Michael Mullett

Michael Alan Anthony Mullett (14 February 194310 February 2026) was a British historian and academic who was Professor of Religious and Cultural History at the University of Lancaster.

Career Born in Cardiff on 14 February 1943, After attaining his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in History at the University of Wales, Cardiff, he pursued further studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, with his Master of Letters (MLitt) thesis on “The Crown and the Corporations, 1660–1689”, supervised by John H. Plumb awarded in 1972. He had been recruited by Austin Woolrych to join the staff of the Department of History as a Lecturer at the University of Lancaster in 1968. He was awarded his doctorate (PhD) at Lancaster, served as Principal of County College, Lancaster from 1981 to 1985 and then as Vice-Principal, and was awarded a personal chair as Professor of Religious and Cultural History in 2001. Along with his colleagues Michael Winstanley and Marcus Merriman, he pioneered the "History in the Community" Programme of projects, facilitating undergraduates' practical experience with external organisations. Following his retirement, he was Professor Emeritus and Honorary Research Fellow in History from 2008.

Mullett's research focussed on religious history and especially radical and dissenting movements. His works on Catholicism included Catholics in Britain and Ireland, 1558–1828 (1998), his six volumes of collected writings on English Catholicism, 1680–1830 (2006) and The Catholic Reformation (1999). His works on John Bunyan, Martin Luther, and Quakerism in the North West, as well as his six-volume history of Penrith are of especial note.

Mullett was a major figure in the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society as Council Member, Chair of the Publication Committee, and Editor of the society's Transactions from 2009 to 2013. He was Reviews Editor for the European History Quarterly for many years, and contributed 24 biographies to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Mullett died at the Eden Valley Hospice, Carlisle, Cumbria, after a long illness.

Selected publications Books

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Articles and chapters