Darren S. Layne

Darren LayneEmail Address
dl33@st-andrews.ac.uk

Research Biography
My doctoral research stems from both my previous postgraduate work and also a long-standing belief that the constituency of the Jacobite movement must be revisited. Even within the vast corpus of letters, court records, transportation lists, and muster rolls that form the backbone of what we currently
know about the framework of 18th-century Jacobitism, there are inconsistencies, gaps, and deletions, thus admitted by many scholars who have previously attempted to collate this data. Building and utilizing an online prosopographic database to compile and document as many names as can be connected with the Rising of 1745-6, my eventual goal is to codify the entire Jacobite era - both in cause and movement. The creation and maintenance of this database is the centrepiece of my doctoral research, which will undoubtedly yield a large number of cultural, social, religious, and military topics about Jacobite constituency for detailed and discrete chapters within my forthcoming thesis. Its living format will allow the database to be expanded after its initial scope and context are described, following the progression of technology and its increasing use in both historical study and accessible digital documentation. In addition to the database and thesis, I am currently working on a number of other connected resources for the Digital Humanities, including a programme of licensing out primary source material for inclusion within an electronic research portal and also the establishment of a Virtual Research Environment for historical and genealogical study.

Project Websites
www.jdb1745.net
www.spinesofthethistle.net

Thesis title: Spines of the Thistle: Findings from the Jacobite Database of the 'Forty-five
Supervised by: Professor Steve Murdoch

Academic Papers

  • 'Such Cryptic Warp and Weft - An Introduction to the Jacobite Database of 1745' Institute of Scottish Historical Study Reading Weekend (March 2012)
  • 'Like Lambs Among the Heather - Impressment and Coercion in the Jacobite Rising of 1745-6' STASIS Seminar, University of Aberdeen (June 2004)
  • 'Just Four More Miles to Glory - Dissonant Leadership and the Jacobite Night March to Nairn', STASIS Seminar, University of Edinburgh (February 2004)

Special Guest Presenter - War College, Burlingame, CA, USA

  • 'Some They Drowned in the Sea - Viking Warfare and Expansionist Ideology' (2010)
  • 'Bloody Backs and the Sinews of Power - British Army Recruitment in the 18th Century' (2009)
  • 'Keeping Thine Enemies Close - The Scottish Soldier in the British Army' (2008)
  • 'Like Foul Weeds of Charlock - The Old Story and New Archaeology of Culloden Moor' (2007)
  • 'Rebels, Patriots, or a Little of Each? - Myths and Realities of the Scottish Army of the 18th Century' (2006)

Other

  • Founder and President of Students for the Advocacy of Scottish Interdisciplinary Studies (in alliance with STAR).
  • Curator and admin of the Institute for Scottish Historical Research Facebook and Twitter accounts.
  • Curator and admin of the Scottish Society for Northern Studies Facebook and Twitter accounts.