Adoption had only had a legal framework for four years when this case was heard.
Private adoptions, like the ones described here, were completely legal until 1983.
I hope that baby found a home eventually.
The adoptive parents (the ones who adopted him, then tried to sell him) were both fined.
First fine was £10+costs EACH for failing to inform the local authority.
Second fine was £25 against the man for falsely registering a birth
The police saw the notice, made some enquiries.
The man of the couple had illegally registered himself as the child's father so he didn't have to declare the adoption to the local authority.
But how do you police selling babies?
In 1930, a childless couple from Harrow paid £50 to adopt an illegitimate newborn baby.
Three days later, tired of the baby's crying, they put an advert in the paper offering to sell him.
"Would kind married couple adopt baby boy? Mother dead"
Surely there's an easy solution to the historical figures/cute animals on banknotes dilemma...
If you study legal history, please consider submitting a proposal for the 2026 conference of the American Society for Legal History in Banff, Canada in November! The Program Committee accepts proposals until March 24! #ASLH #legalhistory 🗃️
aslh.net/2026-annual-...
📣 Save the date!
The next conference of the Society for the History of War will take place at the University of Limerick, Ireland 🇮🇪
🗓 26–27 November 2026
Historians of war, conflict, and violence - mark your calendars!!
📄 Call for Papers coming soon!
The Easter bunny will soon be baking
BL Lansdowne 451; 1st quarter of the 15th century; England; f.6r @blmedieval.bsky.social
In eleven days they’ve spent one half the total annual budget of USAID. All the talk of waste was LIES.
The Disability History Association awards are open! One of the best parts of serving in this organization is getting to celebrate the amazing new scholarship happening in our field. Please consider nominating your work from this past year - and feel free to reach out with any questions! #dishist
Announcing the Journal of Victorian Culture Graduate Student Essay Prize 2026!
Anyone currently registered for a higher research degree or awarded one within 3 years can apply. Deadline October 1st 2026.
Details: academic.oup.com/jvc/pages/es...
Please share widely!
@jofvictculture.bsky.social
It’s not the same, but it’s similar to the feigned (or genuine; but, anyway, functionally necessary) ignorance that has characterized a decade and more of (tech- or STEM-originated) claims to answer for the first time questions that have in fact long been both asked and answered by, say, historians.
It’s easy (more easy than accurate) to dismiss academic critics of generative AI as uninformed or emotive, which is often anyway code for “moralizing.” But it’s remarkable how much gen AI boosterism requires feigning ignorance that theft and impersonation are widely seen as wrong, for good reasons.
Go @saimanasar.bsky.social! This new exhibition about Black & Asian women’s activism in Britain looks amazing! Excited to go check it out in #Bristol soon…
www.bristol247.com/news-and-fea...
I really can't recommend this book highly enough. It's premise – that it is in loss that we find meaning – was as true for Kate’s subjects in the eighteenth century as it is for historians today.
There is something dreadfully dystopian about all of this
Join us next Thursday to hear from Dr Rochelle Rowe: “The 'West African Village': romancing Scottishness at the National Exhibition of 1911”
📍 N304, Third Floor, IHR, Senate House (and online)
📆 Thursday 19th March, 2026
⏰ 17:30
🔗 www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
In the latest Urban History interview, @erikahanna.bsky.social speaks to @samgrinsell.bsky.social about his recent article 'Urban History as Urgent Work'. It's an incredibly rich discussion of the intersection of urban history and environmental history, and how we do and communicate our research
Holy crap. This is very bad.
Sheffield Hallam restricts TPS access to REF academics only www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sheffie...
This year's David Pinkney Prize goes to Miranda Spieler for Slaves in Paris: Hidden Lives and Fugitive Histories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2025. Congratulations!
Whose voices count in the modern history of distinction?
@sadiahqureshi.bsky.social considers how much historians can learn by paying attention to the remarkable lives of plants.
It's 500 years since the first text printed in Yiddish, and one of our amazing grad students is hosting a symposium this October to mark the date: please forward the CFP to Yiddishists, book historians, typography nerds, and anyone you think might be up for this! medieval.ox.ac.uk/500-years-of...
‘Luck is central to our lives.’ In the first episode of season 10 of the We Society podcast, Will Hutton is joined by @richardwiseman.bsky.social @herts.ac.uk to discuss how we can use psychology to create our own good fortune and become luckier.
🎙️ Tune in: media.leverhulme.ac.uk/podcast/rich...
Lovely piece on my upcoming talk in @bristol247.bsky.social by a recently graduated student from ELCE. Please share - we have seats and all proceed go to the brilliant @arnosvalecemetery.bsky.social
www.bristol247.com/student/news...
Rousing start to second day of Histories of Experience conference at Tampere University with fascinating keynote address by @witchykallestrup.bsky.social on "Margins ot Experience: Witches, Conspiracy and Godly Power."
So many students have come to me over the years feeling trapped by a law degree they only did because people around them pushed them into a "sensible" option, and yet this messaging is now so loud my response that the right degree is what you want to study falls flat:
wonkhe.com/blogs/who-ge...
Even if AI doesn’t hit jobs in a big way, unemployment is starting to re-emerge as a policy issue. So it’s good that @sarahoconnorft.ft.com reminds us how low our unemployment benefits are, and how this can lead to people taking jobs below their skill level
www.ft.com/content/771a...
'It had been expected that many universities...would encourage more of their academics to focus on teaching, with research commitments, particularly at less prestigious universities, under threat.'
But 'the number of teaching-only roles fell by 3,555 across the sector last year'. 3/3
'There were 85,170 (35 per cent) in teaching-only roles, which was 4 per cent down on the year before and in contrast to the number in research-only roles, which rose 4 per cent to 52,220 (21 per cent).' 2/3
