The latest volume in the Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series is now available in online and print editions.
The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke, at Holborn and Warwick, 1640–1649 — edited by Stewart Beale, Andrew Hopper and Ann Hughes — makes available the richly detailed household accounts kept for Brooke and his widow, Katherine, on an annual basis between 1640 and 1649.
To accompany publication, the volume’s Introduction is free to read online while the editors provide a brief guide to the collection and its value in a new post for the Society’s blog.
Robert Greville, 2nd Lord Brooke, was a prominent figure amongst the opposition to Charles I, a religious radical and intellectual who emerged as a successful popular leader in the early months of the English Civil War. Brooke was killed in action in 1643 and survived by his wife, Katherine. The Long Parliament exalted Brooke as a Godly martyr for their cause and were determined that their treatment of his bereaved widow should be seen to be generous and exemplary.
This new volume publishes the richly detailed household accounts kept for Brooke and his widow, Katherine, on an annual basis between 1640 and 1649. These texts have scarcely been studied by historians. They are an illuminating source for Brooke’s capacious intellectual, religious, and political networks, and for his mobilisation of support for Parliament in 1642. They also uncover the administration of his estates and households in London, Warwickshire, and the Midlands before and after his premature death.
The accounts are also crucial sources for political, economic, and military historians, and equally important for social and cultural historians interested in the history of the family, childhood, and widowhood, as well as consumption and material culture.
The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke, at Holborn and Warwick, 1640–1649 are available online and in print from Cambridge University Press.
Fellows and Members of the Society receive full free access to the collection and to all 380 volumes of primary sources in the Camden Series. RHS members may also purchase print copies of the volume (605 pp) at the discounted rate of £16 per volume. To order a copy of the volume, please email administration@royalhistsoc.org, marking your email ‘Camden’.
About the Camden Series of scholarly primary editions
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 RHS (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 380 volumes of primary source material, ranging from the early medieval to late-twentieth century Britain.
The Society publishes new volumes in the Camden Series each year. Volumes in 2025 (from June) include Michael Taylor, ed., The Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral George Grey, 1809-1833; Helen Newsome, ed., Holograph Correspondence of Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots, 1489-1541; and Mark Philp, Aysuda Aykan and Curtis Leung eds. A Collector Collected: The Journals of William Upcott, 1803-1823.