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This paper considers the significance of the spaces and material culture of the 'principal inn' as the centre of a distinct world of elite mobility in eighteenth-century Britain. Inns were central to the expansion and improvement of the travel network that brought the British Isles closer together through the long eighteenth century. The turnpike system introduced improved surfaces to old and new roads while new coach-building technology allowed faster movement on those roads. However, it was the national network of inns, regularly and reliably punctuating Britain's roads, that made fast and efficient travel a practical, everyday reality from London to York, Bristol to Holyhead, Edinburgh to Inverness. On arrival the inn provided food and accommodation for travellers, hay and stables for horses and grease for carriage axles. From cross-country travel to crossing the inn-yard, finding a table in the parlour or climbing the stairs to bed, the inn served the traveller across different scales of space and mobility. Moreover, for the elite traveller, inns were not simply blank containers for travel-related activities; they were material constructs that gave those activities form and meaning. Within the principal inn refined interior spaces and well-made, fashionable things placed the elite traveller in a reassuringly familiar cultural space, a bubble of comfort, luxury and good taste which they did not leave from one inn to the next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the 1783 two-volume report by the Bank of England's Committee of Inspection, the article explores how the Bank in London, England, responsible for managing Great Britain's national debt, managed the time of its customers and employees, Topics include the report being compiled and written after the American Revolution, public finance, charges of corruption, and public oversight of private campaniles including the Bank of England and the East India Company.

Patent medicines in late Georgian England have been misunderstood. Rather than just being visible constituents of irregular practice, they were a separate, substantial, industry providing a wide range of popular products. Most of the prominent medicine owners were either reputable tradesmen who did not practise medicine, or medical professionals; they operated from fixed premises for substantial periods of time, and they employed practices specific to the industry. A minority of nationally-available medicines were indeed owned and distributed by irregulars who were regarded as quacks by contemporaries, yet even these participants attempted to follow regular medicine. Wholesaling was initially led by London booksellers, but later moved to medicine specialists and chemists. The patent medicines industry was a separate entity, different from regular medicine and from irregular practice though linked to both of them, and restoring it to its rightful place changes our picture of late Georgian health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how and why information moved or failed to move within transatlantic botanical networks in the late eighteenth century. It addresses the problem of how practitioners created relationships of trust, and the difficulties they faced in transferring reputations between national contexts. Eighteenth-century botany was characteristically cross-cultural, cosmopolitan and socially diverse, yet in the 1770s and 1780s the American Revolutionary Wars placed these attributes under strain. The paper analyses the British and French networks that surrounded the Philadelphian plant hunter William Young (1742–1785), to show how botanists and plant collectors created and maintained connections with each other, especially when separated by geographical and cultural distance. It highlights in particular the role played by commercial plant traders, and demonstrates how practitioners used objects to transmit social as well as scholarly information. The transnational circulation of information and knowledge in the Enlightenment was determined by culturally specific judgements about trust, confidence, communication and risk. Despite the prominent role played by material culture within these networks, scholars continued to place high value on face-to-face contact as a means of judging the trustworthiness and cooperation of their agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tontines and life annuities both insure against longevity risk by guaranteeing (pension) income for life. The optimal choice between these two mortality-contingent claims depends on personal preferences for consumption and risk. And, while pure tontines are unavailable in the twenty-first century, the first longevity-contingent claim (and debt) issued by the English government in the late seventeenth century offered a choice between the two. This article analyzes financial and economic aspects of King William's 1693 tontine that have not received attention in the literature. In particular, it compares the stochastic present value (SPV) of the tontine vs the life annuity and discusses characteristics of investors who selected one versus the other. Finally, the article examines the issue of whether high reported tontine survival rates should be attributed to anti-selection or fraud. In sum, this article is an empirical examination of annuitization decisions made by actual investors in the late seventeenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The article discusses Anglo-Irish author Hugh Kelly (1739-1777), focusing particularly on his early career as a journalist in London, England. He wrote for the periodicals "Gentleman's Journal" and "Gazetteer" in the 1760s, as well as served as managing editor of "The Public Ledger" in 1760, during the early years of the reign of King George III of Great Britain. References to his career are found in the personal papers of British Under Secretary of State Edward Weston, as well as those of pamphleteers John Hume and Dr John Campbell.

The article discusses a March 25, 1806 letter written by English labouring class poet Robert Bloomfield to British Whig Member of Parliament for Suffolk, England Sir Charles Bunbury about Whig-party literary patronage for Bloomfield's poetry collection entitled "Wild Flowers, or, Pastoral and Local Poetry." The relationship between the two men is explored. A transcription of the letter is provided which details visits made by Bloomfield to varied politicians accompanied by letters of introduction written by Bunbury,

The article discusses the 1789 autobiographical slave narrative entitled "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," by freedman and Methodist convert Olaudah Equiano. Topics considered include contemporary criticisms of the book, the book's reliance on writing techniques used in 18th-century novels, the anti-slavery movement, commerce between Africa and Great Britain, and the book's use of future probabilities.

This essay takes a critical look at the representation of China in the influential early nineteenth-century periodical the Edinburgh Review at an historically pivotal moment in relations between Britain and China and in the changing understanding and image of China in the West. Beginning with the Edinburgh's commitment to travel writing and self-conscious policy of cosmopolitanism and tolerance, the article reads the Macartney mission of 1793–1794 and its public representations in the context of Britain's historical relationship with China and of the conflicted history of China's reputation in the West. Finally, it exposes a limitation or blind spot in the Edinburgh's liberal ideology, suggesting the significance of this blind spot for the rhetorical and ethical method of the Edinburgh and for nineteenth-century British liberalism more generally, and the difficulties it faced accommodating foreign customs and values in a period of imperial expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the way in which the reading market shaped the North-East Press and the decisions of its proprietors over the eighteenth century. Traditionally, historians have treated eighteenth-century newspapers published within the same town or region uniformly, distinguishing them only on the basis of their politics or publication day. This, however, does not tally with studies of print culture that note growing diversity of readership across society over the eighteenth century. This article presents and analyses data taken from the Newcastle newspapers of 1760, 1790, and 1820, complemented by proprietors’ correspondence and the newspapers themselves. It shows that proprietors aimed their newspapers as much towards different social groups as towards those of different political affiliations. In spite of significant political rivalry in the Press, therefore, the Newcastle proprietors were able to share the market and work cooperatively to protect and promote their businesses. This ultimately contributed to the rise of ‘the Press’ as a body of proprietors and editors with the power to challenge Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses English circuit court judge for the Oxford circuit which included eight English counties and the Carmarthen circuit of three Welsh counties, Sir William Jones, who spent eight years between 1775 and 1782 riding the four-hundred mile circuit to dispense justice. Jones was additionally known as an Orientalist, author, and poet. The letters written by Jones to his former pupil and friend Viscount Althorp, later George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, are considered. Other topics include Jones’s "The Principles of Government," and his views on patronage, naval impressment, as well as civic and human rights.

This essay explores how the 1782 book "Observations on the River Wye" by William Gilpin influenced violence in Ceylon from 1796 through 1818 during the years of the British consolidating colonial power from the former Dutch colonial administration. It considers how the notion of the picturesque shaped British travel accounts. Also considered are the illustrated books "A Picturesque Voyage to India by the Way of China," by artists Thomas and William Daniell, and "Journal of a Residence in India" by Maria Graham.

A case study explores issues of subtenants and subtenancy in the parish of Watermillock, Cumberland, England for the period c. 1760 to c. 1840. It considers issues associated with customary tenants, the social and economic status of subtenants, and issues of enfranchisement and enclosure on farm land. Other topics include the impact of commercialization on agriculture, agriculture in the wartime period of 1793-1813, and post-war farming difficulties.

During the wars of the eighteenth century, French prisoners on parole in Britain were placed in a paradoxical situation of captives with privileges. Instead of studying these men as if they dwelt in a world apart, this article focuses on captivity zones as a social laboratory, where people of different status would socialize. These spaces accordingly provide a lens through which to glimpse the repercussions of international conflicts at the level of local communities. The disputes which opposed these captives to the English population, which were the object of letters of complaints sent by the French prisoners to the authorities, shed light on the normative and moral resources which were used by eighteenth-century Englishmen and Frenchmen to legitimize themselves in situations of social conflict. As a configuration characterized by shifting social relations, the parole zone brought together local, national, and international issues, intertwined primarily in the rhetoric of honour. In these incidents, there was no systematic alignment of class and national discourses and actions, while the precise standing of these Frenchmen on the social ladder was constantly challenged and debated. The resulting quarrels therefore reveal a series of social inversions: dominant groups in France were in many respects dominated in England. Rather than being a mere reflection of pre-existing social hierarchies, such micro-incidents reinvented them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the relationship between actress Sarah Siddons and the concept of adultery in Great Britain during the late Georgian period. According to the author, theatricality can serve as lens through which to understand the range of meanings associated with adultery during this period. Particular focus is given to Siddons' portrayal of the character Mrs. Haller in the play "The Stranger" by August von Kotzebue. Divorce and scandal are also discussed.

Although in respect of historical arguments, methodologies and prose style Herbert Butterfield and Lewis Namier were sharply contrasting (indeed antipathetic) historians, they had more in common that either would have chosen to admit. Paradoxically, those commonalities converged on the figure of Edmund Burke. For Namier, Burke was a political charlatan; Butterfield thought him 'a mountain of a man'. Both nonetheless had distinctively Burkean conceptions of the limits - and dangers - of human rationality and of 'organic' change in the English past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the religious aspects of the antislavery movement in Great Britain from 1758 until the abolition of slavery in 1807. It focuses on the received ideas of Providence and the fear of God's retribution against the nation in response to slavery. Notable people discussed include British politician and abolitionist leader William Wilberforce; English lawyer, politician, and abolitionist James Stephen; French-American abolitionist Anthony Benezet; and English abolitionist Granville Sharp. Other topics include the impact of the American and French Revolutions on the anti-slavery movement, public response to abolitionists, and British Parliamentary debates surrounding the issue of slavery.

Circumstances were auspicious when George III came to the throne in 1760, but soon his political actions were much criticized and he was accused from early in his reign until well into the 20th century of weakening the independence of parliament and undermining the constitution. Some contemporaries did defend him and these views received powerful support from Sir Lewis Namier and his followers in the 20th century. Both interpretations have their flaws, however, because of the failure to recognize the profound changes in the context in which George acted over his long reign and the subtle changes that occurred in Britain's unwritten constitution over that half century. By examining how the king appointed and dismissed ministers, sought to influence the composition of both houses of parliament, and endeavoured to shape government policy, this article seeks to revise our understanding of the king's relations with parliament and the constitution and to relocate our overall assessment of him between those offered by his many critics and defenders both during his reign and long afterwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the the Anglo-Mysore Wars, a series of wars fought between the Kingdom of Mysore in India and the British East India Company (EIC) from 1767 to 1799. It focuses on seapower, examining Great Britain's military rivalry with France and British trade in the Indian Ocean. The author reflects on the significance of the wars for British imperialism. Adversaries included the Governor General of India Charles, Earl Cornwallis, and Mysorean leaders Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan.

The article provides a supplement to the author's "Attributions of Authorship in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731-1868: An Electronic Union List." It lists author attributions, or corrections to previous attributions for: articles, letters, poems, reviews, obituaries, drawings, or staff notes signed either as anonymous, with pseudonyms, or incompletely signed for the British periodical "Gentleman’s Magazine" during the years 1786-87, a period when it was edited by David Henry and his partner John Nichols. Some of the authors discussed include Fielding-Best Fynney, Dr John Disney, and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

The article discusses the September 1797 mutiny aboard the British Royal Navy warship HMS Hermione. It discusses the historiography of the frigate's mutiny and asserts that the event is best understood in light of the mutinous Atlantic age of revolution of the 1790s. Other subjects considered include the transnational makeup of sailors and seafaring life during the period, the leadership of Hermione's commander Hugh Pigot, and an overview of similar unrest amid the Navies of France, Batavia, Great Britain during the period.

The article discusses radical British orator, writer, and publisher John Thelwall, focusing particularly on his involvement with the political reforming group London Corresponding Society and his treason trial of 1794. A caricature of Thelwall speaking at Copenhagen Fields, England by English caricaturist James Gillray is discussed. Thelwall spoke at two meetings of the London Corresponding Society in 1795 soon after his acquittal from his treason trial. The author explores the political situation in Great Britain during the time including the Treasonable Practices Bill and the Seditious Meetings Bill, legislation intended to stifle political criticisms the British government. Thelwall's political activities during the period are detailed.

The article discusses how the 1779 English caricature "The Liberty of the Subject" by James GIllray represents of a new form of eighteenth century caricature. The artwork presents a London, England street scene featuring a press-gang being attacked by two women attempting to physically thwart efforts to impress a tailor. The author feels the print portrays popular sentiments regarding press gangs and English liberty with a high degree of verisimilitude. The author argues that the 1779 murder trial of Mary Adey for her attack on a press-gang member was the inspiration for Gillray's political satire. An overview of the British government's policies regarding impressment is presented.

The article presents an appendix to the book "The House of Lords in the Age of George III (1760-1811),” by Michael W. McCahill, listing the noble members of the royal Households of King George III and Queen Charlotte of Great Britain.

The article presents an appendix to the book "The House of Lords in the Age of George III (1760-1811)," by Michael W. McCahill, listing the Lords Lieutenant of England, Scotland and Wales during the reign of King George III.

The case that religion alone can account for radicalism in the later eighteenth century has been persuasively argued and has received some empirical support. We test it using data from Bristol during the American crisis. Literature from the 1774 election shows that contemporaries assumed commonality of interest of poor voters with other poor voters and with the anti-establishment/radical candidates, and commonality of interest of richer voters with other rich voters and with the establishment candidates. To a lesser extent voters were encouraged to vote as loyal Anglicans or religious Dissenters. To see how this rhetoric translated into action, a poll book (1774), a city directory (1775), and rate and tax returns (1773–7) were combined by nominal record linkage. Using the linked data we found that poorer Bristolians voted preferentially for anti-ministerial candidates and particularly for the radical candidate, while richer Bristolians tended to support the ministerial candidates. The divisions were clear when voting was compared with wealth (using fiscal data), and when compared with occupation provided an appropriate classification was used. To see if radical action was sustained in Bristol, loyal addresses and petitions for conciliation of the Americans were examined. The rhetoric surrounding petitioning/addressing again assumed commonality of interest based on socio-economic circumstance. This carried over into action: petitioners for conciliation tended to be poorer people, whilst addressers, who favoured coercion, tended to be richer. The study refutes the thesis that religion alone accounts for radical behaviour, and suggests the need to examine the totality of people's experience before their political behaviour can be fully understood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Crisis, a London weekly published between January 1775 and October 1776, attempted to join Britain and the American colonies in a transatlantic community of protest. It did so more stridently than virtually anything printed either in the colonies or elsewhere in the London press. King George III, his chief ministers, and their supporters in parliament were all fair game for its caustic commentary. It condemned their imperial policy as self-destructive and their treatment of the Americans as foolishly shortsighted. It condoned American resistance to what it characterized as tyrannical policies and called on Britons to beware that what began as oppression of the colonies could end up threatening rights on their own side of the Atlantic as well. Even so, the men behind The Crisis hoped for a solution to the problems of empire within it, not outside it, and their ardour for the Patriot cause cooled once Revolutionary Americans declared independence. Despite their rhetorical blasts at Whitehall and Westminster, the men behind The Crisis were not looking to turn protest into rebellion nor were they interested in trading monarchy for a republic. They fell silent when their differences with American Revolutionaries became too obvious to deny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a review of an auction held in New York City on May 6, 2009. The auction, "The Paula Peyraud Collection: Samuel Johnson and Women Writers in Georgian Society," hosted by Bloomsbury Auctions, is described, noting that the Paula Peyraud Collection was the largest collection of privately-held Georgian-era books, manuscripts, and images in existence. The sale of the majority of the collection by lot is noted, mentioning that most buyers were collectors or buying agents representing U.S. libraries, and the total sales for the auction totaled over $1.5 million.

The "madness" of George III has made him one of the best-known British monarchs but has also problematized his representation. The author briefly considers the significance of the essential absence of representations prior to the mid-twentieth century, before examining in detail compelling cinematic portrayals of the "Mad King" in Beau Brummell (1954) and The Madness of King George (1994). Both films highlight the importance of George III's relationship with his eldest son, and thus support a psychological explanation of his illness, but while Beau Brummell is sympathetic to the son, The Madness of King George casts the son as the villain. Both films proved relevant to their times; their different attitudes to George III reflect changes in the popular perception of the British royal family between the 1950s and 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers how the advertisements, theater reviews, and gossip columns published in British newspapers during the 1790s help gain historical insights into Great Britain's politics, social classes, and cultural authority. Some of the subjects considered include the coverage of the French Revolution, the 1794 Treason Trials for the prosecution of sedition and libel, and the 1795 Treasonable Practices Act and Seditious Meetings Bill in the British Press; the social the reform-or-ruin movement; and the Lady Jersey Affair of 1795 and 1796 involving Prince George, later British King George IV, his wife Princess Caroline, and his mistress Frances Villiers, Lady Jersey.

This article discusses various reports published within the issue including one which demonstrate the function of "Regency" as a category and argue for an awareness of the period's relationship to other historical moments, another which highlights the blending of genres, of discourses, of art forms, of racial categories, or of historical periods, and one which offers an alternative framework that can accommodate certain itinerant literary and cultural phenomena.

Credit in early modern England has been studied by both social historians of the market and historians of the book. The intersection of these literatures is explored by asking the question: how did producers of books about interest (which was closely connected to credit) convince readers that their books could be trusted? One particular book is considered: a palm-sized book of interest calculations by John Castaing. Most importantly, and unusually, many copies of this book contain his signature, which, it is argued, must be interpreted in the context of the particular role that signatures played in guaranteeing financial transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the role of the southern colonies in the American Revolution. The author states that historically in scholarship concerning the revolution the focus has been on the northern colonies, while the South has been overlooked. The author focuses on the political and economic relations between the North, the South, and Great Britain leading up to the revolution.

Argues about the role of King George III of Great Britain in the American Revolution. Issues regarded by George III as essential in the war; Reason behind the desire of George III to continue with the war despite the defeat of the British Troops in Yorktown; Exoneration of George III by Sir Lewis Namier and his school of historians known as Namierites from charges of unconstitutional government in Great Britain.

Discusses the case of English circus entrepreneur Philip Astley. Legal predicament and struggles endured by Astley before he reached an interim settlement with the authorities in 1783; Ways in which circus managers cultivated their equestrian skills to promote an image of social usefulness and responsibility; Nature of Hanoverian governance.

Explores the indebtedness of King George III to the patriotic and public sociability of the Bluestockings, a group of women writers in 18th-century England. Model of society offered by the assemblies of Bluestocking member Elizabeth Montagu; Polite practices that were underlaid with contemporary Anglican beliefs and strictures; Importance of the Church of England to the politeness of Montagu and her circle.

Examines the language of patriotism in Great Britain during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic War era by focusing on the political language of the `Examiner,' a publication established in 1808 by Leigh Hunt and printed by his brother John. Typical subscribers of the publication; Use of popular constitutionalism in Hunt's patriotic rhetoric.

This article analyzes the context of the book Reflections by Edward Burke. During the regency crisis of 1788 to 1789 in Great Britain, Burke argues from constitutional principle and not the interpretation of a precedent when he speaks of the chaos. He seems to fear the use of a degraded king for the shadow of the crown, to screen a usurping assembly from any criticism of measures iniquitously legal. Thus, there is an interesting symmetry between his judgments of the House of Commons in 1789 and of the National Assembly in 1790. In Burke's own life, the consequences of writing the Reflections are well known. He became an approved and popular author, with his book gaining the support of King George III and selling 32,000 copies.

Studies the internal migration patterns of several individuals into Northwestern England from 1760-1830. Importance of kinship ties; Reasons for the migration into urban areas.

The article discusses the deployment of navy ships of Great Britain's Royal Navy in North America during the period from 1783 through 1793. After the American Revolution, Great Britain demobilized its naval service from more than 150,000 to an estimated 12,00 men. Great Britain maintained two squadrons based in Canada known as Newfoundland and North America, both commanded by Admirals who were expected to maintain diplomatic relations with the former colonies, now known as the U.S. Topics considered include French interests in North America, American use of Canadian fisheries, and the impact of the French Revolution on British policies regarding Canada.