Research for Team 2
Contents
Possible Research Activities
This is a list of possible research activities, it is not exhaustive and you may have lots of other ideas that you might like to add or research.
It is suggested that we use google maps to record the voyages of individual ships, or people or specific occupations.
Here is a very simple example using a witness statement from a voyage made by the ship fortune [1]
Creating Google maps
To create a google map you will need a google account. When you click on the search box an option to create your own map should come up. You can add layers e.g. by recording a voyage by a particular ship, each layer could be a different voyage. You can add pins to mark places and lines if you wish. Each can be coloured in different ways. I can demonstrate this in a Skype call if people would like me to.
Writing up research on the Ballast case
This involves a widow Mary Ewens, who owned a ballast wharfe on the Thames. It is about the damage done to the wharf.
The case is Ewen against Prior, Clements, cheeke.
A list of the witnesses called is found under Ewan against Prior.
Colin has identified a number of questions that could be looked at e.g. Legal issues on statutory regulations for ballast removal ([2]), customary practice - if it is possible to establish. You could also look at the extent and cost of the damage to the wharf.
Researching individuals
Some individuals appear in many other records both online and off line, whilst others will rarely appear in other records. You could research owners of ships or ships masters which are more likely to appear in other records e.g. births, marriages and deaths and probate records using ancestry (available in most libraries). For individuals who are of particular interest then it would be good to have a short written biography that could appear at the bottom of the page on which they are mentioned. An example of a biography on Francis Chaplin who features in HCA 13/72 written by one of our Bath Spa students is here
- REDIRECT [[3]] To Biography of Francis Chaplin
Researching Occupations
Chirurgeon/ surgeons are often mentioned as witnesses in the documents, and a quick search in the HCA 13/72 wiki found 3 or 4 mentioned, however they were all about 17 or 18 years if age. It would be interesting to know how someone became a surgeon at this time, did they show any specialist knowledge in their witness statements. They appear in all three volumes that have been transcribed (or are being transcribed) so it is probably worth looking at their statements as well as doing some wider research to be able to put the occupation into context. Rachel Carter has done some research into this area here is her article
Surgery in the Seventeenth Century
Other occupations that could be researched are:
- Pewterer
- Anchorsmith
- Shipwright
- Brewer
Concentrating on one occupation, finding out where they appear reading transcriptions to give a summary of information about the occupation in the documents, what do they tell us aout training or what can we find out from other sources - if particular companies are mentioned what else can we find out about them?
Researching Ships
In order to plot ships voyages we need to know where the ports they were travelling to were, if someone would like to create a google map with the names of the Barbary coast on them - please do.
