Scottish Privy Council Project

04/10/2022

We are excited to share details of our second Project Workshop, which will take place at Dundee on 3 November 2022, 9.30am-5pm.

Showcasing our research team’s ongoing work, papers will cover a wide range of topics, including: ‘improvement’ and the environment; sedition and ‘fake news’; popular protest; ‘the scourge of ungodliness’ and the Scottish Privy Council’s tempestuous relationship with the English Royal Navy. We are also excited to welcome several guest speakers, including Dr Amy Blakeway (University of St Andrews).

This is a hybrid event and is open to all. If you would like to attend (either in person or online) please email Laura Doak ([email protected]) to register, or for further information.

Find the full programme here:https://privycouncil.stir.ac.uk/files/2022/10/Privy-Council-Project-Dundee-Workshop-Programme.pdf

30/06/2022

The Call for Papers for our second workshop, to be held this autumn at the University of Dundee, has bow been released! We warmly invite proposals for 20-minute papers on any and all aspects of the Scottish Privy Council's role and activities prior to 1708.

27/05/2022

NEW VIDEO!

You can now view the recording of a paper given by our PI, Dr Alastair Mann, to the Chicago Scots Scottish American History Forum on 2 April: ‘The Council, the Union and the ‘Patriot’: The Scottish Privy Council, Anglo-Scottish Union, and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun'

'The Council, the Union and the 'Patriot': The Scottish Privy Council, Anglo-Scottish Union, and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun' This paper was delivered by our PI, Dr Alastair Mann, to the Chicago Scots Scottish American Histor

25/10/2021

Our first Scottish Privy Council workshop is happening this week!🤩

We'll be gathering on Thursday 28 October, online and in-person at the University of Stirling. Join us for a fascinating day of talks and discussion on Scotland's Privy Council in the early modern period.

Sign up via our Eventbrite. We'll be closing registration at the end of today, so don't miss out. Book your free place now 👉 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scottish-privy-council-project-workshop-tickets-185692189337?aff=Facebook

Already signed up? Check out the full programme of abstracts on our website👉https://privycouncil.stir.ac.uk/workshops-and-events/

08/10/2021

Very excited to announce the Scottish Privy Council Project's first workshop! 🥳

Join us on Thursday 28 October for a day of talks on the Scottish Privy Council in the early modern period. We have a packed programme of papers, including from our fantastic PhD students Robbie Tree and Susanne Weston.

The workshop will take place online and in-person at the Pathfoot Building, Stirling University. We hope to see you there!

Book your free place now 👉 https://bit.ly/3FtgHwN

Check out the programme 👇

18/08/2021

First advisory board annual meeting✅ !

The project team were delighted to chat with our advisory board, whose enthusiasm for the project is hugely encouraging. And we were very pleased, after more than a year of COVID-induced stasis, that we actually had progress to report!

02/08/2021

This is a landmark week for the Privy Council project: our two excellent Research Fellows, Dr Laura Doak and Dr Clare Loughlin, have now officially started! Warmest welcomes to both of them, and we hope they're as excited as we are at the prospect of getting stuck into the Privy Council records!

01/07/2021

EXCITING NEWS!!

Our first workshop will be held at the end of October at the University of Stirling! Proposals for 20-minute papers on any aspect of the Scottish Privy Council's place in Scottish History before 1708 are warmly invited.

For more details, see: https://privycouncil.stir.ac.uk/2021/07/01/first-workshop-call-for-papers

22/06/2021

After a long silence, we're very excited because we're completing our final audit of the Privy Council Acta and Decreta, ready for
our Research Fellows, Dr Laura Doak and Dr Clare Loughlin, to start working on them after August. Things are moving again for the Privy Council Project!

01/03/2021

COVID is still causing us big problems, so we're delighted to have some good news to share: we have appointed our two postdoctoral Research Fellows! A warm welcome to Dr Laura Doak and Dr Clare Loughlin, two outstanding scholars who we're very excited to begin working with!

25/11/2020

Exciting news - our website is now LIVE! Visit to meet the team and find out what we're all about. In particular, have a look at our inaugural blog post, in which our PhD students, Robbie Tree and Susanne Weston, tell you a little bit about themselves and their research.

From its inception, the Scottish Privy Council Project was always intended, in part, as a vehicle for fostering the next generation of historians. To that end, we set out to recruit two PhD students, one based at each of the partner institutions (University of Stirling and U