Dr Robert Nantes has spent years investigating and exploring the lives and experiences of long eighteenth-century English bankrupts.   With these pages he aims to share information and reflections based on the findings of his research.  Robert became interested in eighteenth-century English bankrupts after discovering that one of his ancestors had been a bankrupt (as well as a few other things).  Having already developed an interest in long eighteenth-century social history he decided to attempt to marry up a subject (that of bankruptcy) which had always been largely the preserve of legal and economic scholars, with a social and cultural analysis of the experience of the people who became bankrupts.

He completed doctoral research into this area at the University of Exeter in 2020.  The title of his thesis was 'English Bankrupts 1732-1831: A Social Account'.  The research seeks to uncover the forgotten experience of some of the many thousands of people who became bankrupts in eighteenth-century England.  Sources drawn on include: legal records, journals and personal correspondence, newspapers, advice literature, novels and plays.  He is currently editing a volume on bankruptcy in Bristol during the long eighteenth century for the Bristol Record Society.

In addition to a PhD in History from the University of Exeter, he holds a BA in Film and Video, teaching qualifications, an MA in Education from UCL Institute of Education, and an MA in History from the University of Exeter.   Robert is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

ORCID  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8054-4512

Contact:  rg.nantes@englishbankrupts.info