The latest volume in the Society’s Camden Series of primary source materials is The Correspondence of Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh, 1640–1691, edited by Evan Bourke.
Published on 11 June, this new volume is available online and in print from Cambridge University Press.
Fellows and Members of the Royal Historical Society may purchase a print copy at this — and other recent Camden volumes — at the discounted price of £16 per volume. To do so please email: [email protected], marking your email Camden.
The Correspondence of Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh presents selected correspondence of Lady Ranelagh (1615–1691) bringing attention to the important role she played in the intellectual and political circles of seventeenth-century England and Ireland.
The letters chart Ranelagh’s life, from her besiegement in Athlone in 1641 until her death in 1691. Lady Ranelagh has often been considered alongside her famous brother, Robert Boyle (1627–1691), but the correspondence in this edition highlights how Ranelagh had a scholarly reputation in her own right — showcasing the wide and varied nature of Ranelagh’s writing. This includes prophetical discussions with Benjamin Worsley (1618–1673), theological discussions with John Beale (c.1608–1683), a discourse on the philosopher’s stone, and discussions with Anthony Dopping (1643–1697) on the production of the first version of the Old Testament in Irish.
The volume also includes familial correspondence that engaged with important political events of her time, as well as illuminating Lady Ranelagh’s role in offering medical, educational, and financial advice to family members and close friends.
To mark publication, the Introduction to Evan Bourke’s new edition is now available, free to read, on the CUP website until 15 September 2026.
Ordering a copy of the latest Camden volume: Fellows and Members of the Society
The Correspondence of Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh, 1640–1691, edited by Evan Bourke, is now available online and in print Cambridge University Press.
Fellows and Members of the Society may order print copies at the reduced price of £16 per volume. To order a copy please contact: [email protected], marking your email ‘Camden’.
Those without membership to Society may purchase this and other recent Camden volumes direct from Cambridge University Press.
The volume’s editor, Dr Evan Bourke is a Lecturer in English Literature at Maynooth University, Ireland. He is a specialist in early modern English and Irish literature, women’s writing, cultural analytics, and network analysis.
Evan’s recent publications include Decolonial Deep Mapping (co-written with Patricia Pamer and Philip Mac a’Ghoill) and Spenser and the Filidh in Early Modern Ireland (co-edited with Deirdre Nic Chárthaigh and Philip Mac a’Ghoill).
About the Camden Series
The Society publishes new volumes in the Camden Series each year.
Three volumes were published in 2025: The Papers of Admiral George Grey, edited by Michael Taylor (June 2025), The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541), edited by Helen Newsome-Chandler (August 2025), and A Collector Collected. The Journals of William Upcott, 1803-1823, edited by Mark Philp, Aysuda Akan and Curtis Leung.
The Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series is one of the most prestigious and important collections of primary source material relating to British History, including the British empire and Britons’ influence overseas.
The Society (and its predecessor, the Camden Society) has since 1838 published scholarly editions of sources — making important, previously unpublished, texts available to researchers. Each volume is edited by a specialist historian who provides an expert introduction and commentary.
Today the Society publishes two new Camden volumes each year in association with Cambridge University Press. The complete Camden Series now comprises over 390 volumes of primary source material, ranging from the early medieval to late-twentieth century Britain.