Research Fellowship Awarded

Prof. Martyn J. Powell has been awarded a Murial McCarthy Research Fellowship at Dublin’s Marsh’s Library for his project ‘Personal Debt in Georgian Dublin: Marshalseas, Spunging-Houses and the Body Politic’.

Debtors in eighteenth-century Dublin occupied an ambiguous position in the city’s social and political life. They were the recipients of a good deal of philanthropy from Dublin’s civic elite – including clubs and societies, theatres and the largesse of private individuals - but they were also regarded as a drain on the body politic, and a particular danger to the livelihood of tradesmen.

This project, which Martyn will work on at the library in summer 2015, seeks to explore the experiences and treatment of debtors in Dublin through an examination of two particular locations associated with these individuals: the marshalsea and the spunging house. Both of these locations offered solutions, and occasionally extensions, to problems of indebtedness.

The Marsh's Library, Dublin, is a perfectly preserved library of the early enlightenment and holds up to 25,000 rare books from the eigtheenth century.

Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 13:14:00 BST