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Dr Stephen Hipkin

Reader in Social History

Research Profile

Stephen Hipkin undertook his initial research on seventeenth-century urban history at Balliol College Oxford under the supervision of Dr Joan Thirsk. The author of many articles on early modern urban, social and economic history, his research interests now focus on the development of the agrarian economy c. 1550-1790 and resource allocation disputes and popular protest c. 1550-1640. He is currently researching a book on the politics of dearth and the grain trade, 1550-1700, and (with Anne Davison) is engaged in a major project to analyse the evidence for early land taxes in eighteenth-century Kent. He currently supervises Ph.D students working on Deer Parks in Tudor Kent, Governance and Social Policy at Faversham c. 1570-1640, and estate management and the agrarian economy of the Romney Marsh region c.1720-1790.

Recent publications:

  • 'The structure, development and politics of the Kent grain trade, 1552-1647' Economic History Review, (2008)
  • 'Property, economic interest and the configuration of rural conflict in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England', Socialist History 23 (2003), pp. 67-88.
  • 'The structure of landownership and land occupation in the Romney Marsh Region, 1646-1834', Agricultural History Review Vol. 51, pt 1 (2003), pp. 69-94.
  • '"Why should one lack money when another hath plenty": The tales of two criminals in late-Elizabethan Kent', Southern History 24 (2002), pp. 45-58.
  • 'The Worlds of Daniel Langdon: Public Office and Private Enterprise in the Romney Marsh Region in the Early-Eighteenth Century', in Long, A., Hipkin, S., and Clarke, H. (eds), Romney Marsh: Coastal and Landscape Change Through the Ages (Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph 56, 2002), pp. 173-89.
  • '"Sitting on his penny rent": conflict and right of common in Faversham Blean, 1595-1610', Rural History, 11 (2000), pp. 1-35.
  • 'Tenant farming and short-term leasing on Romney Marsh, 1585-1705', Economic History Review, LIII (2000), pp. 646-76.
  • 'The maritime economy of Rye, 1560-1640', Southern History 20/21 (1998/9). pp.108-42.
  • 'The Structure of Land Occupation in the Level of Romney Marsh During the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries', in J. Eddison, M. Gardiner and A. Long (eds), Romney Marsh: Environmental Change and Human Occupation in a Coastal Lowland (Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph 46, 1998), pp. 147-63.
  • 'Closing ranks: oligarchy and government at Rye, 1570-1640', Urban History 22 (1995), pp. 319-40.
  • 'Buying time: fiscal policy at Rye 1600-1640', Sussex Archaeological Collections 133 (1995), pp. 241-54.
  • 'The Impact of Marshland Drainage on Rye Harbour, 1550-1650', in J. Eddison (ed.), Romney Marsh: The Debatable Ground (Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph 41, 1995), pp. 138-47.

Recent conference papers:

  • December 2005 'The politics of dearth in Elizabethan England' Centre for English Local History, Leicester University
  • June 2004. 'The metropolitan grain trade of Kent and the local politics of dearth, 1560-1640'. Paper read at the Centre for Rural History, University of Reading, June 2004.
  • July 2003. 'The Politics of Bread: Governance, Allegiance and the Metropolitan Grain Supply, 1560-1640' paper read at Conference on 'Social Identity, Class and Status: 1450-1800' Exeter University.
  • July 2003. Sessional Panel Moderator. 'The Textures of Life at Penshurst Place, 1552-1743'. (Closed Conference of the International Sidney Society, Penshurst Place, Kent).
  • September 2002. 'The Agrarian Economy of the Romney Marsh Region, 1500-1850'. Plenary Lecture at the fourth conference of the Romney Marsh Research Trust, Wye College.
  • February 2001. 'Popular Disorder and the Food Supply in Elizabethan Kent'. Paper read at the University of Kent History Graduate Research Seminar.
  • March 2000. 'Daniel Langdon and the Larger Tenant Farmers of Romney Marsh during the early Eighteenth Century'. Eleventh Annual Spring Lecture of the Romney Marsh Research Trust, Rye Town Hall.

Focus of future research:

  • The Politics of Dearth, 1570-1640: Elite and Popular Politics and the Grain Trade (forthcoming book)
  • Land occupation and land ownership in eighteenth-century Kent. A systematic analysis of the Land Tax evidence 1720-1785 (with Ann Davison)