People
Core Research Team
Project Associates
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Advisory Group
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Core Research Team
Professor Margot Finn
Margot Finn is the project’s Principal Investigator. The East India Company at Home is an outgrowth of her current research for a book on ‘Imperial Family Formations: Domestic Strategies and Colonial Power in British India, c.1757-1857. Publications from this book project relevant to The East India Company at Home include:
- ‘Family Formations: Anglo India and the Familial Proto-State’, in David Feldman and Jon Lawrence, (eds), Structures and Transformations in Modern British History: Essays for Gareth Stedman Jones (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 100-117
- ‘“Frictions” d’empire: les réseaux de circulation des successions et des patrimonies dans la Bombay colonial des années 1780’, Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 65, 5 (septembre-octobre 2010), 1175-1204
- ‘The Barlow Bastards: Romance Comes Home from the Empire’, in Margot Finn, Michael Lobban and Jenny Bourne Taylor, (eds), Legitimacy and Illegitimacy in Nineteenth-Century Law, Literature and History, ed. (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2010), 25-47
- ‘Anglo-Indian Lives in the Later Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century’, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 33, 1 (March 2010), 49-65
- ‘Slaves out of Context: Domestic Slavery and the Anglo-Indian Family, c. 1780-1820’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 19 (2009), 181-203
- ‘Scenes of Literary Life: The Homes of England’, in James Chandler, (ed.,) The New Cambridge History of English Literature: The Romantic Period (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 293-313
- ‘Colonial Gifts: Family Politics and the Exchange of Goods in British India, c. 1780-1820’, Modern Asian Studies, 40, 1 (2006), 203-232
- ‘Colonial Possessions’ dataset, UK Data Archive Study Number 5254 (posted December 2005)(www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=5254)
Further information on Professor Finn’s research can be found at her Warwick History Department staff webpage.
Dr Helen Clifford
Helen Clifford graduated in History from Cambridge in 1983, and went on to work as an archivist. After gaining a PhD from the Victorian & Albert Museum/Royal College of Art in 1989, she has concentrated on combining a curatorial and university-based research and teaching career. Much of her academic work has centred on the meaning and role of luxury objects within 17th- and 18th-century English culture.
As the owner and curator of the Swaledale Museum in North Yorkshire, she has worked extensively with family history groups, and recognises the value of their work to historical investigation and analysis. She is currently Museum Consultant to the University of Warwick ERC-funded project 'Europe's Asian Centuries: Trading Eurasia 1600-1830', linking academics and museum specialists in the field of Asian commodities. Her publications include:
- 'The North and the East: Connections and Sources 1650-1850', Teesdale Record Society (2009)
- 'The Problem of Patina: Thoughts on Changing Attitudes to Old and New Things', in A. Richmond and A. Bracker (eds), Conservation Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths (Buttersworth-Heineman, 2009), 125-128
- 'English Ingenuity, French Imitation and Spanish Desire: The Intriguing Case of Cut Steel Jewellery...c. 1700-c. 1800', in L'acier en Europe avant Bessemer, historire et techniques (Collections Méridiennes-FRAMESPA-CNAM/Université de Toulouse, 2007)
- Silver in London: The Parker and Wakelin Partnership, 1760-1776 (Yale University Press, 2004)
- 'Making Luxuries: The Image and Reality of Luxury Workshops in Eighteenth Century London', in P. Barnwell (ed.), The Vernacular Workshop (Council for British Archaeology, 2004).
Further information regarding Dr Clifford can be found at her staff webpage.
Dr Kate Smith
Kate Smith is full-time research fellow on the project. After graduating in History from Cambridge, Kate went on to complete her MA by Research and PhD at the University of Warwick. She spent a year of her PhD studying in the Art History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and for 2010-11 returned to Wisconsin as the Charles Hummel Fellow at the Chipstone Foundation.
Kate's research explores how production was perceived and valued as an aspect of material culture in 18th- and early 19th-century Britain. More generally, Kate is interested in what objects and people's interactions with objects reveal about British culture. Her publications and exhibitions relevant to The East India Company at Home project include:
- 'Sensing Design and Workmanship: The Haptic Skills of Shoppers in Eighteenth-Century London', forthcoming in the Journal of Design History
- Co-Curator, with Professor David Porter, of 'Way of the Dragon, The Chinoiserie Style, 1710-1830', Milwaukee Art Museum, 30 June-16 October 2011
Further information regarding Dr Smith can be found at her staff webpage.
Ms Ellen Filor
Ellen Filor graduated from the University of York in History in 2010 and completed an MA in Global History at the University of Warwick in 2011. Her research interests are in the cultural aspects of rule in colonial India. She is combining this with an interest in Scottish history to write a PhD on the interconnections between metropole and colony in the county of Roxburgh. This will seek to address the role of material culture and housing in the production and maintenance of East India Company family networks and identities.
Advisory Group
Dr Viccy Coltman
Viccy Coltman is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. A specialist in visual and material culture in later eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, Viccy is the author of Fabricating the Antique: Neoclassicism in Britain (2006) and Classical Sculpture and the Culture of Collecting in Britain since 1760 (2009). She is currently preparing a book which looks at the fashioning of identity by Scots in London, Europe and in the empire. Her empire chapter focuses on the East India Company servants Claude Alexander, David Anderson and George Bogle, who were based in Bengal in the 1770s and 1780s. For more information about Dr Viccy Coltman's research, see her Edinburgh University staff webpage.
Dr Lowri Ann Rees
Lowri Ann Rees is a Lecturer of Modern and Contemporary History in the School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology at Bangor University. Her researcg interests focus on the landed elite in Wales during the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century. She is currently working on a study of East India Company men returning to Wales and their attempts to integrate into local elite society. For more information about Dr Lowri Ann Rees's research, see her Bangor University staff webpage.
Dr Margaret Makepeace
Margaret Makepeace is Lead curator for the East India Company Records at the British Library. She has worked with the collections in the India Office Records since 1979 and is a qualified archivist. Margaret has written about varied aspects of the history of the East India Company: trade on the Guinea Coast, dealings with Armenian merchants, and the Company's London business operations. The research undertaken for her PhD thesis (University of Leicester, 2007) forms the basis of her book The East India Company's London Workers: Management of the Warehouse Labourers 1800-1858 (Boydell, 2010). For more information about Dr Margaret Makepeace's research, see her British Library staff webpage.
Click here to link to the British Library's Untold Lives blog, which Margaret is involved in.
Ms Susan Stronge
Susan Stronge is a Senior Curator in the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 1999 she curated an acclaimed V&A exhibition on The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms, and edited the accompanying exhibition catalogue of that title. Her many publications on South Asian art include Tipu's Tigers (V&A, 2009) and Made for Mughal Emperors: Royal Treasures from Hindustan (I.B. Tauris, 2010). In 2006, Susan Stronge was presented with the Pubjabi Cultural Award by the Punjabis in Britain All-Party Parliamentary Group, in recognition for her many contributions to the promotion of Punjabi culture in Britain.
Mr Keith Sweetmore
Keith Sweetmore graduated in modern history from Durham University and completed his archival training at University College London. Having worked as an archivist to private and public organisations for over thirty years, he retains an enthusiastic and innovative approach to archives work. In recent years, at the North Yorkshire County Record Office, he has created a service which scores 4 stars (out of four) in the National Archives assessment scheme. The Record Office in North Yorkshire fulfils a leading role in community engagement and museum and library partnership, and enjoys an excellent relationship with the family history community in Yorkshire through joint projects, volunteering and outreach events.
Mrs Marion Moverley
Marion Moverley was born and bred in the Yorkshire Dales and has always felt passionate about her native county. Her adventure into history began with tracing her father's family for him. She then widened her interests by taking an Access course in Humanities (Sociology, History, English Literature), which she passed with an A. Marion followed this by completing a BA (Hons) at the University College of Ripon and York St John and an MA by Research in historical demography at the University of Leeds. At every opportunity Marion has combined her academic studies with projects on the history of the Yorkshire Dales. Her BA thesis examined the late patrons of two Yorkshire Abbeys and her MA dissertation explored the populations of three parishes in Coverdale, Yorkshire. Marion also combined all of her studies with bringing up her family.
Marion only entered further education as an adult and as a result is passionate about adult education and what can be achieved by mature students. After completing her studies Marion became a part-time lecturer for the School of Continuing Education at the University of Leeds. When the department closed down she went on to work for a short time at the School of Continuing Education at the University of York and the WEA. Marion now works freelance putting on courses in Yorkshire and giving lectures.
Marion is an active member of local family history groups and supports several local museums. She is experienced in reading and interpreting historical documents and has worked in archives and libraries across the country. Mation writes and researches her own courses, using a wide variety of sources and also undertakes private research. Her passion is social history, particularly the demographic aspects of social history. Marion is fascinated by patterns of migration and the local consequences of that migration. Marion is currently researching London Boarding Schools which were set up in Yorkshire and is particularly interested in the migration of London children to these schools.
'The East India Company ay Home, 1757-1857' project currently has over 200 Project Associates. If you would like to become a Project Associate please go the 'Joining the Project' page of our website.
Here are a sample of some of the people who have joined up as Project Associates already and are involved in the project...
Emile de Bruijn works as Registrar for the National Trust (www.nationaltrust.org.uk), specialising in the facilitation and documentation of acquisitions. He also researches examples of chinoiserie in the country house collections owned and managed by the National Trust, which include garden pavilions, wallpaper, textiles, ceramics, lacquer and japanning. He is particularly interested in how the significance of chinoiserie changed over time and from one place to another. Emile has published a number of articles on chinoiserie and he posts about National Trust collections (including chinoiserie) on his blog Treasure Hunt (http://nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/). Contact Emile on emile.debruijn@nationaltrust.org.uk.
David Veevers is a first year PhD candidate at the University of Kent following his completion of an MA in Modern History. Funded by Kent through a Graduate Teaching Assistantship, his doctoral research is concerned with exploring the importance of family and kin in the East India Company between 1720-1780. With a particular focus on the Indian sub-continent, his work intends to highlight how local Company politics and trade operated through extended networks of family and kinship within the Presidency towns. The ‘East India at Home’ project will be a vital resource for him in exploring the social and cultural aspects of such familial networks. Contact David at dv54@kent.ac.uk.
Megan Leyland is a PhD student at the University of Leicester. Her doctoral research seeks to address questions of gender, cultural expectations and architectural conventions through the study of alterations to the nineteenth-century country house. She is investigating a number of country houses in order to gauge the influence of circles and cliques of woman, both locally and nationally, on building construction and design. She is especially interested in the East India Company at Home’s exploration of Asian influences on furnishing, design, and collecting, as well as the effects on circles of patronage and familial ties. Contact Megan at mrl13@le.ac.uk.
Georgina Green is an independent scholar who has completed extensive research on the Valentines Mansion in Ilford. Owned by LB Redbridge, Valentines Mansion (http://www.valentines.org.uk/ http://www.valentinesmansion.com) was built 1696-7 and is listed Grade II*. Since the mid-1990s Georgina has been involved in trying to raise awareness and interest in the building and has researched the lives of the residents. Valentines Mansion obtained nearly £2m from HLF and the building reopened in February 2009 after a major restoration. Georgina is particularly interested in Sir Charles Raymond (1713-88) who served as a captain with the East India Co. He later became a major figure in the EIC as a Principal Managing Owner (113 voyages in 40 years, 12% of sailings) and one of very few ships lost was "Valentine" which was wrecked in the Channel Isles. Raymond had other financial interests in the City and was created a Baronet in 1774. Contact Georgina at georgina.green@btconnect.com.
June Willing has been a family historian for over 35 years. As well as researching her own family history, she is currently carrying out a one-name study (http://www.one-name.org/) of the name Dominicus, which is a Dutch name, and rare in the UK. The most prominent member of this family in England was George Dominicus (1751-1827) of the East India Company. He was a husband and warehousekeeper at Botolph Wharf from 1787 and at East India Wharf from 1800. He lived at Court Lodge, East Farleigh, Kent. Contact June at june.willing@one-name.org.
John Chown is interested in the activities of the East India Company in Malaya. Beginning with Francis Light (Penang) and Stamford Raffles (Singapore) and then the seven EIC appointed Governors of the Straits Settlements between 1826 and 1867. Colonel Chown suggests that the project attempts to identify their homes in Britain and discover whether there are artefacts from the East in them. Colonel Chown also suggests establishing a link with nearby Haileybury College to find out if it has archival material relating to its predecessor, The East India Company College, and its alumnae. Contact Colonel John Chown at mail@jwchown.plus.com.
George K. McGilvary is an independent scholar and an Honorary Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Scottish Centre of Diaspora Studies, Edinburgh University. Now retired, he first embarked on research into the East India Company (EIC) in 1969/70. While lecturing and then involved in business, he delved into the life of Laurence Sulivan (EIC); into Scottish-EIC connections; then the impact of Indian money and of returned Scottish nabobs on Scotland – embracing political, economic, social and cultural features. His interests since 2007 are the exploits of the Scottish elite – at home, southward (to London) then into South-East Asia 1660-1880. Contact Dr George McGilvary at gkmcgilvary@btinternet.com.
Mikkel Venborg Pedersen is a Curator and Senior Researcher of the Modern Collections at the Danish National Museum. He is currently working on the project: ‘Colonial’ Consumption in Denmark in Early Modernity, which in its interest is close to The East India Company at Home projects. His other areas of research include: Denmark and the former colonies, especially Danish West Indies (U.S. Virgin Islands). Also: European Early Modernity; Elite culture & folk culture, especially the history of everyday life; Theory and methodology in cultural historical research; Artefacts and consumption. Contact Mikkel Venborg Pedersen at mikkelvenborg.pedersen@natmus.dk.
Giorgio Riello is Professor of Global History at the University of Warwick. I am currently completing a book entitled Global Cotton: How an Asian Fibre Changed the European Economy that narrates the history of economic divergence in Eurasia through the case of cotton textiles. I am also researching on material culture and global connections in the early modern period (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/research/globalcommodities/ and AHRC International Network that I direct together with Anne Gerritsen). My next project will investigate textiles, dress and fashion as markers of European identity in the early modern world. Contact Giorgio Riello at g.riello@warwick.ac.uk.
Jon Stobart is Professor in History at the University of Northampton. His research interests cover various aspects of retailing and consumption in the long eighteenth century. Long-standing research into shops and shopping practices has led to the recent completion of a monograph on the grocery trade. Entitled Sugar and Spice, this will be published by OUP in 2013. Currently, his key research centres on consumption and the country house, with a particular emphasis on: the relationship between changing family circumstances and patterns of consumption; the combination of new and old within the material culture of the country house; the role of the individual in shaping consumption patterns and practices, and the systems of supply that served the country house. Contact Jon Stobart at jon.stobart@northampton.ac.uk.
Julie Day is a freelance historian who specialises in the British country house. She is particularly interested in the social history of the built environment and so cherish the variety offered by the country house and its many histories. She writes regularly about these for my own blog (http://countryhousereader.wordpress.com). Her PhD thesis from the University of Leeds was on elite women and methods of household management in the eighteenth century, thus the East India Company at Home project proves fascinating because of its connection with academic thought on household consumption at regional and international levels. At present, Julie is researching the developments from architectural structure to the notion of home at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire. Contact Julie Day at julieday77@yahoo.co.uk.