Partying like it’s 1679 in Stony Stratford, Or, Mabel Graves’s Very Bad Day:
Political Protest Songs in 17th Century England
Dr Angela McShane,
Hon Reader in History, University of Warwick
Date: 15th of April 2026
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
In 1679, the landlady of The Cock in Stony Stratford was visited by agents of the powerful local magnate, Sir Richard Temple of Stowe. They were investigating a seditious pop song that had created a local and national sensation – and libelled their master. Did she know anything about it? Trouble was … Mabel did know … a lot.
Come and hear the story of that sensational song, the era’s huge pop song trade in general, and find out what happened next for Mabel and her family.
About the speaker:
Dr McShane specialises in 17th century Britain, exploring its social, cultural, political and material
culture. Formerly, she was Head of Research at the Wellcome Collection in London and prior to that she was Head of Renaissance and Early Modern Studies for the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art’s Postgraduate programme in The History of Design and Material Culture. Dr McShane has been working on the popular music trade, including political music, in 17 th century Britain.
In 2021 she was involved in a project to document 17 th century ballads:
100 Ballads: England’s Top hits of the 17th Century https://www.100ballads.org/
She was also involved in a wider project to document protest songs:
https://oursubversivevoice.com
That project resulted in the 2025 publication:
We look forward to her book The Ballad Trade and its Politics in Seventeenth-century Britain which
will come out in early 2027.
Image attribution – “Cock Hotel Exterior 1 – street facing” by Greene King
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