Nick’s PhD thesis focuses on the economic role played by monasteries and monastic networks in England prior to their dissolution by Henry VIII, the influence of the Dissolution on the rebellions of 1536 and 1537, and the impact of the Dissolution on English economic structure over the long term. His research seeks to apply modern statistical computing and network analysis to early modern data to unearth new information about the economy of England’s distant past.

Nick holds a BSc in Economics and a BA in History and Political science from Montana State University, as well as an MSc in Economic History from LSE. He has worked as a research assistant at Montana State studying the effect of financial education mandates on future financial outcomes and a research aide at the LSE examining the development of the English fiscal state. 

Nick is particularly interested in the function of monasteries as institutions providing public services before the rise of the modern state, as well as their role as nodes in a network of cash and resource flows between secular and religious actors. Nick will also be a GTA for the undergraduate course EH102: Pre-Industrial Economic History.

Provisional dissertation title

The Dissolution of the Monasteries and English Economic History

Dissertation Supervisors

Dr Jordan Claridge and Professor Chris Minns