3 Aug 1640: Charles I appoints Thomas Wentworth Earl of #Strafford captain-general of the army to invade #Scotland #otd (NPG) No comment needed on the outcomes of this 'cunning plan'.

Ahead of our conference on EM women’s historical writing @oxfordcems.bsky.social @engfac.bsky.social next week, check out our speakers’ stimulating blog posts This week @karl-haohaozhang.bsky.social reflects on the significance of ‘ground’ in the Civil War clioreframed.hcommons.org/2026/05/31/w...

Thornton's account is not that different from the legal records. They note that John Ogle and Thomas Jenney were involved, as Thornton also hints at, but they state that Danby died about 11 o'clock on 31 July with the coroner arriving on the 1st. 🗃️ www.british-history.ac.uk/middx-county...

Alice Thornton's Books@thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · 4d ago

1 Aug. 1667 #OTD Thornton's nephew, Thomas Danby, was murdered near Gray's Inn, London: 'this poor gentleman was suddenly surprised and murdered without any provocation or malice begun on his side. Committed with the most barbarous circumstances imaginable by one Berridge.' (Bk 1, 227). #EarlyModern

1 Aug. 1667 #OTD Thornton's nephew, Thomas Danby, was murdered near Gray's Inn, London: 'this poor gentleman was suddenly surprised and murdered without any provocation or malice begun on his side. Committed with the most barbarous circumstances imaginable by one Berridge.' (Bk 1, 227). #EarlyModern

Today is #YorkshireDay so we're sharing this post by @cordeliabeattie.bsky.social about Alice Thornton and her Yorkshire connections. #EarlyModern 🗃️ 1/2 thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/posts/blog/2...

Celebrating a Yorkshire Woman on Yorkshire Day: Alice Thornton (1626-1707)

Blog article - 1 August 2023

thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk

30 July 1632 #OTD Alice Wandesford (Thornton's mother) wrote to her son-in-law Thomas Danby to let him know that his wife had given birth: 'at eight o'clock you are made a father of a second son'. She added that she would not organise the baptism until his arrival except 'in case of necessity'. 🗃️

29 July 1630 #OTD Alice's sister, Katherine, married Thomas Danby at Kirklington #Yorkshire and spent most of the next 15 years pregnant. 16 pregnancies in that time led to 10 children, 7 surviving childhood. She died from postpartum illness in September 1645. #EarlyModern 🗃️

Always here for engineer-designer collabs in DH!

Alice Thornton's Books@thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · last wk.

If you're at #DH2026 go see Mary Chester-Kadwell and Tiffany Ong's poster 'Human-centred Design in Digital Humanities: Rethinking Timeline Data Visualisation through Software Engineer-Designer Collaboration' re. the timeline they created for our project. thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/timeline/

28 July 1689 #OTD Alice Thornton wrote to her cousin Thomas Osborne (Lord Danby) thanking him for helping her only son, Robert, find a position on a naval ship which was heading to Spain: ‘He assured me he found all persons in the ship very devout at prayers and sermon’. #EarlyModern 🗃️ 📜

For #DH and #dataviz people... and if you're not at the conference, go look at the timeline anyway! It's a very clever and lovely visualisation. [disclosure: I may have had a bit to do with the underlying data.]

Alice Thornton's Books@thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · last wk.

If you're at #DH2026 go see Mary Chester-Kadwell and Tiffany Ong's poster 'Human-centred Design in Digital Humanities: Rethinking Timeline Data Visualisation through Software Engineer-Designer Collaboration' re. the timeline they created for our project. thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/timeline/

If you're at #DH2026 go see Mary Chester-Kadwell and Tiffany Ong's poster 'Human-centred Design in Digital Humanities: Rethinking Timeline Data Visualisation through Software Engineer-Designer Collaboration' re. the timeline they created for our project. thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/timeline/

The Eventful Life of Alice Thornton

thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk

Snail mail! 🐌

Alice Thornton's Books@thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · last wk.

26 July 1669 #OTD Mary Comber, mother of Thomas, wrote to Alice Thornton, about the recent marriage of her son to Thornton's daughter, Nally (Book 3, 191). This likely followed the letter pictured, which was written in Feb. 1669 but only received by Alice Thornton on 14 June. #EarlyModern 📜 🗃️

Climate change is bad, but this is cool

Chatsworth's parched grass reveals 'lost' 17th Century garden

The hot weather uncovers the outline of The Great Parterre, an ornate garden designed in 1699.

bbc.com

26 July 1669 #OTD Mary Comber, mother of Thomas, wrote to Alice Thornton, about the recent marriage of her son to Thornton's daughter, Nally (Book 3, 191). This likely followed the letter pictured, which was written in Feb. 1669 but only received by Alice Thornton on 14 June. #EarlyModern 📜 🗃️

25 July 1668 #OTD Thornton's son Robert, age 5, was delivered from death, after falling out of a barn window: 'standing in the window about four yards high from the earth, he fell out of it into the lane and was very near with his head to a great stone.' (Bk Rem, 130). #HistChild #EarlyModern 🗃️

A different insight into #WomensWork. All three of the women named by Thornton were servants in her household (Mary a former servant, Hannah a current one, as was Barbara, albeit for Thornton's niece who was staying with them). #EarlyModern

Alice Thornton's Books@thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · 2w ago

20 July 1668 #OTD Thornton fell ill on hearing of rumours circulating about her: 'Barbara Todd, did impudently accuse, before my face, my servant (Hannah Ableton) for telling her from one Mary Breakes of several stories —which were very great lies and falsehoods against myself' (Bk Rem, 122). 🗃️

20 July 1668 #OTD Thornton fell ill on hearing of rumours circulating about her: 'Barbara Todd, did impudently accuse, before my face, my servant (Hannah Ableton) for telling her from one Mary Breakes of several stories —which were very great lies and falsehoods against myself' (Bk Rem, 122). 🗃️

A nice #WomensWork detail in this account. 🗃️

Alice Thornton's Books@thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · 2w ago

19 July 1643 #OTD 3 grenades were shot into Chester by Sir William Brereton's army. According to Thornton, who lived there, 'The second alight short of the city, in a ditch, within a pasture amongst a company of women milking but was quenched without doing them harm at all' (Bk 1, 70). #EarlyModern

19 July 1643 #OTD 3 grenades were shot into Chester by Sir William Brereton's army. According to Thornton, who lived there, 'The second alight short of the city, in a ditch, within a pasture amongst a company of women milking but was quenched without doing them harm at all' (Bk 1, 70). #EarlyModern

Today is World Emoji Day! Did you know that Alice Thornton used an early form of emoji in her writing? She often used a ❤ instead of writing the word heart. In the image, see seven lines up on the right: 'Oh that our soules, my mind & ♥' Image: Book of Remembrances, 109. Photo by Derek Beattie. 📜

12 July 1670 #OTD James Comber wrote to his son, Thomas, at Stonegrave with greetings to Thomas’s wife, Alice, and mother-in-law, Alice Thornton, suggesting that his wife visit the couple in #Yorkshire and ‘wait upon your mother in law Madam Thornton about April next’. #EarlyModern 🗃️ 📜

8 July 1640 #OTD Alice Thornton's father, Christopher Wandesford, wrote to her sister, Katherine, with parenting advice: 'it consists both with discretion and the love which parents bear to their children, to breed confidence and not to give occasion for jealousies to be harboured in them'. 1/3 🗃️

New #OpenAccess article by @helenaaeberli.bsky.social on pica, a lesser-known eating disorder, and its gendered associations with pregnant women and pubescent girls in early modern England. #EarlyModern #Skystorians #GenderHistory #HistMed onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/CYRU3R...

CN: infant death 6 July 1634 #OTD Katherine Armitage, sister-in-law of Alice Thornton's sister, Katherine Danby, wrote to Katherine offering condolences on the death of her two-week-old son, Edward: 'what God sends we must entertain with patience and I know so do you.' #EarlyModern 🗃️ 1/3

Still need an excuse to preorder my next book? Enter the code “GLR AT8” to get 35% off via the @bloomsburyfashion.bsky.social website!! See links in my bio 😊 #earlymodern #17thc #18thc

Sarah Bendall@sarahabendall.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Look what just arrived!! Advanced author copies of my next book. I’m so thrilled to see it in the flesh - 5 years & hundreds of transcribed household bills later! #17thc #18thc #earlymodern #Herstory

We hope that lots of you will consider submitting a piece for our upcoming forum on early modern women and generations #EarlyModern

5 July 1640 #OTD Thomas Danby wrote to his wife, Katherine (Alice Thornton's older sister), about the war with Scotland and the likelihood of fighting in #Yorkshire. This was the second so-called Bishop's War, ending with Scottish victory in October 1640 with the Treaty of Ripon. #EarlyModern 🗃️

400 years ago today, a codfish was gutted at Cambridge Market. 🐟   Inside it was a tiny book containing Protestant texts from the early years of the English Reformation.   Was this a providential message from God, a piece of political propaganda or an elaborate hoax? Music by Julius H. from Pixabay

23 June 1669 #OTD Alice Thornton received a letter from a niece, Mary Fairfax, consoling her on husband William's death and giving 'her good opinion of Mr Comber, who was esteemed an understanding and ingenious person, and may do very well in the marriage of my daughter' (Book 3, 216-17). 🗃️

22 June 1666 #OTD Thomas Comber wrote to Alice Thornton. She was very ill after discovering her husband had cut her daughters off from their inheritance. Comber wrote of 'his great trouble for my danger, whose death would be an exceeding loss to all my poor children' (Book 3, 188). #EarlyModern 🗃️