Magdalene College Cambridge is to host a conference on The Ferrars of Little Gidding from Monday 5 September to Wednesday 7 September 2016. The College has been the custodian of the Ferrar family papers and portraits since the late eighteenth century when Martha Ferrar was married to Peter Peckard, who became Master of Magdalene College.
The Conference will look at the influence of the family from their involvement with the Virginia company, to the family’s relationship with George Herbert and the planned construction of a Harmony of the Gospels; and the conference coincides with the completion of a major project to conserve the 600 Ferrar prints (collected by the family from the late sixteenth century) at Magdalene College Cambridge.
The Conference has published a call for papers. Themes for papers might include: transatlantic trade,The Virginia Company, the role of art in lay piety, the Ferrar music collection, prints and family papers at Magdalene, the literary influence of the Ferrar family, the community at Little Gidding, seventeenth-century Anglicanism.
The registration fee for the conference is £90 with a reduced price for registered graduate students and over 60s of £70. Registration closes on or before 1 April 2016. There are limited places and please note that registration will close when the conference is full. A downloadable registration form is available from the College’s website. Proposals for papers should be about 200-500 words and be submitted by 1 December 2015.
Some accommodation is available at the College (single rooms only), and there is a list of other accommodation close by.
The Conference will include a visit to Little Gidding, a concert of music associated with the Ferrars (free entry to Conference delegates and their guests), and exhibition of the Ferrar papers and the newly conserved prints in the College’s Old Library; entrance to the exhibition is free. There is also a Conference Gala Dinner on Tuesday 6 September for all delegates and their guests which is an additional cost of £30 per person.
In addition to the registration form further details about the conference can be found at this page on the College website, and yet more information in this pdf file.