Samuel Pepys Award to Michael Hunter

26.10.11 | Katie Allen

Academic Michael Hunter has won the 2011 Samuel Pepys Award for his “fascinating” biography of 17th-century scientist Robert Boyle.

Boyle: Between God and Science (Yale) was awarded the £2,000 prize and a specially commissioned medal at a special dinner held at St Paul’s School, at which Pepys was a scholar, last night (25th October).

Robert Boyle was one of the key figures in the scientific revolution of the 17th century and a founding member of the Royal Society, but was also conflicted by doubts about faith and conscience during his life.

The judges were unanimous in their decision. Chair of judges, Ann Sweeney, described it as a “tour de force”. She added: “This is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable man whose strong religious beliefs were balanced by his constant search for explanation in the world of science.”

The biennial Samuel Pepys Award is awarded to a book which makes the “greatest contribution” to the understanding of the famous diarist, his times or his contemporaries in the interest of encouraging scholarship in this area.

The first winner of the prize was Claire Tomalin’s Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self published in 2003 to mark the tercentenary of his death in May 1703, with Frances Harris, John Adamson and JD Davies also previous winners.

The Historical Association are starting a special fund in Barry Coward’s name to support the Great Debate and, hopefully, to raise money to support adults returning to education.

Barry was President of the HA from 2005 to 2008 seeing us through our Centenary Celebrations in 2006 and the first Great Debate. He was very supportive of education and was an A-level examiner for over 30 years.

Barry’s working life was at Birkbeck College, University of London. Birkbeck students are all mature students doing their degree part-time in the evening; to support adults returning to education at Birkbeck would be a cause close to Barry’s personal philosophy.

Many Birkbeck Early Modern Society members had the good fortune to be taught by Barry and to benefit from his generosity of spirit and kindness. This HA initiative is a welcome chance to both remember Barry and to help others experience a Birkbeck education.

Donations should be directed to The Historical Association. You can download a Gift Aid friendly form here: Barry Coward Memorial Fund.

Professor Barry Coward

The Early Modern Society is sad to announce the death of Professor Barry Coward who died on the 17th March 2011 aged seventy after a long illness.

It only seems like a few months ago that I wrote a piece in the Birkbeck Early Modern Society’s Bulletin upon Barry’s retirement and indeed, a retirement of five short years is far too brief a time for a man who loved life as Barry did. Despite retirement from teaching, his academic life was far from over.

He was called to Downing Street to discuss the teaching of history with Gordon Brown, his publisher had asked him to write a full-length biography of Oliver Cromwell, he had articles and other books to write and indeed, he had just completed a book with Peter Gaunt English Historical Documents, 1603-1660 and the final editing of the fourth edition of his seminal work The Stuart Age.

Barry was educated at Rochdale Grammar School and completed a first class degree at Sheffield University. His PhD on the Stanley dynasty swiftly followed and in 1966 he was appointed as a lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London. When Barry joined the academic staff at Birkbeck he intended to stay just a few years before returning to the north; he stayed for forty. Barry loved Birkbeck, it was a perfect setting for him. He loved the ethos of evening study, forever professing amazement at how the mature students of Birkbeck could combine careers, family life and degree study.

Barry published a number of important books including Social Change and Continuity in Early Modern England, Companion to the history of Stuart Britain,Oliver Cromwell and The Cromwellian Protectorate. However, it was The Stuart Age that made his name and became the standard work for the period.

Barry was president of the Central London Branch of the Historical Association and encouraged many history graduates of Birkbeck to join. He also became president of theHistorical Association as a whole from 2005 to 2008 and travelled up and down themotorways of the country promoting the Association at a time of personal difficulty with his mother’s illness and the death of his brother. I recall surprising him with my appearance in a Bristol car park just before a lecture after spotting in the HA newsletter that he was due to speak, and finding out that he had just driven all the way down from the north determined that he would give the lecture and not let anyone down. He gave huge amounts of his time to the HA and to supporting the teaching of history.

Barry was also for many years president of the Cromwell Association from 1999 to 2009 and each year would attend the ceremony when a wreath was laid on the statue of the Lord Protector. Cromwell was the historical figure that fascinated Barry more than any other and it was to Cromwell that he would return to time and again in his writings and lectures.

However, despite all the other achievements of his professional life it was his years as a lecturer at Birkbeck that Barry preferred. He was always warm, friendly and considerate towards his students and always sought to encourage everyone that attended his lectures and seminars. He was forever revising and reconsidering his opinions and during his lectures one could sense that he was rethinking his remarks as he spoke. His lectures were a delight to attend as his incredible and infectious enthusiasm for his chosen topic was so evident. But it was in his seminars that Barry excelled. He would get the conversation started and then allow everyone the chance to contribute, encouraging debate and coaxing opinions from even the most reserved of students. For anyone who was taught by Barry it was an unforgettable experience. Barry was old school and he was a tough marker and marked essays and dissertations as he saw them. If one’s efforts deserved a good mark then fine but if not then don’t expect any leniency.

Although history, particularly seventeenth-century history, was central to Barry’s life, he was far from being a one subject person. Barry had many interests; he loved sport and would wax lyrical about Rochdale Football Club, Lancashire Cricket Club and Bath Rugby Club (I’ll forgive him the latter). He also held strong political opinions and to the end remained firmly ‘Old Labour’. He enjoyed walking and gardening and was a convivial and amiable companion, and he loved to go to the pub and chat about all aspects of life over a pint of bitter. What is important to stress is that time spent with Barry was informative, interesting and fun.

He was a kind, decent and generous man. He achieved a huge amount in his life yet always remained modest, always prepared to discuss the merits of others rather than his own. He always went to the bar after a seminar and he said that his epitaph should be ‘He always stood his round’. He fought his illness with great dignity and courage. We last spoke about two weeks before he died and he remained indefatigable to the end. We continued to correspond by e-mail and he retained a sense of humour and great personal strength.

When I remember Barry I shall recall a great tutor and a wonderful historian but more than anything I shall remember him as a truly kind and thoughtful person. Without doubt, Barry was one of the nicest people I have ever met. In one of our conversations earlier this year he referred to me as a friend and I shall cherish that memory for ever.

Barry was a great family man and our thoughts are with his wife Shirley, his children Nick, Anthony and Lynne and his six grandchildren.

John Croxon

The campaign needs more signatures asap to prove it’s a popular cause while the government considers its future.

Interestingly, it turns out that Dickens lived nearby, so it was probably the model for the workhouse in Oliver Twist. The petition is here: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39594.html scroll down to sign it. The website for the campaign is here: http://www.workhouses.org/ and includes links to planning applications for the site.

Abstract

Whereas some have asserted that the early Royal Society actively sought to discredit magical beliefs, others have seen ideas of this kind as integral to the Society’s ‘nature’ in its early years. This paper argues that, whatever the magical commitments of individual Fellows, the Society’s corporate policy simply sidelined such pursuits. Yet, insofar as the result was that magic was excluded by default from the proper realm of scientific enquiry, this attitude was to prove paradoxically influential (although its roots have been retrospectively misconstrued to an extent that is significant in itself).

You can read the paper here: http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/01/03/rsnr.2010.0086.full

The petition is here: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39594.html

More info here:  http://fugitiveink.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/against-the-proposed-demolition-of-the-cleveland-street-workhouse/ and here: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/

Great news!  More here:

http://www.holberg.uib.no/en/natalie-zemon-davis.html

There is also a Facebook Group which is keeping track of developments and links available here.

You can sign the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/spkcl10/petition.html

If you want to write to King’s about this issue the person to write to is: Professor Rick Trainor, The Principal, King’s College, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS and copy to Professor Jan Palmowski, Head of the School of Arts and Humanities.

If you want to find out more about palaeography and why it’s so important, try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeography. There are some useful links there, too.

You can find out more about the day at http://www.followamuseum.com/. A list of Twittering museums is available at http://www.followamuseum.com/countries.html.

Or you can follow some museums already listed at http://twitter.com/BirkbeckEMS/museums-galleries. (I’ll be adding to this throughout February so if you know of any museums that are likely to offer items of early modern interest do let me know!)

Have you seen any of these items?

Bust of Poussin’s wife
A terracotta bust of Anne Marie Dughet, the wife of the artist Nicolas Poussin, by Francois Duquesnoy, circa 1630. Bought in 1842 auction by John P Beavan.

Wedgwood Plate
A set of 12 Wedgwood plates, featuring cameos of brown, white and blue festoons, designed by Lady Diana Beauclerk, circa 1777.

Henry VIII’s dagger
Of Turkish design, with a steel blade damasked in gold and a case embellished with diamonds and rubies (date unknown). In the 1842 auction, it was bought by the actor Charles Kean, who is said to have used it on stage. It was sold at Christie’s in 1898 to someone named “Haigham”.

Bust of Vespasian
Ancient Roman basalt bust of the Emperor Vespasian, formerly in 10 Downing Street and later at Strawberry Hill. The bust was last recorded at Christie’s in 1882 where it was sold by the Duke of Hamilton.

Gothic dining table
Commissioned by Horace Walpole in 1754, designed by Richard Bentley, the surface of the table is made of Sicilian Jasper. Last recorded in 1953 in the collection of the antiquarian HL Bradfer-Lawrence, of Ripon, Yorks, who died in 1965.

Read the full story here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/6889607/Hunt-begins-for-lost-Horace-Walpole-treasures-at-Strawberry-Hill.html

The US version of the Walpole exhibition is on show at the Yale Center for British Art until 3 January.

Find out more at The Art Newspaper.

The exhibition catalogue is available to fill the gap before the V&A version opens.

You can find out more about the Strawberry Hill Trust here: http://strawberryhilltrust.org/