What cultural, social and political work was done by non-elite writing in seventeenth-century England, and how can we re-conceptualise its cultural place? 

Our research explores non-elite writings associated with London, the provinces, travel and encounter, and women. It combines literary and historical methodologies to find out more about writers below gentry status. Working from manuscript and print and researching in databases and archives, we aim to change the presence of non-elite writings in literary and historical scholarship. We are building a readily usable database, planning collaborative publications, and hoping to make contact with other researchers in this and similar fields. 

We are keen to hear from scholars who are interested in these long-neglected writers, have a related project, or who have writers they want to share with us. We are: Prof Sue Wiseman (principal investigator) and Dr Brodie Waddell (co-investigator), Dr Richard Ansell (postdoctoral research associate), Dr Michael Powell-Davies (postdoctoral research associate), Dr Hannah Robb (postdoctoral research associate), and Dr Laura Seymour (postdoctoral research associate). We are all based at Birkbeck, University of London.

We are running a series of events over the course of the project, including ‘Writing Work: Non Elite Writers and Work in Seventeenth Century England’ (April 2023) and ‘Finding Non-Elite Londoners: Writers, Workers, Wanderers’ (June 2022). The project is funded by a Research Project Grant from the Leverhulme Trust, running 2022-2027. 

Image: Johannes Vermeer, ‘Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid’, c.1670. © National Gallery of Ireland.