‘Of no sort of use’?: Manuscripts, Memory, and the Family Archive in Eighteenth Century England

This article explores the afterlives of manuscripts preserved in collections three middling sort families during long eighteenth century. It foregrounds role that family archives played construction and curation memory identity among non-elite this period, intersections between socio-economic status, gender, confessional a subject’s curatorial concerns, implications for our understanding archival culture. By showcasing different ways people engaged with written remains it also demonstrates how reconstructing motives underpinned might be possible, offering framework study intergenerational transmission.