile to adapt the way that they operated, these decrees “had a huge impact on the financial management of convents across Europe and was felt keenly by the exile English institutions. However, like their continental equivalents, the English convents found ways to negotiate these new systems and at the same time augment their spiritual experience: architecture might have enforced enclosure and shaped spiritual behaviour but could in turn be used to increase the level of esteem in which the nuns were held.” As I noted earlier, churches were now built with side chapels, which were not present in medieval churches. (Chapter 3). Chapter 4, Kelly discusses the financial aspect of English covenants in Catholic Europe, the decrees made by the Council affected the finances of these covenants, they were unable to raise funds in ways that were previously used such as quire nuns begging for alms, were no longer possible. So, other ways of raising funds became a necessity. Although nuns took vows not to hold any personal finances, depending on the covenant, some took it more seriously than others. An example that Kelly gives is the Poor Clares, who believed that nothing went to waste, even food that had started to smell. But, in order for a covenant to run properly, money needed to be brought in. So, the nuns who were responsible for the money had to balance their vows to not hold money and keep the covenant alive. Chapter 5 details the daily lives of those within the enclosure. The daily lives and rituals of those in the enclosure are commonly found in covenant archives, so Kelly had a wealth of information at his fingers. Typically, “The convent day was dictated by the rhythm of the Divine Office, a series of prayers made up of seven Hours: Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. Praying these was each nun’s primary task and numerous advice books were written with the aim of guiding nuns through each Hour, offering them advice on how best to prepare for the contemplative day.” It was this rhythm that they were accustomed to. Kelly notes that not all covenants followed this exactly and that many changed it to fit the mission of their own covenant but that the core values still remained, the lives of the nuns were to be structured around prayer. That even though these enclosures were to be enclosed, covenants found a way to stay connected to the world around them. Chapter 6 is the wider picture of English converts and the mission of Catholicism. As Kelly has noted in previous chapters, these enclosures weren’t completely enclosed, they still had a finger on the pulse of the world. Covenants were still connected to the world in one way or another, one example that Dr. Kelly gives is “the Liège Sepulchrines had a very close relationship with several eighteenth-century rectors of the English College, Rome, particularly Christopher Maire, SJ, the Rome-based Jesuits seeking advice on feasts and indulgences on behalf of the convent’s inhabitants.” Of course, not all interactions were positive and there was some disagreement such as the incident in Lisbon. “. . . an angry exchange ensued over students from the college visiting the Bridgettine convent and allegedly compromising its observance of enclosure. The nuns’ chaplain, John Marks, wrote caustically in 1669 to the college vice-president Mathias Watkinson, ‘Had you considered the words of my letter as a considerate man would have done you might have saved yourself the labour of writing a reply and me the trouble of answering it.’” The relationships that existed between English exile institutions all shared the same goal that was mentioned earlier, the betterment of the Catholic Church. Although these religious institutions started to take a less religious approach as time went along fulfilling various social, educational and political functions.

In conclusion, I felt that Kelly did a great job at explaining English converts and covenants. He had a clear thesis and he stuck to that thesis throughout the book, he tells the audience what they’re going to be learning about and provides a number of examples. He references previous chapters and how they tie into the current chapter. English Converts in Catholic Europe reinforces and adds to a growing historiography that has become a topic of interest among historians, with its clear structure and flow. James Kelly has written an academic book that was enjoyable to read and will aid future research on the topic of Catholicism in Europe.

Book Review done by Vincent Cervone, Graduate Student at George Mason University

Ofer Hadass

Medicine, Religion, and Magic in Early Stuart England: Richard Napier’s Medical Practice

The Pennsylvania State University Press

 213 pp, $34.95, ISBN: 9780271080192

Publication date: 2018.

This work was created by Ofer Hadass who has released several books on the subject of medicine and magic in Stuart England. This Interestingly seems to be an extension or rewrite of his dissertation at University of Haifa (Israel) called Richard Napier,” renowned Physician Both of Body and Soul”: Astrological Medicine, Theology and Magic in Early Stuart England (2014). Even though this book is only 213 pages, it reviews not only a general understand of medicine during this time, but also how Napier and a few others operated on “hard evidence” theories when practicing. Hadass states several time that he and other scholars want to understand how medicine and religion or spiritual work could be reconciled at this time. The book is then broken down into four chapters but then further separated in each chapter with subsections.

Starting with chapter one, “Astrological Medicine,” Hadass begins by giving the reader a general understanding of where medicine is at by 1600, plus a general view of Napier’s framework. This is discussed in the subsections of The Image of Body, The Image of Illness, and The Basics of Astrological Medicine. I learned a vast amount about humors and how the belief that the whole body was interconnected (p 17) was used by Napier at a time to better understand these illnesses, and some of his treatments seemed to prove this theory correct.  

Chapter two, “Astral Magic,” contained Napier and other practitioners using charms and spells in their medicine plans. This seems like it would contradict the idea of hard evidence in medicine. However, this seems to be “balanced” out with the idea of using natural items from the earth. When a patient came back to the doctor with the same issues more than twice, Napier told her that she was condemned and no goodness from the earth could save her. He believed (as the author portrayed) that it was not the medicine alone that was giving them health, but the power of god through the medicine would help his patients. Another way Napier used astral magic was to use a copper or tin talisman to ward off the illness from that person. Thinking that the planets in specific phases, these talisman would attempt to counteract the effects.

Chapter three, “Converse with Angels,” is a bit harder to grasp at first. Very basically, some doctors like Napier began the practice of extending contact to Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Asariel to gain advice or information about how the patient is doing. This was following an English natural philosopher, John Dee, who subscribed to the belief that angels could assist mankind. Hadass states that “at this point, most recorded answers limited to disease prognosis or to forecasting the outcome of Napier’s treatment” (p 96). This seems to be controversial even for the time, but was not unheard of. Napier was attempting to find some facts, even within faith that would explain why treatments would work for some patients and not others. Asking angels and looking at the positions of the planets seemed to be what he saw as hard evidence.

Finally chapter four. This chapter is called “Religion and Knowledge” and it begins to answer some of the confusion that may have arose in the previous chapter. We see that Napier was stuck in two worlds, and Hadass offers that these two realms of thought may not have been so different after all. The author offers that ‘religion and the investigation of nature’ were simply different ways of seeing God (p 123). This starts to tie together all the strings from the previous chapters as Napier is looking for hard evidence in his work. Hadass uses this chapter to dive into Napier’s letters with others as tensions rose throughout his career. Napier would often write sermons in his personal notes, but did not fare well with the other members of society. At several points he was accused of heresy, especially in one case when his sermon mentioned pagans gods and goddesses (p 131). I believe this makes the case that, as much as Napier wanted to be a man of God, he was not religious in the way that Early Stuart England expected. After his sermon, he was chastised by the minister and many others. He battled religion and knowledge.

As a historian that is interested in medicine but not an endless wealth of knowledge on this topic, Hadass does well at explaining (sometimes more like translating) what would happen when patients came to see Napier for help. In what I thought was the most interesting case, a female had come to see Napier because she had not had her menstrual cycle in two months and had body aches, swelling, and feeling vertigo. When applying astrology and finding out that she has also had nose bleeds, Napier concludes that the interconnected body lost its menses and the blood needed a place to escape (p16). This is how we start to see connections between astrology, astral magic, and religion to his daily cases and the search for what caused these changes in the humors of the body.

This was a time of questions and attempting to find answers that made sense to these doctors. Hadass makes the claim here that “Napier was not an uneducated practitioner and certainly not a quack,” and I have to agree (p 140). Looking at the mix of what was proven science and educated estimate based on experience, Napier was quite close to what we know today. Hadass makes a strong and convincing case that Napier and others may have called this work magic and conversing with angels, but had shown that there was some “hard evidence” in his work. Napier would not have moved forward with a treatment or medical exam if he did not think it would be helpful, or even harmful as shown in his notes for each patient. 

Accidents and Violent Death in Early Modern London by Dr. Craig Spence was published in 2016 by Boydell & Brewer. Dr. Spence is a former professor of History and Archaeology at Bishop Grosseteste University. His expertise and interests include early modern urban and cultural history with a focus on the patterns and interpretation of accidents. This is exemplified in Accidents and Violent Death as the book discusses murder, suicide, and fatal accidents experienced in urban London between the mid-seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries. This study is unique as it is a subject often overlooked by Early Modern historians. Dr. Spence argues that these deaths are telling of life in general as well as social and cultural norms of the time. Through the examination of quantitative and qualitative data, Dr. Spence was able to thrust the reader into a world of danger and ground them in the realities of urban living during the Early Modern period.

Dr. Spence discusses a brief historiography of accidents and violent deaths within the introduction of his book and defines accidents as dependent on environment, period, and place (1). He also discusses the shift of public perception of accidents from that of the wrath if God to threats to be managed. This shift was characteristic of the scientific revolution and the enlightenment as society gravitated to a more secular understanding of the world. After this shift, threats were mitigated through technological and fiscal solutions rather than atonement for sins and religious superstition (8). Also within his introduction, Dr. Spence breaks down the book structure into three sections. The first section, comprising of chapters one and two, discusses demographics and metropolitan record keeping of the analysis of death. Section two, consisting of chapters three through six, focuses on the most common types of violent death during the era. And section three, consisting of chapters seven through nine, discuss the dissemination of these records and public response as well as medical efforts.

Chapter one discusses sudden violent death in London, listing homicide, suicide, and fatal accidents as the main categories (26). This chapter also examines the city’s demographics and infrastructure as contributing factors to the record data, stating that this was a period of urban development and influx of young people, both leading to more accidents (24). Chapter two discusses the act of record keeping, the procedures around examination of the body, and the charges placed in correlation with findings. Chapter three discusses death by burning and drowning. Death by fire was a domestic fear as women and children were increasingly susceptible due to the use of candles, lamps, and hearths within the home (66). Drowning was a prevalent danger in maritime professions as well as civilian travel expeditions. Drowning was so common that it was, for a time, considered an inevitable demise for maritime professionals (94). Chapter four examines the urban phenomenon of fatal falls, vehicular accidents, machinery hazards, and animal related deaths that claimed the lives of many on city streets, labeling these as “everyday urban accidents.” Chapter five discusses more rare and exceptional deaths caused by explosions, asphyxiation, poisoning, crowd-crushing, and weapon misfires (148). Chapter six discusses time, drawing distinct trends that correlate with population density, warfare, economic strife, and other large scale events with the causes and frequency of violent deaths (164). Chapter seven discusses the development of occupational medicine and the role of the parish when presented with a violent accident. Chapter eight examines the attempt to mitigate accidents through company management and government regulation in order to control negligent behavior in the workplace (206). Chapter nine discusses the print culture responsible for sharing the narrative of events and reiterating the fact that these events were an undeniable part of urban life (242).

Dr. Spence utilizes various primary sources as the foundations of his study. These sources include ballads, books, maps, corporate documents, personal correspondence, diaries and journals, legal statements and statutes, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, prints, burial registers, and the Bills of Mortality. Dr. Spence has a deep interest in print culture and the Bills of Mortality is arguably his most valued source for this work. The Bills were a weekly publication of death records primarily used to track plague outbreaks in Early Modern London. These publications, however, provide quantitative data that gives insight into the dangers of living in London. Dr. Spence also utilizes various secondary sources from peers within the field to bolster his analysis of primary sources.

Accidents and Violent Deaths in Early Modern London is a well-written book that attempts to place the phenomenon of accidents and violent deaths into a broader context of early modern society. At first glance, this book seems that it would be a “history buff’s” dream. About 200 pages of gruesome stories of the way people died. Not going to lie, that is what drew me to the book at first as well. However, the author pleasantly takes everything a step further to make this book impactful within the historiography of early modern England. The main purpose or goal of the book seems to be to use the records and primary sources collected about accidents and violent deaths, to help readers construct a view of early modern London. The author does address the problem that since accidents and violent deaths are rare by nature, it is contested whether we can use these sources to draw conclusions about society as a whole. The author counters by arguing that by looking at the response of society to enough accidents, one can start to see how society might have reacted to such traumatic events. 

Chapter 1 starts out by giving a brief overview of what life was like in the city of London at this time, and by overviewing some of the main accidents and types of deaths that are to be discussed in the book. Chapter 1 also reviews some important social structures that interacted with each other around the theme of accidents and violent deaths. Chapter 2 goes more in-depth into the social structures and institutions whose responsibilities it was to manage the aftermath of accidents and violent deaths. The author argues that although rare occurrences, the people whose job it was to oversee these processes had a very organized and methodological way of working. Chapter 3 dives into the opposing forces of water and fire. Both resources are essential for human life, but can also end your life in the blink of an eye. Chapter 5 deals with the everyday accidents that are consequences of living in a city. Falling, being struck, horse accidents, cart accidents. All of these events happened quite frequently and were results of how the city of London was structured and built. Chapter 5 talks about more types of death that occurred in cities but were likely rarer. Often times it is debated whether these accidents were truly accidental or done on purpose. Due to the nature of the Bills of Mortality, it is often hard to tell. Chapter 6 analyzes the data in terms of seasonality, exploring what types of accidents happened during specific times of the year. This chapter also looks at death trends from 1654-to 1735, seeing if there are any significant trends that align with economic or political events within the region. Chapter 7 takes a look into the medical responses that happened after an accident had occurred. Depending on the type of injury, who provided care after an accident varied. Doctors were very limited in Early Modern London. In most cases, parishes would help to fund the healing of patients. And in other cases, companies or jobs would help to pay if the injury was obtained at work. Chapter 8 reviews some of the regulations that were put into place in order to prevent certain accidents from occurring again. Although at a higher level, not much was done, some localities did enforce regulations to keep cities a little bit safer. Finally, Chapter 9 deals with the narratives that were often constructed from accidents and violent deaths. By exploring newspapers, pamphlets, ballads, and personal journals, readers are able to see how early modern Londoners made sense of traumatic events that were happening around them. 

As seen from the summary, this book gave a very comprehensive overview of the types of accidents and deaths that happened in early modern London, and how society reacted to make sense of them. I think the broad yet specific nature of this book is a strength. It takes a very niche topic and expands it in every way possible. This could have very easily been a book summarizing the trends from the Bills of Mortality. However, the author weaved in some aspects of cultural history which allowed readers to receive some first-hand accounts of this topic. Chapter 9 especially helped to pull the culture of Early Modern England into what could have otherwise been a very quantitative book. The organization of the book was also a strength. In three parts: an overview, empirical data, and social and cultural responses, there was truly something for everyone. Although, in part 2 of the book I felt that they were just restating the bills of mortality at times, and wished for more commentary on the goals of the book. Not necessarily a weakness but a source shortcoming, but it would have been nice to learn about accidents and violent deaths from other parts of England as well. Although, that might have made the book too long at that point. 

Overall, this was a wonderfully written book that gave a very holistic view of different types of accidents and violent deaths. The goal of the book was to use the sources based on accidents and violent deaths to give readers a peek into early modern society by seeing how people reacted to and dealt with these traumatic events. After reading this book I am not sure if I am left with any new revelations as to how social structures of this time functioned surrounding accidents. However, I do feel that the author did something new by using the Bills of Mortality to look more into the social and cultural structures of early modern London.

Spence, Craig

Accidents and Violent Death in Early Modern London, 1650-1750

Suffolk: Boydell Press

288 pp, £19.99, ISBN: 9781782049005

Publication date: 2016.

As a historian who has found extreme fascination with the Bills of Mortality, my interest was peaked (and/or piqued) by the work Accidents and Violent Death in Early Modern London, 1650-1750 by Craig Spence. Accidents is a book that attempts to explain what the Bills of Mortality did and the purpose it served in society but also a look at some of the inconsistencies within them that added to some confusion and questionable statistics. Spence has stated on his website to be a “historian and archaeologist. His interests are varied but he has expertise in late 17th and early 18th century London, social and cultural history, and archaeological practice.” I think we get to see that in this work as it bounces between storytelling of a cultural shift, but also a data driven archaeological sense of change happening.

Working through the book structure, Spence split the book into three parts. Part one, which included chapters one and two, are more of a broad understanding of the physical lay of the land and social reactions to death in general respectively. Part two, which included chapter three through six, covers what was deemed as an accident and how these accidents were listed in the Bills versus what actually occurred. Incidents like fires or water related deaths, everyday accidents that could happen in the cities, rarities like carbon monoxide, and seasonal deaths are all discussed in their respective chapters in quite a bit of detail. Finally part three, which included chapters seven through nine, looks at the social and medical changes that death brought to Early Modern London.

Before I get too far, I want to examine and explain the difference between chapter two and nine. These two chapters seem similar but are quite different and I appreciate it. Both sections look at death in society and how the culture of the time engaged it or not, but the difference is that chapter two dives into why these deaths began to be counted and how suicide or murder is defined. However, in nine, Spence takes a look into how sudden or violent death affected society and how it digested that information. There is now more private records like diaries, looking at how the average person was understanding and handling (or not) the deaths happening around them became easier. However, this chapter also dives into the news of these deaths changing as well.

The Bills of Mortality were just an example of how information began to switch from oral retellings to pamphlets, and then soon to newspapers! It is great to see how this transformed visually and historically because people could then understand what was happening in other parishes much faster than before. Then, there is a downside of politics coming into play here. As Spence puts it “It was not only the London papers that utilised sudden-death narratives. Early provincial newspapers often recycled metropolitan news, in part to establish a publisher’s credibility but also, more prosaically, to fill column space: as Cranfield phrased it, they were ‘a mere parasite upon the London press’.” (p 233) As we have seen in other works, like Disaffection and Everyday Life in Interregnum England, written news could change the perception of the information and this could then affect how the top-down versus bottom-up reactions could be vastly different, if not opposite. In this case, we see the Bills serve as possible way to question daily life for each class and even how the government attempts to respond or ignore the issue while getting wrapped up in the politics of misinformation or narrative made.

I truly was not sure if I liked this book when I first started reading it because the introduction drew me in with storytelling, then took a flip to data and a more mathematical view. I do tend to be a story not data driven historian. But, after getting through part one of the book, I understood the style of the work better and I really enjoyed it. This book seems to be that middle ground between the data historians and the historians that thrive on stories. Straight out from the beginning, Spence stated that this book’s “aim is not to reduce portrayal of such incidents and fatalities to anecdotal tales of ‘human interest’ or, for that matter, to see them as a window onto ‘everyday life’ in the past. Rather, it is to comprehend who, among hundreds of thousands of Londoners, encountered such events, how the city’s bureaucracy recorded and elaborated their circumstances and why they did so, and what practical responses might follow.” (p 2). I think he did just that in this book. There is not a focus on what ‘everyday life’ was like unless it was necessary to the story, like in the section about urban accidents. Overall, I like that this book stretched one mile wide but six miles deep per say.

My final thought is that this works shows a broader interest in the historiographical side of this time but from a data format. If historians can see things like a 1.6:1 male to female suicide rate compared to the previous 5.2:1 (p 36), there can be questions asked about how suicide was defined before or if the data was skewed because of something else happening like parishes changing, fires loosing records, etc. There are some places Spence could have made more deductions about the data he found, but I also feel like that defeats the purpose of the work. This is a bit more of an overview or “how to read the Bills of Mortality” and I found that it begins the process of gathering information to create further discussion, not too many hard arguments here.

Lady Ranelagh is a year old publication by Dr. Michelle DiMeo about the life and contributions of Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh. Dr. DiMeo, a historian of science, is the Arnold Thackray Director of the Othmer Library. She has a PhD in History and English from the University of Warwick and a certificate in curation and management of digital assets from the University of Maryland. She has particular interest in alchemy, ethics, and networking. These interests are front and center within Lady Ranelagh as Dr. DiMeo investigates Ranelagh’s unique role within her society and her relationship to her brother, Robert Boyle. Robert Boyle would eventually be recognized as the father of modern chemistry and a pioneer of the scientific method. His study of ethics in science is attributed to the guidance of Ranelagh as a moral authority. Much of his experiments and research was conducted at Ranelagh’s house in a private laboratory. Robert Boyle’s work overshadowed his sisters due to gender norms, hence the significant delay in revelation of her contributions by historians such as Dr. DiMeo.

The overall argument of Dr. DiMeo’s book is that Ranelagh heavily influenced not only her brother’s, but multiple significant intellectuals’ as well as political players’ social and political opinions while contributing to scientific advancements in chemistry, horticulture, and medicine during the Scientific Revolution (62). The book is broken up into seven chapters, each coinciding with different periods in Ranelagh’s life. The first chapter examines Ranelagh’s birth and upbringing in Ireland. Her childhood was characterized by her family’s position of nobility and wealth in Ulster and her father’s strong Protestant beliefs. After the death of her mother, she stepped into the role of a surrogate parent in order to assist with raising her younger siblings, particularly her brother, Robert Boyle. Ranelagh eventually marries Arthur Jones, heir to the First Viscount Ranelagh. The marriage is strained, but produces several children. After the outbreak of religious rebellion in Ireland and the English Civil Wars, Ranelagh leaves her husband and children and moves to London in favor of a more simple and independent lifestyle. Chapter two discusses her entry into the Hartlib circle and the progressive recognition of her as a woman of piety and virtue as well as an intellectual. Here we see the shift in Ranelagh’s political ideology as her support of Charles I waned in favor of her growing support for Parliament. Chapter three shows the intellectual shift in Ranelagh’s studies toward medicine and the intersection of natural philosophy and ethics. She learns Hebrew in order to better study religious texts and gains religious agency as a translator and scholar. She assists in advocating for the allowance of Jews back into England. Ranelagh also returns to Ireland during this time to reclaim the Boyle family estates. Chapter four examines the three subsequent years she spends in Ireland and her intellectual networking in the 1650s. Chapter five focuses on her life during the Stuart restoration and her interpretation of plague, fire, and the Anglo-Dutch War as divine products of Gods wrath. She also advocates for the toleration of nonconformists, like herself. Chapter six examines Ranelagh’s medical practice as she treats high profile patients, including the future king James II. Chapter seven examines Ranelagh’s final 23 years where Robert Boyle permanently moves in with her and the two continue their studies together.

Dr. DiMeo states within her introduction that finding primary sources by or about Ranelagh proved difficult during her research and had to resort to piecing together tidbits from the works of Ranelagh’s peers and family. Dr. DiMeo utilizes personal correspondence, manuscripts, medicinal recipes, official documents, religious records, and various scientific publications as primary sources. Her secondary sources consist of works by her peers that bolster her argument and show the progression of recognition of Ranelagh’s contributions. Judging by the diction and complexity of the book, Dr. DiMeo’s intended audience is any interested reader. The book is a quick and easy read that captivates the audience with relatable details and various intimate twists and turns. The only weakness of the work is the lack our sources from Ranelagh herself, which is acknowledged by Dr. DiMeo.

For further information on Dr. DiMeo: https://www.sciencehistory.org/profile/michelle-dimeo

Dr. Michell DiMeo’s book is the first comprehensive, book-length biography of Lady Ranelagh and one that demonstrates that she was far more than merely the great “Father of Modern Chemistry” Robert Boyle’s supportive sister and hostess “who may have been present but not intellectually engaged,” as characterized by Stephen Shapin and some other historians. (3, 168) Rather, Dr. DiMeo shows that not only did she “help shape some of [Boyle’s] philosophical publications and collaborate with his experimentation with chemical medicine, but she was also an intellectual authority in her own right, composing her own theological and political treatises and corresponding with an intellectual network comprising the most influential men and women of her time” – an important network she introduced her younger, teenage brother to in 1644 after he finished his Grand Tour. Moreover, she was an adept lobbyist for variety of causes including liberty of religious conscience, conversion of native Americans and Irish Catholics, and a respected ethical adviser, medical practitioner, and tester of medical recipes in her own right. (3, 184, 193)

The structure of Dr. DiMeo’s history of Lady Ranelagh’s intellectual life, one inextricably intertwined with Robert Boyle’s, is chronological beginning in chapter one with her birth to a wealthy, connected, leading Anglo-Irish family in Ireland in 1615 and ending in chapter seven with her death in London in 1691.  The second chapter sets forth several of the overarching themes of the book and explores her deep involvement with the Hartlib circle in London and her rising status as the “incomparable” Lady Ranelagh as she became known to contemporaries.  This chapter and the introduction also address the limitations of the surviving sources for documenting the life of an intellectual woman in the seventeenth century and Dr. DiMeo’s efforts to overcome them. (10, 203)

Lady Ranelagh became one of the central members of the vibrant Hartlib correspondence circle “which began in London in 1641 and centered on Samuel Hartlib, John Dury, and Jan Amos Kominski,” and included John Milton, Henry Oldenberg, and numerous prominent intellectuals in England and on the continent. (44) Dr. DiMeo summaries Evan Bourke’s quantitative network visualization analysis to demonstrate that Lady Ranelagh was “a central correspondent within this international circle” as demonstrated by a “betweenness” measure that ranked her sixth of 766 correspondents showing how important she was in connecting people including her famous younger brother who benefited enormously from her connections and intellectual guidance throughout his life. (45-46, Ahnert at 12)

DiMeo emphasizes that Lady Ranelagh followed the contemporary social convention of women “chos[ing] to disseminate their writings primarily via manuscript coteries and networks instead of print publications,” which at the time was still considered a “more elite method” of publication and more consistent with the piety, charity, and dignity expected of seventeenth century elite women. Recent historians have established how effectively women used the Republic of Letters “as tools to exert agency in a number of spheres” which DiMeo also demonstrates in this work.

Lady Ranelagh’s reliance on the genres of manuscript circulation and letter circulation along with long-standing collection practices of archivists and historians to undervalue collections of female documents create challenges in reconstructing Lady Ranelagh’s life, as well as those of other women. (202) Dr. DiMeo adroitly uses her finely honed skills as an archivist and historian to piece together the details of Lady Ranelagh’s life by plumbing the archives and writings of male family members and friends, including her famous brother, the digitized Hartlib papers, and a host of her influential male correspondents including Samuel Hartlib, William Penn, Robert Boyle, Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, and others. (2, 202) Dr. DiMeo is highly successful in this endeavor to uncover and interpret the scattered sources and has deep experience for the task as she was Director of the Othmer Library at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, and also managed the Hagley Heritage Curators program and Manuscripts and Archives department at the Hagley Museum and Library. She holds a PhD in English and History from the University of Warwick, a Certificate in the Curation and Management of Digital Assets from the University of Maryland, and possesses deep experience with digital archives.  Dr. DiMeo’s research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of early modern science and medicine, with particular interests in domestic science, medical remedies, and women practitioners. Consistent with these interests, in this history, she explores Lady Ranelagh’s important contributions to the emerging fields of chemical medicine and empirical science as well as the challenges facing intellectual women generally in the seventeenth century.

Dr. DiMeo shows the depth of Lady Ranelagh’s influence on Robert Boyle’s work. For example, she argues that Lady “Ranelagh’s own expertise in writing, trading, and testing medical recipes must be seen as a contribution to Boyle’s evolving thoughts on” medicine. Thus, Lady Ranelagh’s influence is seen in Boyle’s important publication in 1685 of Specifick Medicines in which he views “recipes as experiments to test philosophical theories and principles” which is reflective of his partnership with his sister as to medical matters and the empirical practices both were engaged in. (184) Dr. DiMeo shows that Lady Ranelagh often “shaped the works of her brother prior to publication” and “offered critical appraisal and encouragement,” for example, for his critic of Aristotelian modes of inquiry embodied in his The Origin of Forms and Qualities published in 1666. (133, 189)

Dr. DiMeo also places Lady Ranelagh’s experiences and accomplishments in the context of the history of science. She notes that the founding of the Royal Society in London in 1660, with a formal charter following in 1662, is often viewed by historians of science as a “turning point” when science became “institutionalized.” (123-24) Londa Schiebinger and feminist historians have argued the founding of Royal societies is also the turning point when women were excluded from natural science as the Societies did not admit women and emphasized print publications to their further detriment. (124) Dr. DiMeo argues instead “the decreased diversity among experimenters took place over a much longer period, and was not directly related to the founding of the Royal Society.” (125) She argues persuasively that women, such as Lady Ranelagh continued “preparing medicines, perfecting chemical techniques, writing about and debating the latest philosophies” often through letters and with the household as a primary local for learning. (125) Four members of Ranelagh’s Hartlib circle were founding fellows of the Royal Society, including her younger brother Robert Boyle, and other friends and correspondents later joined including her close friend Henry Oldenburg who managed its journal, and her son Richard Jones who became a member in 1663. (124) Dr. DiMeo concludes that she maintained close connections to the fellows of the Royal Society and “though she was not a part of the Royal Society, Ranelagh assertively engaged with other political causes and intellectual projects throughout the restoration, demonstrating that she was not the silent victim excluded from creating new knowledge and shaping public opinion.” (127)

Dr. DiMeo’s biography is deeply researched and readable and should appeal to both specialists and the general reader. Dr. DiMeo convincingly demonstrates that Lady Ranelagh merited the honorific “incomparable” bestowed upon her by contemporaries as despite her gender precluding her from attending university or joining the Royal Society, Lady Ranelagh built an impressive network through which she “participated in controversial political cases, influenced decision makers, shaped the publications of male contemporaries, and wrote her own pieces that circulated widely in manuscript.” (203) The book contributes to the history of science and gender by demonstrating how women “could leverage social status and piety to gain the respect of others and shape the public sphere” including chemical medicine and other disciplines despite their exclusion from the Royal Society and reluctance to risk their reputations through print media.