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David Brown

I graduated with a BA in History from Trinity College Dublin in 1987. After a career in the IT and speciality food sectors I returned to work on The Down Survey of Ireland project, downsurvey.tcd.ie , 2011-2013. The site, launched in 2013, proved to be both an immense popular success and an invaluable research tool for historians of the Cromwellian land settlement, 1655-1659. Following the completion of this project, I studied for my PhD, ‘Speculators in Conflict: The Adventurers and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1642-1660’, supervised by Micheál Ó Siochrú and awarded in 2016. I am currently a post-doctoral research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, engaged in the transcription and compilation of a four volume edition for the Irish Manuscripts Commission, The Books of Survey and Distribution, that will be ready for publication in 2018.

Publications:

Published 2016:

  • ‘Developing the Fagel map Collection’, in Timothy R. Jackson (ed.), Frozen in Time: The Fagel Collection in the Library of Trinity College Dublin, (Dublin, 2016), pp. 115-128.
  • (With Micheál Ó Siochrú) ‘The Cromwellian Urban Surveys, 1653-1659’, Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. 69, (2016), pp. 37-150.

Accepted or in Production (all with Micheál Ó Siochrú):

    ‘Mapping the Past: Geographical Information Systems and the exploitation of linked historical data’, edited volume for Routledge but no publication details as yet.
  • ‘Survival strategies in a time of war: The Blayneys of Monaghan, 1640-1670’, in William Nolan and Éamonn Ó Ciardha (eds.), Monaghan history & society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin, Geography Publications)
  • ‘Ireland Transformed: The Down Survey and the Cromwellian Land Settlement’, in Jane Ohlmeyer (ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland, vol.2 (Cambridge University Press)
  • The Books of Survey and Distribution, 4 Vols. with introduction and index, (Dublin, Irish Manuscripts Commission).

Research Interests

Early modern merchant networks in the Atlantic region. I am particularly interested in applying social networking tools to enhance models of these networks that are often based on incomplete data.
Archival retrieval and digital surrogates for primary sources, primarily concerning the history of seventeenth century Ireland.