Publications

PhD Thesis

'The Activity and Influence of the Established Church in England,
c. 1800-1837'
(University of Cambridge, 2018)

My PhD thesis examines the manifold ways in which the Church of England influenced English politics and society between c. 1800 and 1837. Historians’ assessments of the early nineteenth-century Church of England are still frequently coloured by a negative critique originating in radical anti-clerical polemics of the period. It is often assumed that, in consequence of social and political change, a lethargic and reactionary established church had largely lost its influence by 1830. While a minority of historians have moved beyond this framework, their focus has generally been on internal church affairs and how the clergy were affected by reform. By contrast, the central question of my PhD is not how the Church adapted to change, but how the Church itself was able to shape political and social life. Five main strands are explored: the nature and extent of Anglicanism, the participation of bishops in Parliament and high politics, the role of the clergy in localised political activity, the growth of Anglican schools for the poor and the bible and tract distribution efforts of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The thesis presents a national, as opposed to a regional, picture of the Church’s activity throughout England by way of geographically dispersed case studies mainly gathered from original research in 30 archives across England.