Early Modern Records Specialist (18th century)
The National Archives, Kew, London
Research expertise
History of empire and slavery; history of science; technology and medicine; maritime and Atlantic history
Contributions
Places
Royal Society
Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific institution. In the long eighteenth century, fellows dedicated themselves to understanding the causes of natural and artificial phenomena, but the activities that brought them together were also profoundly social and dictated by social convention.
Merchants
Beyond the shared activity of trading, merchants belonged to a broad occupational category, which was also reflected in wide-ranging educational backgrounds. The merchant straddled traditional social classes and the rise of the merchant was part of the expansion of the ‘middling sorts’.
People