The enthusiasm and engagement of younger scholars in Lewes suggests that scholarship about Thomas Paine and exploration of the context and impact of his work will continue to yield new insights well into the future.
Thomas Paine at 250: Insights from a Conference in Lewes, England Read Post »
The Lewes Railway posters were hung in late December 2025, badged as a Thomas Paine Historical Association project with my having recently joined its Board.
Naturally this book invites comparison with previous biographical studies, in particular the most recent. It bears out well in relationship to them. What stands out in this new work is its detailed coverage of Paine’s career and his comprehensive treatment of the controversies and issues Paine addressed.
BOOK REVIEW: A Political Biography Of Thomas Paine Read Post »
Shortly after his arrival in Philadelphia, however, Paine published an essay on ‘the Life and Death of Lord Clive’ which was highly critical of the type of ‘nabob’ whose election campaign he had supported in Shoreham. Clive’s conduct in India had been investigated by parliament.
The Role Of The East India Company In Thomas Paine’s Radicalisation Read Post »
How dared Thomas Paine, a man whose formal education had ended at thirteen, who had failed as a skilled craftsman, as a teacher, as a shopkeeper, as a street preacher, as a petty customs official in the Excise, dismissed and a debtor and bankrupt, even dare to think about government?
This document has been purchased by the Sussex Record Office Articles of Agreement Tripartite Indented had agreed upon the Fourth day of June in the Year of our Lord 1774 Between Thomas Pain of Lewes in the County of Sussex Excise Officer of the first part Elizabeth Pain Wife.
Paine’s dismissal from his excise appointment at Afford left him with a shattered career, and without immediate prospects. His regular income had slipped from his grasp, but despite his swift change of fortune and the suddenness of his dismissal, he was probably quite well placed.
Paine had very enlarged ideas of the rights of others and was, upon principle, a thorough friend to the civil and religious liberties of all mankind. In conversation he was open and liberal, and at the same time serious and instructive.
Young Thomas Paine, Wesleyan Methodist Or Rational Dissenter? Read Post »
From the time that his first biographer, Francis Oldys, adopted Thomas Paine, the son of a Thetford stay-maker, as a subject, all others have accepted the fact that he fathered no children. Recent examination of records, from a long time past, suggest that he might have done.
A Small Addition To The Writings On Thomas Paine (1), Quakers Read Post »
Following the publication of The Age of Reason, Thomas must have come to regard Paine as a infidel – and already as someone whom he regarded as having ruined his sister’s life and embarrassed his own. When Elizabeth died, the obituary he drafted gave vent to his venom regarding Paine.
I decided to visit the United States as it was the month Paine had set out to go there in 1774, the first of his five journeys across the Atlantic. My visit would coincide with the Annual General Meeting of the Thomas Paine-Huguenot Historical Society.
Paine, I am sure, was never “just” an exciseman, a teacher, staymaker, or storekeeper. His mental activity, interest in science, government and human relations, implied that there was far more bigger and grander things for him to do.
