Change in penitential thinking and practice in England during the sixteenth century had a profound impact on both church and society. There has been no published work on penitence in England across the century. This study meets that gap examining why and how change came about; the way penitential change in England had its own peculiarities and differed from changes on the continent; and the consequences of change. The thesis has a special focus on pastoral ministry to penitents. The six main chapters consider: 1) ministry of the sacrament of penance prior to the Reformation; 2)the importance of penitence in the thinking of both conservative and evangelical humanists; 3)changes in church teaching about the sacrament during the reign of Henry VIII; 4)how the abandoning of the sacrament and obligatory auricular confession effected the role and work of clergy during the reign of Edward VI; ministry to those with 'afflicted consciences' during the Marian persecution; the politicisation of exiles; 5)the importance of the sacrament to church leaders for the restoration o the Marian church; 6)the Elizabethan church compensating for the loss of the sacrament by preaching repentance with the use of catechisms and devotional material; whether there is evidence to argue for a popular reception of the new penitential ideas. The focus on penitence brings out new insights. Henry VIII despite his antipathy to Luther and justification by faith, collaborated with Cranmer in bringing about more changes in penitential thinking and practice than has hitherto been noticed. The Edwardian Reformation was not merely destructive as some historians imply but established within the Church of England a new pattern of pastoral ministry. Attempts to restore papal Catholicism under Mary showed both the importance of penance and how church leaders had differing views of the significance of the sacrament which suggests tensions within the episcopate. Evidence also suggests resistance to return to earlier penitential practice. The Elizabethan church was not only concerned to justify the rejection of the sacrament of confession but many of its leaders were aware of the losses this involved. They looked for ways to compensate for these. Pastors developed experience in 'practical divinity' as a means of helping those with an 'afflicted conscience'. In fact the penitential changes together with the Marian persecution meant that conscience came to the fore as an issue in moral and political decisions. Consideration of the importance of repentance in metrical psalms, religious ballads, plays and broadsheets shows something of the impact penitential changes had on the culture as England moved to become a Protestant nation.

This thesis examines the contribution made to the political, ecclesiastical and social development of the Isle of Man by Isaac Barrow, bishop of Sodor and Man (1663-71) and governor (1664-69). The condition of the Island and its people after the civil wars and interregnum is described and the nature and scope of the challenges faced by Barrow are assessed. Barrow’s vision for the people in his care and the pastoral and educational strategies he adopted to better their moral, spiritual and social condition are described, and his motives in introducing his wide-ranging reforms are considered. The civil legislation enacted during his administration and the ecclesiastical legislation which he initiated are analysed, and the immediate and longer term effects of his reforms are evaluated. Barrow identified two key targets for reform: improved education and conditions for the parish clergy; and the provision of English elementary schools for every boy and girl, with grammar and academic schools for the most able. Barrow’s skill in exploiting four different sources of funds and setting up well-constructed endowment instruments to ensure effective investment management is considered, and the quality and consistency of the oversight of schools and other aspects of pastoral and social care provided by the clergy and the courts are also evaluated. The thesis then reflects on Barrow’s continuing interest in and contribution to the development of education in the Isle of Man during his episcopate in St Asaph (1670-80), and considers reasons for his relative lack of success in addressing comparable social challenges in north-east Wales. The impact of variations to the conditions of the academic endowments which Barrow made in his will (1680) is also assessed. At the centre of the thesis is a reflection on Barrow’s life before 1663. The contrast between his high church, royalist convictions and academic career in Cambridge, Oxford and Eton on the one hand, and the liberal credentials of his reforms on the other, is considered. The thesis questions the extent to which the influence of former friends and colleagues, and the strengths and weaknesses of his self-sufficient, authoritarian character may have contributed to his ideas and the success of their implementation. The thesis evaluates the long-term effectiveness of Barrow’s reforms, notably in education, by analysing evidence for the progress of literacy in reading and writing in the Isle of Man through the eighteenth century. It assesses particularly the efficacy of schooling in English in an isolated community where only Manx Gaelic, a vernacular without a written orthography, was spoken, and considers similar challenges in the teaching and acquisition of reading skills in Wales. Comparisons are then drawn with contemporary developments in the dioceses of Chester (Cheshire and south Lancashire) and St Asaph (Denbigh, Flint and Montgomery) and in the wider context of the progress of literacy in England and Wales. In conclusion the continuing contribution of Barrow’s ideas and endowments today is summarised.

Female Enterprise in Georgian Derbyshire, c.1780-c.1830 analyses quantitatively and qualitatively the continuing and increasing presence of middle-ranking women in the commercial environment of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century England. It challenges an older and more pessimistic interpretation of decline, narrowing opportunities and withdrawal from business in response to intensifying separate spheres ideology. Instead, alongside significant levels of continuity in opportunities within a narrow range of 'feminine' economic sectors, it demonstrates the increasing presence of women as owner-managers of enterprise, and the ability of women to enter and survive in 'masculine' business environments. Whilst never more than a significant minority, women are, nevertheless, regarded as material, rather than peripheral players, in the development of the late-Georgian economy. Despite the less regulated spaces and greater dynamism of more rapidly developing industrial towns (which provided women with opportunities to engage in business), emphasis is placed on a woman's ability to enter and remain in business being contingent upon her continued utilisation and reinforcement of familial, business and social connections. Whilst businesswomen were more constrained than men by legal, moral and social codes of conduct, it is evident throughout the research that the marketing, managing and organisation of their enterprises was comparable to their male counterparts. In a predominantly rural county like Derbyshire, proportionately more women were to be found engaged in enterprise than they were in towns and cities undergoing significantly greater industrial expansion and urban growth. For those women who out of necessity or choice took the decision to enter the business arena, their status and reputations as middle­ranking women were not compromised, but forged by their experiences.

By using the political career of the leading Conservative Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham, as a prism, this thesis explores important aspects of inter-war British politics. Considering that Hailsham held key posts during the 1920s and 1930s, his career has attracted less historical coverage than one would expect. By charting his important role in the policy-making process, this study sheds light upon the major challenges facing Conservative leaders and enhances our understanding of British politics during this turbulent period. Hailsham helped shape the moderate form of Conservatism that asserted itself at this time and became intimately involved in formulating Britain’s imperial, defence and foreign policies. Hailsham’s contribution to the Conservatives’ response to the rise of the Labour Party during Britain’s newfound age of mass democracy emphasises the intricacies of inter-war Conservatism. Notwithstanding the overwhelmingly working class electorate, the Conservatives were the dominant party at the polls and this study demonstrates that Hailsham played no small part in the Conservatives’ highly successful inter-war appeal. By the end of the 1920s, he had assumed such a prominent position that a number of high-ranking Tories regarded him as Stanley Baldwin’s likely successor. During the 1930s, Hailsham confirmed that he was a committed imperialist. He was amongst those who defined Britain’s policy as the Empire was transformed into the Commonwealth. He also made important contributions to the interplay between the National Government’s foreign and defence policies. He was one of only a handful of ministers whose continued presence allowed them to make interventions in Britain’s disarmament, rearmament and appeasement policies during the era of the European dictators and the rise of militaristic Japan. Hailsham’s contribution is even more significant because he has strong claims to being the first cabinet minister to express disquiet over the mounting German menace.

This thesis focuses on serious female offenders living in Liverpool and London during the Victorian period. In contrast to much existing historical research on women and crime, the interest here is not solely on the offences women committed, nor their offending patterns; but instead on their lives, experiences, and identities. One of the key objectives of this research is to add new information on women and offending to a historiography which continues to be dominated by the male offender and the male experience or crime. Similarly, this research moves away from histories of female offenders as shoplifters, prostitutes, and child-killers, and considers the wider involvement of women in crimes of theft and violence in Victorian cities. The findings demonstrate that female offences were diverse, and patterns of offending were heavily influenced by local, environmental, and personal factors. Analysis of women’s experiences shows that limited opportunities for employment, difficult living conditions, and poor prospects for social mobility and stability all impacted upon the probability of offending. The research also shows that women who were part of the lowest sections of the working class, members of an ethnic minority, the oldest female child in their families, and unmarried, were most likely to become serious female offenders. Local differences in employment opportunities, housing patterns, and policing practices could impact upon the kind of crimes undertaken by women, the period of the life-cycle in which offending was most likely to begin, the length of offending careers, and the number of convictions women gained. Yet the biggest contribution to serious female offending was made by experiences which transcended both location and environment, namely the issues of poverty, and social and economic exclusion.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Liverpool's world-wide transport links, and its close proximity to Ireland, rendered it a most convenient - if not always the most welcoming - destination for large numbers of female migrants. Therefore, the initial purpose of this study is to compare the migration experience of Irish women who settled in Liverpool between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, to examine whether that experience changed over time and, if it did, to establish the nature of that change. Beginning with an examination of the perception of the Irish by their British neighbours, and how extremely high levels of settlement in Liverpool shaped attitudes there, exploration is made of the way these attitudes were reflected in that city's treatment of Irish migrants. Secondly, consideration is given to expressions of prevailing ideology surrounding women's role within the home and in the wider society, that the influences and pressures that were brought to bear upon Iirsh women - in Ireland and in Britain - might be examined. Thirdly, examination is made of the economic climate in Liverpool, particularly in connection with female work opportunities, which set the scene for examination of employment trends amongst female migrants. The scale of the Irish presence in Liverpool, and its impact, coloured local perceptions for many years, the sense of and alien 'other' in their midst frequently errupting in expressions of resentment and hostility. Meanwhile, attitudes towards women - in Ireland and in Britain - saw society seek to control them through the imposition of social, moral and economic restrictions, and penalize those who stepped beyond these perameters. Moreover, Liverpool's over-reliance upon maritime commerce, rather than manufacturing, presented women with few opportunities for gainful employment. Those available were very often low status, poorly paid, and confined to a narrow range, yet underemployment amongst men in Liverpool rendered women's earnings an essential part of family incomes. In response, Irish women moved into occupations less popular with locally-born women, and made them their own, becoming particularly noted as street vendors and domestic servants. Indeed, the steady stream of female migrants willing to work in domestic service ensured that it remained a major field of female employment in Liverpool far longer than in other parts of Britain, even during the Second World War. In the process they created a tradition of working mothers which drew criticism from those in authority, and the attention of social reformers. Migration changed the lives of these women, it changed the country they left, and it changed the city that became their new home.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. / Department of Government and Public Administration

This research is concerned with issues of episteme, epistemology, and community. It asks how and why an epistemic community emerges? It looks at the study of the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process as covered in the British and Irish political science academy in order to answer this question. This research is thus ultimately about knowledge, knowledge creators, and the circumstances and conditions in which they develop. It is also a case study of what happens when academics engage with political events. Do they act as innovators or simply as scholar who react to changing political environments? This research explains the emergence of the Northern Ireland epistemic community using the boundary object concept. It asserts that knowledge communities do not develop de novo but instead emerge through academics struggles and frustrations with existing knowledge paradigms. A boundary object is the means by scholars can come together and challenge such paradigms and build new knowledge infrastructures. Through the emergence of the Northern Ireland peace process and scholar’s (re)engagement with and application of consociational theory and comparative methods this epistemic community was made possible. This research looks at the barriers that prevented the emergence of this community during the Troubles, its emergence following the outbreak of the Northern Ireland peace process, and its evolution following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Additionally, we look at the conflicts that developed between members of this community and how these academics define themselves both professionally and in relation to a community they are a part of yet see themselves as a part from.

This thesis traces the development of political competition in Britain by exploring the relationship between politicians and their constituents; in particular, it examines the decisions rank-and-file politicians made when choosing how to run election campaigns. Between the pre-Reform period and the First World War, three major developments changed campaigning. Firstly, campaigning shifted from clientelistic to programmatic. Secondly, competition became polarized along an economic left-right dimension. And thirdly, elections became a venue for holding incumbents accountable by means of retrospective voting. Together, these three changes transformed political competition in Britain. Each of the three papers in this dissertation addresses one of these changes. The first paper shows how the Second Reform Act caused a shift in politicians’ preferences away from clientelistic campaigning. It uses a difference-in-differences strategy to estimate the causal impact enfranchisement had on how MPs spoke in the House of Commons, finding that reform increased the extent to which MPs – particularly Liberals – discussed corruption. It argues that this increase raised the salience of corruption so much that previously abstaining or opposing Liberals came around and passed the Ballot Act in 1872. The second and third papers get more directly at the relationship between politicians and constituents by introducing a new dataset of all ‘election addresses’ issued by all parliamentary candidates in the six elections between 1892 and 1910, which provide, for each candidate, a comparable text advertising their political positions and personal qualities. The second paper, joint work with Daniel Ziblatt, uses these manifestos to show how campaigning became concentrated on an economic left-right dimension, and increasingly polarized. It also addresses the long-running debate over whether the rise of Labour doomed the Liberal Party into third place, showing that while Labour did initially stake out a unique programmatic identity, by 1910 the Liberals moved to occupy the same ideological space, positioning themselves as the natural party of progressivism going into World War I. Finally, the third paper shows the rise of retrospective accountability in campaigning. It uses a regression discontinuity design to show that the way candidates appealed to their constituents depended on their position: incumbent candidates’ campaign addresses are more positive than those of challengers, indicating that politicians appeal to their constituents on the basis of their record in government. I show that this effect developed around the turn of the century, and is particularly strong in those constituencies in which the Third Reform Act of 1884 enfranchised more people. Together, the papers capture these three distinct facets of the transformation of campaigning. By using quantitative text analysis to explore parliamentary speeches and campaign manifestos, I am able to examine how rank-and-file politicians spoke about – and to – their constituents, and how this changed. Focusing on rank-and-file politicians rather than party leaders, the thesis shows the importance of the decisions made by backbench politicians in changing how they related to their voters.

Almshouses providing accommodation for poor people are a common feature of the towns and villages of England, but in the historical literature are rarely considered to have made a genuine contribution to the poor and needy. This study examines the extent and nature of almshouse provision in early modern England, and places this within the context of overall approaches to the poor in the period. The archival research focuses on the contrasting counties of Durham, Warwickshire and Kent between about 1550 and 1725. Information on all the almshouse foundations in those areas is collated and summarised in an appendix, enabling both quantitative and qualitative evaluations to be made. A detailed analysis of the policy background to housing the poor provides the context for the study, and reveals that almshouses were initially seen as part of a national as well as local solution to the problem of poverty. Many of the diverse people involved in founding and running almshouses responded to this agenda, motivated by political responsibility and particular group identities, rather than just the desire for personal memorialisation. A case study of a single almshouse exemplifies the way this parish used the almshouse alongside other resources to meet the needs of the poor. Overall, there was a surprising variation in the socio-economic status of almshouse occupants and their experience of almshouse life. In many almshouses, occupants’ standard of living was similar to that of other poor people, including parish paupers. The guaranteed nature of the benefits and security of the accommodation were, however, distinct advantages, and most almspeople were able to enjoy considerable independence and autonomy, with women possibly benefiting most. Over the period, however, statutory poor relief and the introduction of workhouses enabled almshouses to develop as more exclusive institutions, which were less embedded in local welfare systems.