Publications
Jane Whittle and Thijs Lambrecht, eds., Labour Laws in Preindustrial Europe: The Coercion and Regulation of Wage Labour, c.1300-1850 (Boydell Press, 2023)
Jane Whittle, ‘Attitudes to Wage Labour in English Legislation, 1349-1601’, in Jane Whittle and Thijs Lambrecht ed., Labour Laws in Preindustrial Europe: The Coercion and Regulation of Wage Labour, c.1300-1850, (Boydell Press, 2023)
Jane Whittle and Hilde Sandvik, ‘Agriculture’ in The Whole Economy: Work and Gender in Early Modern Europe (CUP, 2023), pp. 84-114
Mark Hailwood, ‘Rethinking Literacy in Rural England, 1550-1700’, (Past & Present August 2023)
Jane Whittle, ‘Putting women back into the early modern economy: Work, occupations, and economic development’, (The Economic History Review, January 2024)
Workshop: New research on slavery in Barbados wills
24 June 2024
Organised jointly with KCL’s ‘Medicine and the Making of Race’ project
This workshop brings together researchers who are currently independently engaged in research projects drawing on evidence from Barbados wills to examine the history of slavery between 1627 and c.1750. The tiny island of Barbados was England’s richest colony in the seventeenth century. It was also the destination of 236,725 enslaved Africans during that period, twice the number who were sent to Jamaica, and more than 10 times those sent to mainland north America. Wills illuminate the strong connections between Barbados and England in this formative period of plantation production based on slave labour. This workshop will allow researchers to compare their approaches and discuss plans for future research.
Depositions Workshop
17 May 2024
An opportunity to gather together a group of people who have worked with similar documents in order to explore three possible avenues for future research and collaboration:
1. Making depositions more readily available for students and future researchers.
2. Gathering together a range of approaches using court depositions to explore different areas of history.
3. Future research project/s.
This was an informal day which generated a lot of interest and ideas. It also provided a perfect opportunity to make connections and networks to keep the momentum going into the future.
Research Papers presented
2024
Li Jiang, Life-cycle changes of northern rural wage workers’ living standards, 1580-1620, Economic History Society Conference, Newcastle (EHS), 7 April 2024
Grace Owen, The role of women as agricultural wage workers in medieval England, Economic History Society Conference, Newcastle (EHS), 7 April 2024
Jane Whittle, ‘The experience of work in early modern England’, Oslo Centre for Advanced Studies, April 2024.
Grace Owen and Jane Whittle, ‘Acknowledging the known unknowns: gender and wage labour in late medieval England’, Oxford University Late Medieval Europe Seminar, February 2024
Jane Whittle, ‘Gender, freedom, and work in early modern Europe’, The Joseph Miller Lecture, Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies, January 2024 Watch here
2023
Grace Owen and Jane Whittle, ‘Who were the wage workers of late medieval England?’, Anglo-American Seminar in Medieval Economic and Social History, Dartington Hall, 1-2 July 2023.
James Fisher, ‘Youth, freedom & wellbeing in early modern England: The relative agency of pauper apprentices entering and exiting forced service’, Oslo FRESH: Work and Wellbeing in History, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, 8–9 June 2023
Li Jiang, ‘Which one mattered the most: job quality or job opportunity? Evidence from a Lancashire gentry household, 1582–1621’, Oslo FRESH: Work and Wellbeing in History, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, 8–9 June 2023
James Fisher, ‘Child Labour Under The Old Poor Law in Devon’, a public lecture for Exeter U3A, 16th May 2023
Jane Whittle, ‘Gender and the nature of early modern work: definitions and motivations’ at Workshop on ‘Writing Work’, Birkbeck College, London 28 April 2023.
European Social Science History Conference 12- 15 April 2023
Taylor Aucoin, ‘Unfinished Business: Mediating Servant Wage Disputes and Broken Contracts through the English Labour Laws, 1563-1700’, in the session ‘Disputed Endings: How Labour Relations were Terminated in Pre-Industrial Europe’, European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Gothenburg, Sweden, 12 April 2023.
James Fisher, ‘Premature Exits? The Termination of Compulsory Apprenticeships before the Statutory Age of Expiry in England 1600-1750’, European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Gothenburg, Sweden, 12 April 2023
Hannah Robb, ‘Womens Commercial Work in the Early Modern Rural Economy’, European Social Science History Conference,
Jane Whittle, ‘Gender, life-cycle, and family employment: paid labour in England’s rural economy, 1480-1680’, European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Gothenburg, Sweden, 15 April 2023
Economic History Society Conference, University of Warwick, 31 Mar-2 April 2023
Taylor Aucoin, ‘The Working Year: Holidays, Sundays, and Work Days in Early Modern England’, in the session ‘Time, Space, and Work in Early Modern England, 1500-1700′, Economic History Society Conference, University of Warwick, 1 April 2023.
James Fisher, ‘Binding Poor Children by the Acre: The origins and economic logic of compulsory apprenticeship schemes in southwest England c.1670-1750’, Economic History Society (EHS) Annual Conference, University of Warwick, UK, 1 April 2023
Mark Hailwood, ‘The Working Day in Early Modern Rural England’, in the session ‘Time, Space, and Work in Early Modern England, 1500-1700′, Economic History Society Conference, University of Warwick, 1 April 2023
Hannah Robb, ‘Spaces of Commerce in Early Modern England’ in the session, Time, Space, and Work in Early Modern England, 1500-1700′, Economic History Society Conference, University of Warwick, 1 April 2023
Jane Whittle, ‘Putting Women Back into the Early Modern Economy: Work, Occupations and Economic Development’, Economic History Society Tawney Lecture, University of Warwick 2 April 2023.
Li Jiang, ‘Wage labour and living standards in early modern England: evidence from Lancashire, 1580-1620’, Cambridge Early Modern Economic and Social History Seminar, 2 February 2023
Jane Whittle, ‘A New History of Work in Early Modern England: Gender, Tasks and Occupations’, Institute of Historical Research Economic and Social History in the Early Modern World Seminar, 17 February 2023
2022
James Fisher, a dialogue on how to control land and labour through accounting, part of the series Environment and Culture in Britain, 1688-1851 13 January 2022 an online forum hosted by AHRC-funded project at University of Leeds
Jane Whittle, ‘Women, men and the experience of work in early modern England’, Trinity College Dublin, 14 March 2022.
Jane Whittle, ‘The gender division of labour in England: sources and explanations’, École Normale Supérieure, University of Paris, 22 April 2022.
Project members presented papers at the European Rural History Conference (EURHO) in Uppsala, Sweden, 20-23 June, 2022.
Mark Hailwood, ‘Women’s work in rural England 1550-1700: the north and south-west compared’
Jane Whittle, Maria Ågren, Karin Hassan Jansson, Mark Hailwood, ‘Women’s agricultural work in Sweden (1720-1880) and England (1550-1700) compared’
Jane Whittle, ‘When were women and men paid the same for agricultural work? Gender and wage labour in English household accounts c.1500-1660’
Taylor Aucoin, ‘Gendered Dimensions to the Seasonality of Rural Work in Early Modern England’
James Fisher, ‘Compulsory apprenticeships: a labour allocation scheme in a rural English village c.1670-1750’
James Fisher, ‘Accounting knowledge and the management of farm labour in C18th Britain’
Hannah Robb, ‘Forms of Credit in Early Modern Depositions’
Project members presented at the Freedom & Work Conference in Exeter, 6-8 July, 2022
James Fisher – Beyond the Labour Market: A Compulsory Apprenticeship Scheme in a Rural English Village c.1670-1750
Taylor Aucoin – Enforcing Service under the English Labour Laws, c.1550-1700
Hannah Robb – Commerce in Early Modern England; Towards a Spatial Analysis’
Mark Hailwood – Work Repertoires and the Life Cycle: Evidence from the Women’s Work in Rural England 1500-1700 Database
Jane Whittle and Mark Hailwood, paper in session on Measuring Women’s Work: Strategies and Challenges, World Economic History Conference, Paris 2021: Rescheduled for July 2022
Jane Whittle, ‘A New History of Work in Early Modern England: Gender, Tasks and Occupations’, Cambridge University Core Seminar in Economic and Social History, 6 October 2022
Jane Whittle, ‘Women’s paid labour in the preindustrial economy: the tasks, wages and earnings of female day labourers in rural England, c.1480-1680’, Oxford University Research Seminar in Economic and Social History, 8 November 2022.
Hannah Robb, ‘Credit Networks of Married Women in the Early Modern Rural Economy’ Stockholm, November 2022
2021
Jane Whittle, ‘Forms of Labour’, Sheffield University History Department – Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies, online 18 February 2021
Jane Whittle, Social History Society Conference Plenary Discussion, Roundtable on women’s work, 5 July 2021
James Fisher, ‘”The Arts of Honest Industry”: Pauper Apprenticeship and Training for the Labouring Poor in Early Modern England’ (panel session In other people’s households: children and youth as rural servants and live in apprentices in the past) -ELHN-WORCK Conference 2021, 31st August – 1st September, 2021 Vienna, Austria
Jane Whittle, Keynote Lecture at Women’s History Network Conference 3-4 September 2020: Rescheduled for 3-4 September 2021
2020
Jane Whittle, ‘Women’s work in early modern England: approaches and issues’, University of Oxford, Early Modern England Seminar, 23 January 2020
*Project Workshop on Labour Laws in Preindustrial Europe* Exeter 22 May 2020 took place in a virtual world due to Covid-19
Jane Whittle, ‘Women’s work in early modern England’ Roundtable on the History of Women’s Work in Britain, German Historical Institute, London 9 June 2020: took place as a Podcast 8 July 2020
Jane Whittle, ‘How free was women’s labour in England 1500-1700?’ University of Vienna, 16 June 2020: took place online
Jane Whittle, How free was wage labour in England 1500-1700 – Budapest Conference paper‘ WORCK Virtual Conference: Reconceptualising Wage Labour 16-19 September 2020
2019
Jane Whittle, ‘Home and work in England, 1500-1700’, Home and Work Roundtable, Royal Holloway University of London, 9 October 2019
Jane Whittle, ‘Rethinking women’s work in Europe’s preindustrial economy’, University of Edinburgh 23 October 2019
Podcasts
How the Black Death reshaped Medieval England April 2020
Women’s work in early modern England July 2020