Writing Faith and Place in Early Modern Britain
17th–19th April, University of Exeter
We are delighted that you are interested in joining us in Exeter for our conference Writing Faith and Place in Early Modern Britain. We have assembled a rich array of papers, panels and keynote addresses on how religious identities are shaped, maintained and defended through varied kinds of writing in regional contexts across England, Wales and Ireland and moving outwards to New England, the Middle East and the rest of the globe. Below is the most up-to-date version of the programme, though the details are subject to change.
To register, please visit this link.
Wednesday 17th April
12–12:30 pm
Registration with light lunch.
12:30–2 pm
Panel 1: Negotiating Religious Difference in the Southwest
Andrea Hugill (independent scholar)
John Jewel of Devon and the Centrality of Salisbury Cathedral
Frances Nieduszyńska (independent scholar)
An Italian Jesuit’s Eye-Witness Account of Religious Identity in South Devon, 1597
Karen Edwards (University of Exeter)
An Exeter Congregational Controversy, 1658
2–2:15 pm
Tea break
2:15–3:45 pm
Panel 2: Piety, Poetry and Politics
Philip Schwyzer (University of Exeter)
Strangers and Friends in Anne Dowriche, The French Historie
Leah Veronese (University College, Oxford)
‘I enquire not what God did in his bed-chamber’: John Donne and the Politics of the Jacobean Bedchamber
Melissa Marsh (Birkbeck, University of London)
Deborah Huish, The Captive taken from the Strong (1658): Using the Psalms in Writing Faith
3:45–4
Break
4–5:30 pm
Panel 3: Contesting Faith and Place in Early Modern Ireland
Alan Ford (University of Nottingham)
John Hooker, the First Protestant Historian of Ireland
Danielle Clarke (University College Dublin)
Lady Anne Southwell, the Munster Plantation, and the Church of Ireland
Lee Morrissey (Clemson University)
The Articles of Peace: Writing about Faiths across one Place (from another Place)
6:30–7:30 pm (St Nicholas Priory)
Keynote public lecture:
Mark Stoyle (University of Southampton)
Semper Fidelis?: The Civic Community of Exeter and the Memory of the Western Rising
7:30 pm onwards
Delegates are free to make their own arrangements for evening meal. A group will be going to George’s Meeting House (Dissenting chapel turned Wetherspoons pub).
Thursday 18th April
9:15–10:45 am
Panel 4: Writing Political Controversies in the West, 1685–1747
William Gibson (Oxford Brookes University)
John Gadbury, Writing Religious News to Wales in James II’s Reign
Daniel Reed (Oxford Brookes University)
‘Putting the torch to the sheaf’ – Clerical Identity and the Epistolary Writings of Lewis Stephens (1689–1747)
Nigel Aston (University of Leicester/University of York)
‘Marlborough Men’: Faith Contested in a Wiltshire Market Town in the Reign of George I
10:45–11 am
Tea break
11 am–12:30 pm
Panel 5: Writing Dissenting Identities in the Long Eighteenth Century
Chris Toole (University of Leeds)
Place and Itinerancy: An Examination of Oliver Heywood’s Position on Coley and his Travels across Northern England, 1660–1700
Annie J. Stephenson (University of Exeter)
Introspection Unveiled: Contrasting Joseph Alleine’s and John Wesley’s ‘life-changing’ Self-examination Questions
Baiyu Andrew Song (Andrew Fuller Centre for Baptist Studies)
‘Amicus Pacificus, amicus Candidus’: A Reappraisal of the Ryland/Turner-Booth Communion Controversy and its Impact on Baptist Identities
12:30–1:15 pm
Lunch
2–3 pm
Field trip to Exeter Cathedral sacristy to view Cathedral Library and Archive holdings.
3–3:30 pm
Walk back to campus via selected historic locations.
3:45–5:15 pm
Panel 6: Circulating Texts and Ideas (online/remote presentations)
Niall Allsopp (University of Exeter)
John Bond, Preaching, and the Languages of Mobilization in the Southwest
Tanner Moore (Claremont McKenna College)
Bound by Books: The Availability of Books and the Authorship of Richard Allestree in Restoration Oxford, 1658–1681
Ian Maxted (independent scholar and former Devon Local Studies Librarian)
Coffinloads of Books: Private Libraries as a Source to Study the Reception of Religious Texts
5:30–6:30
Keynote address:
Alison Searle (University of Leeds)
Networking Correspondents: Writing Faith and Place through Letters
7 pm onwards
Conference dinner at City Gate Hotel.
Please note that dinner places and menu choices need to be booked with the venue by Thursday 4th April and that this is separate from the conference registration process and payment. If you have registered for the conference but have not received the booking link for the conference dinner, please contact d.parry@exeter.ac.uk to request this.
Friday 19th April
9:15–10:45
Panel 7: Dissent and Toleration in Devon and Beyond
David Parry (University of Exeter)
Prodigals, Providence and Politics in Sermons and Self-Writing by Exeter Dissenters, c.1660–1750
Bracy Hill (Baylor University)
James Peirce and Exeter: The Apologist and ‘Arch-Heretic’ in the City
Samuel Head (University of Oxford)
‘the People… were … no longer what they seem’d before’: The Theme of Perception in Dr Richard Burthogge’s Prudential Reasons for Repealing the Penal Laws … and for a General Toleration (1687)
10:45–11
Tea break
11 am–12:30 noon
Panel 8: Women Writing Faith and Place
Thomas Clifton (Coventry University)
Community, Faith, and Solitude in the Meditations and Memoirs of Elizabeth Delaval
Bronwen Price (Caen University)
‘lasting ornaments to our Souls’: Study, Devotion and Public Engagement in the writings of Lady Mary Chudleigh
Fr Peter O’Kane (Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth)
‘Just as I am’ – The Theological Musings and Social Influence of Female Hymn-Writers of Early Modern Britain
12:30–1:15 pm
Lunch
1:15–2:45 pm
Panel 9: Writing Faith in Local and Global Contexts
David Manning (University of Leicester)
Cotton Mather’s New England
Paul Auchterlonie (University of Exeter)
Ellis Veryard, Joseph Pitts and Exeter Cathedral Library: what can they tell us about Islam?
Janet Wootton (John Bunyan Museum and Library)
John Bunyan: Intimately Local to Outrageously Global and Back Again
2:45–3 pm
Closing reflections.