Adam B. Forsyth

I study the history of English law in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and related topics in ecclesiastical and political history. At the moment, I am working on a new history of the Elizabethan commissions for ecclesiastical causes, sometimes collectively called ‘the Court of High Commission’. But my research interests are broad, and extend into many other areas—both in English legal history and the wider early modern world. My supervisor here at Cambridge is Paul Cavill.
Previously I completed an MPhil in Early Modern History at Cambridge, which I received with Distinction. Before that I was an undergraduate at Stanford University, where I was advised by David Como and enjoyed sunnier weather. Outside of my research, I enjoy learning what I can about the world of eighteenth-century rational-dissenting Unitarianism; and pursue a range of book-related activities—often in conjunction with the Cambridge Bibliophiles—with a zeal that has disquieted many friends and relations. I also like to walk.
'The promotor necessarius officii in English ecclesiastical law' (Cambridge Legal History Research Student Roundtable, June 2024)
'James Morice and the Law of Excommunication' (Oxford Legal History Forum, June 2024)
'James Morice and the Law of Excommunication' (Cambridge English Legal History Seminar, May 2024)