Our Fourth Jenny Wormald Lecture: From the Merchant City to McNab’s Cove: A Scottish family’s journey of reinvention in nineteenth-century Nova Scotia.

Dr Jenny Wormald was a prolific historian, whose insightful and impassioned publications on early modern power and society left an indelible impact on the field of Scottish history. Organised by the Scottish Historical Review Trust, this new lecture series will commemorate Dr Wormald's influential work and enduring legacy.

The next Jenny Wormald lecture will be given by Professor Karly Kehoe (Saint Mary’s University, Nova Scotia): 

From the Merchant City to McNab’s Cove: A Scottish family’s journey of reinvention in nineteenth-century Nova Scotia

Date: Friday, 30 October 2026

Venue: John Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 9NX

Karly Kehoe is Professor of History at Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and leads the Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies. Her research focuses on religious identity, migration, settlement and colonial privilege in the north Atlantic world. Her recent monograph, Empire and Emancipation: Scottish and Irish Catholics at the Atlantic Fringe, was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2022.

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The event is free and open to all. Attendees (including Trustees), must book either an online or in-person ticket via

Previous Jenny Wormald lectures were given by Professor Elizabeth Ewan (2025), Dr Fiona Watson (2024) and Professor Jane Dawson (2023). The lectures are published in the Scottish Historical Review.