John Morrill (historian)

Historian of early modern Britain

John Stephen Morrill (born 12 June 1946) is a British historian and academic who specialises in the political, religious, social, and cultural history of early modern Britain from 1500 to 1750, especially the English Civil War. He is best known for his scholarship on early modern politics and his unique county studies approach which he developed at Cambridge. Morrill was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and became a fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 1975.

Morrill was born on 12 June 1946 to William Henry Morrill and Marjorie (née Ashton). He was educated at Altrincham County Grammar, an all boys grammar school in Cheshire. In 1964, he matriculated into Trinity College, Oxford, to study history. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1967, and a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1971. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1995, and served as Vice President in 2001–09. According to the online Bibliography of British and Irish History, he has published (up to July 2016) 116 books, essays and articles but some of his major contributions have been in developing online datasets – as General Editor of the Royal Historical Society Bibliography of British and Irish History and of the British Overseas (1992–99) — now the online Bibliography of British and Irish History, as Chair of the Management Committee of the project that put 8,000 survivor statements from the 1641 'massacres' in Ireland and as General Editor of an imminent (5 volume and online) edition of all the recorded words of Oliver Cromwell. On 6 July 2009, Morrill delivered his lecture 'The British Revolution in the English Provinces, 1640 9' as part of The Marc Fitch Lectures.

In 1996, Morrill was ordained as a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church. He has held several senior positions in the Diocese of East Anglia (e. g. Lourdes Pilgrimage Diocean Director, Chair of the Commission for Evangelisation and Assistant Director for Diaconal Formation), and teaches Church History and Pastoral Theology one weekend a month at St John's Seminary, Wonersh.