Properly Cowed: An Answer to Keri Davies

Abstract

I first would like to thank Keri Davies for his detailed response to my note. I admit to considering neither the importance of eighteenth-century privacy nor the conventions of advertisements and their typical reliance on third parties to preserve anonymity. I think these and other points are important caveats to my too eager claim that the advertisements provided a direct and clear window into the family life of the Blakes. Acknowledging this, I still believe that many of my assumptions were less wrongheaded than as characterized by Davies, and I hope to provide sufficient evidence of that below.