PearTree 400

We are now busy arranging Events for 2021.

Here is information on the latest PearTree 400 Online Study Day

Event Registration information - CLICK HERE

Speaker: Dr John Mcaleer, Associate Professor in History, the University of Southampton, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and council member of the Hakluyt Society

11.30 – 12.30 pm Jane Austen’s East India Company

Connections ‘It is a little-known fact that the fortunes of the Austen family were intimately linked to the career of Warren Hastings, the controversial first Governor-General in India.

Speaker: Professor Emma Clery, Professor of English, the University of Southampton, author of Jane Austen: The Banker’s Sister, member of the Southampton Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies

1.30 – 2.30 pmThe East India Company at Home

The impact of the East India Company Families on Southampton: landscape, politics and architecture. In the eighteenth century Pear Tree Church and its parish were transformed by an influx of new moneyed parishioners, ‘Company Men’

Speaker: Dr Cheryl Butler, Hon Fellow the University of Winchester, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, member of the editorial committee for the Southampton Records Series

2.30 – 3.30 pm The Lewins: A Peartree East India Company Family

With unique access to the Lewin Family archive, this talk will tell the story of one company family and their life at Ridgeway Castle.

Speaker: Sarah Lewin, Principal Archivist (Records and Research), The Hampshire Record Office. A descendant of Thomas Lewin of Ridgeway.

Event Registration information - CLICK HERE

Pear Tree 400 On-line Study Days 2021 Programme

(Please note if appropriate we will also be offering a live conference, details to follow as covid restrictions are lifted)

Saturday 19th June 10.15 – 4.30pm

Jane Austen, The East India Company & Pear Tree Church in the Fashionable Eighteenth Century

10.15 – 10.30 am Log-in, Housekeeping & Welcome

10.30 -11.30 am The East India Company: The corporation that changed the world

The East India Company played a crucial role in creating the British Empire in Asia. From its modest origins as a small Elizabethan trading venture, it grew into a global empire which controlled Britain’s trade with Asia for nearly 250 years. Its story is one of wealth, power and the pursuit of fortune. But it is also one of conflict, conquest and piracy on the high seas; policy, politics and intrigue on land. And, by introducing a whole host of coveted commodities to British consumers, the scale and impact of the Company’s activities changed the lives of millions of people in two continents.