Professor David Lemmings

Professor David Lemmings
  • Biography/ Background

    David Lemmings was born in London and educated at the Universities of Sussex, London and Oxford before coming to Australia as a Research Fellow of the University of Adelaide in 1987. He then moved to the University of Newcastle in 1990 where he became Head of the Department of History in 1998 and Associate Professor in History in 2000. In 2008, Professor Lemmings moved to the University of Adelaide where he is Professor of History and Leader of the 'Change' research program in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.

  • Qualifications

    D.Phil History (Oriel College Oxford, 1986)
    PGCE History (University of London, 1986)
    Fellow, Royal Historical Society, 1992
    Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2009

  • Awards & Achievements

    Visiting Fellow, Huntington Library, California, 1988
    Visiting Fellow, Clark Library, UCLA, 1989
    Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1997
    Life Member, Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1998
    Visiting Fellow. Lewis Walpole Lib., Yale, 2001
    Visiting Fellow, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, 2001
    Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 2006

  • Teaching Interests

    Professor Lemmings is available to supervise MA and PhD students in the areas of the history of the legal professions in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century England, law and society in England and its former colonies, and the history of emotions.

    Current research students:

    Ms. Hilary Locke, 'Courtly Love and Chivalry in Early Tudor England'

    Mr. Mark Neuendorff, 'Madness in England in "the Age of Sensibility'

    Ms Elsa Reuter, 'Patriotism and Emotion in Early Modern England'

    Mr Philip Ritson, ‘Banking in 19th Century Britain’.

    Ms. Elizabeth Tunstall, ''English Foreign Policy during the Reign of Elizabeth I'

    Research students completed:

    Jingmin ZENG, ‘Scientific Aspects of the Macartney Embassy to China 1792-1794’ (PhD, 1998 ), with Mr. H. Chan.

    Robert McGREGOR, ‘The Nation’s Navy: Nationalism, Patriotism, and Representations of the Royal Navy in Great Britain, c. 1730-1793’ (PhD, 2000).

    Rosemary MELVILLE, ‘For Empire, God and Family: Sir Edward and Lady Isabella Parry at Port Stephens, 1829-1834’ (Honours thesis, 1997), class I and University medal.

    Robert McGREGOR, ‘Powerful Friends: A Study in the Life of D'Arcy Wentworth from 1780 to 1809’ (Honours thesis, 1996), class I.

    Maureen COLVIN, ‘Law, Order and Dependence: Administration and Government in the Brisbane Water District, 1826-1844’ (Honours thesis, 1994), class IIa.

    Mark JONES, ‘A More Sympathetic Hearing: The Differential Treatment of Men and Women by the Eighteenth-Century English Criminal Law Courts’ (Honours thesis, 1993), class IIa.

    Susan WEST, ‘Bushrangers, Working-class Identity and the Policing of Rural Disorder in Colonial NSW’ (PhD 2001).

    Colleen AUSTIN, ‘The Royal Martyr in History: Representations of King Charles I’ (PhD, 2005).

  • Research Interests

    Professor Lemmings’ research has been focussed on the history of the legal profession in late seventeenth and eighteenth-century England, and more broadly on law and society in England and its former colonies. He is currently researching the history of emotions and the public sphere in England, 1680 - 1820. David Lemmings is joint editor (with William M. Reddy) of Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions.
  • Research Funding

    Current Research Projects include:

    Governing Emotion: the Affective Family, the Press and the Law in Early Modern Britain (ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions project).

    Variorum edition of Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. I (under contract with Oxford University Press).

    ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, (with others, ARC Centres of Excellence Program, 2010-2017, $24.24M).

    The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Vol. 9: 1690-1760, with Dr. Mike Macnair and Prof. Wilifrid Prest (under contract with Oxford University Press).

    Research Projects and Research Funding since 1998:
    ‘Lawyer Biographies’ (Australian Research Council (ARC) Small Grant, 1998, $5000

    History of Bushranging in NSW’ (with H Carey, ARC Small Grant, 1999-2002, $16-17000pa)

    ‘Dualism, Religion and Popular Culture in Early Modern England’ (with C Walker, University of Newcastle, University of Newcastle Research Management Committee Project Grant, 2001-3, $17-18000p.a.)

    An Imperial State at Law, (ARC Large Grant, 2000-3, $105,000)

    Treaties and Constitutions (conference), (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, 2000, $3,118)

    An Imperial State at Law (Visiting Fellowship), (Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, 2001, $4,000 + travel and accommodation)

    An Imperial State at Law (Visiting Fellowship), (Humanities Research Centre, ANU, 2001)

    The British Imperial State at Law (conference), (Humanities Research Centre, ANU, 2001, $5,000)

    ‘Visions’ (12th Biennial Conference, Australian Historical Association, 2004)

    Moral Panics and the Law in Eighteenth-Century England, (with C Walker, U. of Newcastle Research Project Grant. 2004, $15,000)

    Moral Panics and the Law in Early Modern England, (with C McCreery and C Walker, ARC Discovery Grant, 2005-7, $141,000)

    Microform scanner for historical research, (University of Newcastle Research Infrastructure Grant, 2005, $14,126)

    Network for Early European Research, (with 49 others, ARC Discovery Grant, 2005, $1.5M)

    The Courtroom, Lawyers and the Press: Negotiating Justice in the Public Sphere, (with M Davis, ARC Discovery Grant, 2007-9, $162,000)

    ‘"Making History"’: Twenty-first century Humanities curricular in eighteenth-century London"(University of Adelaide Faculty Small Grant, 2009, $3,817)

    '"Getting a MUVE On": Developing Web 2.0 Curricula in the Humanities" (Australian Learning and Teaching Council, 2009, $204,000)

    'A New History of Law in Eighteenth-Century England' (with W. Prest, ARC Discovery Grant, 2011, $153,000)

    'A New History of Law in Post-revolutionary England  (c. 1689-1760)' (with W. Prest, M. Macnair, ARC Discovery Grant, 2016, $606,120)

  • Publications

    Books and Monographs

    Gentlemen and Barristers: The Inns of Court and the English Bar, 1680-1730. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, xiv+323.

    Professors of the Law: Barristers and the Culture of English Law in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, xiv+399 pp.

    Edited (with Katherine Lindsay) Treaties and Constitutions (Newcastle: Newcastle Law Journal, special issue, 5, 2001), v+125 pp.

    Edited The British and their Laws in the Eighteenth Century (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005) ix+260pp.

    Edited (with Claire Walker) Moral Panics, the Media and the Law in Early Modern England (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), xi + 279 pp.

    Law and Government in England during the Long Eighteenth Century: From Consent to Command (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011), x + 269 pp.

    Edited Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850 (Farnham, Ashgate, 2012), xiii + 234 pp.

    Edited (with Ann Brooks), Emotions and Social Change: Historical and Sociological Perspectives (New York, Routledge, 2013), xiv + 273 pp.

    Edited (with Heather Kerr and Robert Phiddian), Passions, Sympathy and Print Culture: Public Opinion and Emotional Authenticity in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015), xi + 290 pp.

    Edited, Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book I Of the Rights of Persons (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), liii + 400 pp.

    Edited (with Kathryn Temple),'The Emotional Lives of Constitutional Patriotism', Emotions: History, Society, Culture,  (2018),  2 (2018) 1–10.

    Edited (with Allyson N. May), Criminal Justice during the Long Eighteenth Century: Theatre,  Representation and Emotion (New York: Routledge, 2019), viiii + 228 pp.

    Book Chapters

    'Thomas Erskine and the Performance of Moral Sentiments: The Emotional Reportage of Trials for "Criminal Conversation" and Treason in the 1790s', in Criminal Justice during the Long Eighteenth Century: Theatre Representation and Emotion (New York: Routledge, 2019), 199-217.

    (with Heather Kerr and Robert Phiddian), 'Emotional Light on Eighteenth-Century Print Culture', in Passions, Sympathy and Print Culture: Public Opinion and Emotional Authenticity in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015), 3-19.

    (with Ann Brooks), 'The Emotional Turn in the Humanities in the Humanities and Social Sciences', in D. Lemmings and A. Brooks (eds.), Emotions and Social Change: Historical and Sociological Perspectives (New York, Routledge, 2013), 3-18.

    'Introduction: Criminal Courts, Lawyers and the Public Sphere', in D. Lemmings (ed.), Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850 (Farnham, Ashgate, 2012), 1-21.

    'Negotiating Justice in the New Public Sphere: Crime, the Courts and the Press in Eighteenth-Century Britain, in D. Lemmings (ed.), Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850 (Farnham, Ashgate, 2012), 119-45.

    ‘Introduction: Law and Order, Moral Panics, and Early Modern England’, in D. Lemmings and C. Walker (eds.), Moral Panics, the Media and the Law in Early Modern England (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), 1-21.

    ‘The Dark Side of Enlightenment: The London Journal, Moral Panics and the Law in the Eighteenth Century in D. Lemmings and C. Walker (eds.), Moral Panics, the Media and the Law in Early Modern England (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), 139-56.

    ‘Conclusion: Moral Panics, Law and the Transformation of the Public Sphere in Early Modern England’, in D. Lemmings and C. Walker (eds.), Moral Panics, the Media and the Law in Early Modern England (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), 245-66.

    ‘Women’s Property, Popular Cultures and the Consistory Court of London in the Eighteenth Century’, in Margaret Ferguson, Nancy Wright and Andrew Buck (eds.) Women, Property and the Letters of the Law in Early Modern England (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 66-94.

    ‘Ritual, Majesty and Mystery: Collective Life and Culture among English Barristers, Serjeants and Judges, c.1500-c.1830’, in W. Pue and D. Sugarman (eds.) Lawyers and Vampires: Cultural Histories of Legal Professions in Europe and North America Oxford: Hart, 2003), pp. 25-63.

    'Law' in I. McCalman (ed.) An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture, 1776-1832(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 73-81

    'The Independence of the Judiciary in Eighteenth-Century England', in  P. Birks (ed) The Life of the Law (London: Hambledon, 1993), 125-49.

    'Ritual and the Law in Early Modern England', in S. Corcoran (ed) Law and History in Australia  (Adelaide: Adelaide Law Review, 1991), pp. 3-19.

    Refereed Journal Articles

    'Emotions, Power and Popular Opinion about the Admminstration of Justice: the English Experience, from Coke's "Artificial Reason" to the Sensibility of "True Crime" Stories', Emotions: History, Culture, Society, vol. 1, no. 1 (2017), 61-92.

    (with Amy Milka), 'Narratives of Feeling and Majesty: Mediated Emotions in the Eighteenth-Century Criminal Courtroom', Journal of Legal History, (2017), 38:2, 155-78.

    'Henry Fielding and English Crime and Justice Reportage, 1748–52: Narratives of Panic, Authority, and Emotion', Huntington Library Quarterly, (2017), 80:1, 78-97. 

    'Criminal Trial Procedure in Eighteenth-Centry England: The Impact of Lawyers', Journal of Legal History, xxvi (2005), 73-82.

    'Blackstone and Law Reform by Education: Preparation for the Bar and Lawyerly Culture in Eighteenth-Century England', Law and History Review, University of Illinois Press, xvi
    (Summer 1998), 211-55.

    'Marriage and the Law in Eighteenth-Century England: Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753', The Historical Journal, Cambridge University Press, xxxix (1996), 339-60.

    'Lord Chancellor Cowper and the Whigs', Parliamentary History, History of Parliament, ix (1990), 165-74.

    'The Student Body of the Inns of Court under the Later Stuarts', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Univ. London Institute of Historical Research, lviii (1985), 149-66 

    Other Publications

    ‘Judges’, in An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture, 1776-1832, ed. I. McCalman (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999).

    ‘Lawyers’, in An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture, 1776-1832, ed. I. McCalman (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999).

    ‘Aland, Sir John Fortescue’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Arden, Sir Richard Pepper, Baron Alvanley’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Burnet, Sir Thomas’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Chesshyre, Sir John’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Cowper, Spencer’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Erskine, Thomas, Lord’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Eyre, Sir James’), in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

    J.H. Baker, The Common Law Tradition: Lawyers, Books and the Law in Times Literary Supplement, 29 Dec., 2000 (review).

    ‘King, Peter, Lord’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Lee, Sir) in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Macdonald, Sir Archibald’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Pengelly, Sir Thomas’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Perryn, Sir Richard’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Raymond, Sir Robert, Lord Raymond’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Rooke, Sir Giles’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Ryder, Sir Dudley’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Skynner, Sir John’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Thompson, Sir William’, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Willes, Sir John’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    ‘Wilson, Sir John’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

    'Law', in Early Modern Emotions ly, ed. S. Broomhall (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), 188-91.

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Entry last updated: Thursday, 25 Jul 2019