Dr Sadie Jarrett is a historian of early modern Britain and the British Atlantic world with particular research interests in Wales, gentry culture, and colonialism. She completed her doctoral project entitled ‘'‘Of Great Kindred and Alliance’: The status and identity of the Salesburys of Rhug and Bachymbyd, c.1475-c.1660' in 2021.
Born and raised near Swansea, Sadie grew up surrounded by history and quickly developed a fascination for the past. After studying for a BA in History at Cambridge University, she proceeded to an MA in Historic Conservation at Oxford Brookes University. Sadie later worked as a research assistant at the College of Arms, honing her skills in genealogical research, and also as an historic buildings consultant.
Sadie joined ISWE in 2017 to undertake a doctoral project on the Salesbury family of Rhug and Bachymbyd, which was generously supported by the Rhug Estate. Through a case study of one gentry family, her thesis examines how the early modern Welsh gentry established and retained their status and Welsh identity. Sadie published her doctoral research with University of Wales Press in 2024 under the title It traces the history of the Salsbury family from the fourteenth century to eighteenth century and covers myriad themes present in British history over this period, including the Reformation, the reigns of the Tudors and Stuarts, the English Civil Wars, the wars of religion in Europe, and the developing British colonies in the Atlantic world.
After the completion of her doctoral project, Sadie was awarded the Economic History Society Postan Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research. She was then appointed at The Queen's College, University of Oxford. At Oxford she examined early modern Welsh colonial activity in the British Atlantic world, particularly the colonies of North America. Her research built on the developing body of scholarship on Irish and Scottish involvement in early modern British expansionism while nuancing the debate by introducing Wales’ own unique relationship with the British state. Her project explicitly sought to incorporate the experiences of Indigenous people, presenting a full account of the impact of early modern British colonialism and its legacies.
Sadie currently works as a freelance historian, author and public speaker.
Sadie's Publications
2024
- (Cardiff, 2024).
2021
- , The Seventeenth Century 36: 1 (2021), 55-79.
- ‘‘‘By reason of her sex and widowhood’’: An early modern Welsh gentlewoman in the Court of Star Chamber’, in K. J. Kesselring and Natalie Mears (eds.), (London, 2021), pp. 79-96.
2020
- , Welsh History Review 30: 2 (2020), 206-32.