James Tait, (19 June 1863 – 4 July 1944) was an English medieval historian. With

Thomas Frederick Tout Thomas Frederick Tout (28 September 1855 – 23 October 1929) was a British historian of the medieval period. He was one of the founders of the Historical Association in 1906. Early life Born in London, he was a pupil of St Olave's Grammar Sch ...

, he was the second major figure in the "Manchester School of History".

Life

He was born in Broughton, Salford, on 19 June 1863, the son of Robert Ramsay Tait, a seed merchant, and his wife Annie Case. He entered

Owens College Owens may refer to: Places in the United States * Owens Station, Delaware * Owens Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota * Owens, Missouri * Owens, Ohio * Owens, Virginia People * Owens (surname), including a list of people with the name * Ow ...

, Manchester, aged 16, and in 1883 graduated there, in history, the institution having meanwhile become part of the federal Victoria University, with other colleges in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. He then studied at Balliol College, Oxford under

Arthur Lionel Smith Arthur Lionel Smith (1850 – 12 April 1924) was a British historian at the University of Oxford. Smith served as Master of Balliol College, Oxford, from 1916 to 1924. Early life Smith was born on 4 December 1850. He studied at Balliol College, ...

, and obtained a first class degree in 1887. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the exclusive

Stubbs Society The Stubbs Society for Foreign Affairs and Defence, commonly referred to simply as Stubbs Society, is the University of Oxford's oldest officially affiliated paper-reading and debating society (not to be confused with the unaffiliated debating ...

. Appointed Assistant Lecturer at Manchester in 1887, Tait became lecturer in Ancient History in 1896. He served as Professor of Ancient and Medieval History, from 1902 to 1919. He was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

in 1921. Tait was noted for his retiring, scholarly life, in

Fallowfield Fallowfield is a suburb of Manchester, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 15,211. Historically in Lancashire, it lies south of Manchester city centre and is bisected east–west by Wilmslow Road and north–south by Wil ...

and then in

Wilmslow Wilmslow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England, south of Manchester city centre. The population was 24,497 at the 2011 Census. History Toponymy Wilmslow derives its name from Old ...

. He died unmarried, in Wilmslow, on 4 July 1944.

Works

Tait's major works were ''Mediaeval Manchester and the Beginnings of Lancashire'' (1904), the first volume of the history series of Manchester University Press and a standard work for the rest of the century, and ''The Medieval English Borough'' (1936). He published on local history, with contributions to the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, and he also edited ''The Domesday Survey of Cheshire'' (1916). He was a Member of the

Chetham Society The Chetham Society "for the publication of remains historic and literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester" is a text publication society and registered charity (No. 700047) established on 23 March 1843. History The ...

, serving as Member of Council (1901–44) and President (1915–25). He contributed several works which were published by the Society.

Notes

External links

James Tait Papers
at the

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...

, Manchester {{DEFAULTSORT:Tait, James 1863 births 1944 deaths Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester 20th-century English historians Writers from Salford Contributors to the Victoria County History People from Wilmslow Chetham Society