Oliver Routledge

• BA (Hons) History
• A Man of Contradictions: James Murray, Religion and Secular Democracy in Newcastle 1764-1782.

Historians of the Enlightenment have often overlooked the contribution of North-East England writers to pre-French Revolution political thought, particularly the writings of Reverend James Murray.  An eighteenth-century Newcastle radical, Murray played an important role both locally and nationally in revolutionary politics.  Dissenters had a distinctive philosophy within the Enlightenment, contradicting an often-assumed conflict between faith and reason.  Based upon his writings and local newspaper sources, this research project will provide important new insights into how a clergyman came to reconcile his faith with his political convictions, and the impact he had as a north-easterner upon the international stage.

Funding Source: Newcastle University