Event date:
Wednesday 17 February to Thursday 18 February
Location:
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
4pm (refreshments) for 4.30pm
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh
Dr Lisa Smith (University of Essex): Fragments from an Eighteenth-Century Family Scandal
Abstract: Lisa Smith researches gender, health and the household in early modern England and France. In this talk, she discusses the tumultuous relationships of the Newdigates – a hereditary baronetcy and major landowning family with a family seat in Warwickshire – and attempts to piece together a shadowy family scandal from the perspectives of father, daughter and son. She considers the significance of the family's medical history – old age, ill health and mental illness – as the drama unfolded.