Dr Jack Abernethy
National Museums Scotland Postdoctoral Fellow, September 2025 – June 2026
Home Institution: University of St Andrews
Dr Jack Abernethy is an historian of early modern Britain and the Dutch Republic, with expertise in military, maritime, and migration history. He completed his PhD in 2024 at the University of St Andrews with a thesis on Scottish involvement in the Dutch Revolt (c.1570-1609) and the various diplomatic, military, and social cross-currents which formed as a result of this involvement. Jack’s research has appeared in The Mariner’s Mirror, Northern Studies, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and he has been published in English and Dutch. In 2021, he was featured on Billy Kay’s radio programme ‘Scotland and the Low Countries,’ broadcast nationally on BBC Radio Scotland.
In addition to his own research, Jack has served as an administrator and editor on the University of St Andrews’ Scotland, Scandinavia, and Northern Europe Database (SSNE) since 2018 and is the current book reviews editor for The Mariner’s Mirror, the international quarterly journal of the Society for Nautical Research.
Project Title: Scottish Mobility and Material Culture in the Dutch Republic, c.1560 to 1750
Early modern Scottish communities in the northern Low Countries—later the United Provinces or Dutch Republic—were central to wider Scottish networks in Northern Europe. Rotterdam and Veere were frequently the first ports of entry for Scots heading to the Continent, and the Republic offered many opportunities in study, trade, as well as military or maritime employment. At the center of the Scots-Dutch community was the Scottish Conservator who not only protected Scottish privileges but facilitated Scottish diplomacy alongside the movement of people and goods between Scotland, the Low Countries, France, and the Baltic.
Using print, manuscript, and material evidence in Scotland, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Northern Europe, this project aims to facilitate a greater understanding of the material legacy of Scottish communities in the Dutch Republic and the centrality of these communities to wider networks of exchange. The project will promote and contextualize the National Museum of Scotland’s collections through both academic and publicly accessible outputs.