MAINLY NATIONAL RECORDS
A. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Litigation, like genealogy, is almost as old as civilisation. For centuries people sued or were sued for a host of major and minor crimes and disputes, leading to actions in secular or ecclesiastical courts. From the 1300s hundreds of thousands of disputes were heard by the Lord Chancellor or his deputies. The very earliest are likely to be found in manorial records, whilst records of the Church courts and justices are described elsewhere (q.v.). Civil and criminal court records for the most part are at TNA and for other classes of material it is wise to check first the printed calendars at Kew as well as TNA’s online catalogue for what may be already calendared/indexed, and its expanding Equity pleadings database within the Discovery website.
Most courts sat for four slightly variable terms annually, starting with Michaelmas around October, Hilary in January, Easter in March and Trinity in June, and the various classes of records will generally be thus sub-divided. In civil proceedings a plaintiff instigated an action with a writ of summons or bill of complaint setting out the cause and basic facts and the amount sought. The defendant responded with a defence or answer, after which either or both might serve further material, all of which are known as pleadings. Then followed evidences, questions and witness statements, affidavits and depositions (usually looking like written speech), perhaps over a protracted period of time and amounting to a great number of parchment sheets containing huge amounts of genealogical and other information. Be aware that chancery clerks had complicated filing systems, and that in many disputes the various bills and answers of a single case may be filed in different series. If the dispute was settled out of court, there will be no further record, but if no prior settlement was reached, a trial ensued and the result was known as a judgement, order or decree; if challenged, the case might be taken by way of appeal to a higher court. All such cases were undertaken by the Courts of Equity, and included the Court of Requests, the Court of Star Chamber, the Court of Exchequer and the Court of Chancery.
The Court of Chancery exercised jurisdiction over civil disputes usually worth more than £10 in England and Wales or where common law could provide no remedy; it became the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice in 1875. Its proceedings, all in English, from 1386–1875 (TNA: C1-C16, C21, C22, C24, C25, C31, C33, C36-C39) are calendared or indexed and form a supremely valuable corpus of information about family disputes over trusts, marriages, wills and much else, containing in all perhaps 750,000 actions between 1600 and 1800. Classes C1-C12 (1386–1800) are now searchable online. A valuable secondary finding-aid is the Bernau Index at the SOG and LDS family history centres, containing over 4,000,000 parties and witnesses to about 1800 from the Chancery, Star Chamber, Requests and Exchequer courts.
The Court of Exchequer supervised the collection of tax as well as having some jurisdiction over individual disputes, and later over matters of equity, trusts, wills, mortgages, land disputes and so on. In 1875 it became the Exchequer Division of the High Court of Justice. Its records are mostly in English and start around 1558; check the TNA website for what has been indexed (particularly at TNA: E 134 down to 1773), and then the pleadings bill books, 1558–1841, at TNA: IND1/16820-53.
The Court of Star Chamber was formed in 1487 as a series of separate judicial meetings of the King’s Council, and was abolished by Charles I. From the 1550s it dealt only with criminal cases, especially those connected with official corruption and abuse of legal procedure, forgery, fraud, trespass, assault and riot. Its records from 1485–1649 (TNA: STAC 1-STAC 9) are mostly indexed by names or places.
The Court of Requests existed from about 1493–1642, principally for poorer litigants, dealing with civil disputes as well as some criminal cases, and its records include bills, answers, depositions, affidavits and exhibits. The records (TNA: REQ 1- REQ 4) are calendared or indexed for at least 1485–1625.
The Supreme Court of Judicature, otherwise known as the High Court of Justice and Court of Appeal, was established in 1875, and its records constitute a major resource for social and economic history. It was divided, amongst others, into Chancery, Common Pleas, Exchequer, Divorce and Probate, and later into Queen’s Bench, Chancery and Family. Most records after 1945 have been destroyed, but from 1876 to the 1920s–40s there are full series of affidavits, depositions, orders, pleadings and writs of summons, some with indexes (TNA: J 4–J 7, J 15–J 17, J 54–J 55, J 59).
Assize Records
From the fourteenth century a system of visitations to the counties was undertaken by court judges from Westminster and their hearings known as the assizes. Their powers were gradually extended from property disputes to criminal cases, and they became the principal English criminal courts until they were replaced by the Crown Courts in 1971. The assize justices, usually in pairs, worked on circuits (in Kent the ‘Home’ circuit), moving between towns on royal commissions of the peace or of gaol delivery to try prisoners, or to hear and determine those cases, such as murder, rape, burglary and treason, that were not heard by the local courts.
The assizes took place two or three times a year in the county town or perhaps in another one supplied with a prison. The circuit lasted some number of weeks depending on the volume of business and if considerable, then trials might be very short indeed as up to two-dozen or so cases might constitute a day’s proceedings. The judges would inform the county sheriffs of the intended dates and places of the assizes, upon which calendars of prisoners, alleged crimes and the names of jurors and officials would be drawn up, plus outstanding matters from the previous session. Some minute books list the defendants’ names and personal details, but the most important records are the indictments which record the name and description of the accused, the offence and its date, and the name of any victim.
From the 1200s onwards most counties had at least one prison or gaol to hold people awaiting trial, which was far more common than inmates being punished because so many crimes at an early date carried the death penalty. Many parishes also had a village lock-up for temporary imprisonment of offenders. Prison building began on a wider scale during the Victorian period, a dozen or so gaols existing in the 1850s, together with others for male convicts (those sentenced to hard labour or transportation) including one at Chatham.
Until 1782 transportation was chiefly to the British colonies in America and the West Indies, but after the American War of Independence that destination was no longer a possibility and the courts were then empowered to sentence convicts to hard labour on prison hulks anchored in the Thames, including Chatham and Sheerness (TNA: HO 8; 1824-54 at Findmypast). The names and parishes of those transported between 1654 and 1717 are at TNA: C 66, and for the period 1661–1782 at TNA: SP 35–SP 37 and SP 44. Transportation to Australia took place between 1787 and 1868, and there are convict transportation registers for the entire period (TNA: HO 11). A valuable list of convicts in New South Wales and Tasmania and an 1828 census of 35,000 persons is at TNA: HO 11.
Nearly all prisoners’ records to 1559 are at TNA: JUST 3. Kent is fortunate in that indictment books for the Home circuit survive from the 1500s onwards and are published (J.S. Cockburn, Calendar of assize records, Kent indictments, Elizabeth I–Charles II (1559–1675)). Lists of prisoners who were tried at the assizes between 1758 and 1832 may be found in the assize vouchers (TNA: E 389/241)], and those tried between 1868 and 1971 in TNA: HO 140. Kent criminal trials in the assize courts, 1559–1971 are at TNA: ASSI 31, ASSI 32, ASSI 34, ASSI 39, ASSI 90, ASSI 94 and ASSI 95. The criminal registers for England and Wales list all those charged with indictable offences, the date and place of trial, verdict and sentence, 1791–1892 (TNA: HO 26, 27). These are online at Ancestry.co.uk, along with other records including calendars of prisoners held for trial at quarter-sessions and assizes, 1774–1882 (TNA: PCOM 2).
Trials at the Old Bailey were generally confined to London and Middlesex, but the proceedings, 1674–1913, are searchable online; thereafter newspaper reports are the best alternative. State Papers Domestic from 1547 (TNA: SP), now mostly with online indexes, also contain much information about crime and legal disputes; see also www.gale.cengage.co.uk/statepapers.
Coroners
The office of coroner dates from 1194. Its purpose was to hold inquests into suspicious or sudden deaths, the jury usually consisting of between twelve and twenty-three people (between seven and eleven after 1926) who were elected by freeholders to hold jurisdiction over a county, but many boroughs also held the right to have their own coroner. From 1888 counties were divided into districts, each with a coroner appointed by local authorities. The survival of records has been patchy (but see also Borough Records), and they are generally closed for seventy-five years. To some degree this may be compensated for by newspaper reports which often described the proceedings in great detail and are sometimes unique records of the event. The results of coroners’ inquests from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries were forwarded to the Court of King’s Bench (TNA: KB 9–KB 12).
Bibliography
Bryson, W.H., The equity side of the Exchequer, its jurisdiction, administration, procedures and records (1975)
Cockburn, J.S., A history of English assizes 1558–1714 (1972)
——, Calendar of assize records, Kent indictments, Elizabeth I–Charles II (1559–1675), 5 vols (1979–95)
Coldham, P.W., ‘Genealogical resources in Chancery Records’, Genealogists’ Magazine, XIX, 345–7 and XX, 257–60
Fowler, D.B., The practice of the Court of Exchequer (1795)
Garrett, R.E.F., Chancery and other legal proceedings (1968)
Gerhold, D., Courts of Equity … A guide to Chancery and other legal records (1994)
Hawkings, D., Criminal ancestors (2009)
Horwitz, H., Chancery equity records and proceedings 1600–1800 (1998)
——, Exchequer equity records and proceedings, 1649–1841 (2001)
Knafla, L., Kent at Law 1602 (1994)
Melling, E. (ed.), Kentish sources VI. Crime and punishment (1969)
Moore, S.T., Family feuds: an introduction to Chancery proceedings (2003)
Sharp, H., How to use the Bernau index (1996)
B. DOMESDAY BOOK
Domesday Book (formerly the Book of Winchester) had its origin in William the Conqueror’s decision in 1085 to send his commissioners across England to make a personal enquiry into those holding land in chief of the king and the annual dues payable on it. In 1086 it was conducted on a minute scale ‘so that there was not even one ox, nor cow, nor one pig which escaped notice’. Its findings were considered definitive, and from which no appeal would be heard – hence its famous name. The king’s men assembled juries in each place consisting of a sheriff, priest, lord of the manor, reeve and six villagers, who on oath answered the following questions:
1. What is the name of this manor?
2. Who was tenant in 1065 when King Edward died?
3. Who is now tenant?
4. How many hides [about 120 acres] in the manor?
5. How many ploughteams are working in the lord’s demesne and villagers’ lands?
6. How many family units specified by social class (serf, villain, cottar, priest &c.)?
7. How much pasture, meadow and woodland?
8. How many mills, fishponds and other assets like salt-pans? What is their value?
9. How much has been added or taken away?
10. What was the total value of the manor in 1065?
11. What is the value in 1086?
In all, Domesday describes the country at the end of 500 years of English settlement when woodland had been cleared and most present-day settlements had been founded. Be aware that it did not set out to record churches; there are enough famous Anglo-Saxon churches still extant but not included to prove this point. The answers, somewhat condensed, were despatched to the king and written up in clear abbreviated Latin in the now familiar two large volumes (‘Great’ and ‘Little’ Domesdays), often on display at TNA. The four northern counties are absent, as are Winchester and the City of London, and Lancashire and Yorkshire are hastily sketched; in addition, lands held by religious prelates or houses were exempt and so do not generally appear.
The text was first set in print in 1783 in ‘record type’ which imitated the Latin marks of abbreviation; this was repeated in county volumes by Phillimore with a facing translation, and there are further indexes of persons and places for every county. Editions Alecto has produced colour facsimiles which are downloadable from the TNA catalogue.
Domesday shows the extent of Norman penetration and English survival two decades after the Conquest, frequently by the many distinctive personal names. On this point alone it is commonly consulted by genealogists and place-name historians, although of course at this date there are hardly any formal surnames. The likelihood of a proven descent from one of the Conqueror’s men-at-arms is infinitesimal (there were just three such families in England in 1986!). Of far greater and lasting value are what are often the earliest spellings of countless place names which offer reasonable certainty in some cases for an accepted etymology.
Domesday Book has produced an enormous literature which discusses the many problems still concerning this extraordinary work, unique in Western Europe, if not the world.
Bibliography
Ballard, A., The Domesday inquest (1906)
Bates, D., Domesday Bibliography (1986)
Camp, A.J., My Ancestors came with the Conqueror (1990)
Darby, H.C., Domesday England (1977, 1986)
Domesday Re-bound, Public Record Office Handbook (1954)
Flight, C., The survey of Kent: documents relating to the survey of the county conducted in 1086, BAR British Series 506, 2010
Galbraith, V.H., The making of Domesday Book (1961)
Hallam, E.M., Domesday Book through nine centuries (1986)
Lennard, R., Rural England 1086–1135 (1959)
Morris, J. (ed.), Domesday Book, Phillimore county vols (1975–92)
Roffe, D., Decoding Domesday (2007)
C. HERALDRY
To some people, heraldry in the twenty-first century might seem a highly coloured and trivial anachronism, but the evidence of coats of arms (and flags bearing them) is all around us and great importance still set by them. The obscure origins of heraldry lie in the twelfth century when the adoption of colourful devices served as a ready means of identification for knights in battle, the first recorded bearer being Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, in 1127. As time passed the early and simple designs inevitably became more complex and led to the beginnings of codification and regulation, put on a formal footing with the founding of the College of Arms in 1484. Its county surveys, begun in 1530, continued until 1688, and involved nationwide tours of inspection which invited the gentry to register their arms. The process was fraught with difficulty as not too many gentlemen had precise details about parents and grandparents at their fingertips. This resulted in some sketchy early visitations, but the heralds were soon accustomed to accepting arms not actually granted by them if they had been borne for a sufficient period and if the users were persons of gentility – that is, the right to arms by prescription. Those whose right to arms could not be established had to sign a form of disclaimer and lists of these were publicised as far as possible locally, forbidding them to be styled ‘gentlemen’. A man entitled to bear arms was armigerous, and commonly described as armiger (or knight) in parish registers and elsewhere.
The heralds’ visitation: seventeenth-century pedigrees compiled after the heralds had visited individual houses and families (Harleian Society, Vol. 54, 1906).
The right to bear a coat of arms (strictly, an achievement, and consisting of shield, helmet, crest and supporters) descended from the original grantee to the eldest son, and so on. During the lifetime of the present holder, the eldest son displayed the same coat, but added a ‘label’ as a mark of difference, removing it when he succeeded in his own right. Younger sons made permanent small alterations or marks of cadency, called ‘differences’ (a crescent, a star and so on in a prescribed order). The right to bear arms passed to a daughter only if there were no sons to inherit, and then to her children in the normal way. If you have no coat of arms and do not believe you are entitled to one (the arms must relate to the correct family, not just your surname), that is probably the end of the story, although today the College of Arms will search their tremendous library for possible proof of your entitlement if you supply them with a thoroughly researched pedigree, and still makes new grants to many kinds of persons and organisations.
Heraldry is highly important to genealogists as the descent of arms is proof positive of relationships, and indeed heraldic glass and pedigrees in about 150 east Kent churches were recorded in the 1750s by the antiquary Bryan Faussett, whose papers are now at the Society of Antiquaries. The language of heraldry is Norman French and will require some little effort to gain a basic proficiency. (Let it just be recorded here that the right side of the shield as the wearer would view it is dexter, and the left side sinister – Latin terms, not French!) Coats are described (the blazon) in a highly precise sequence, using two metals, five colours and various furs including ermine and vair. Of more importance to the genealogist are the assumption of another family’s arms: if a bearer married an heraldic heiress, his wife’s coat of arms would be incorporated into his (an impalement), four or more subsequently being called quarterings, and often leading to a much subdivided and highly colourful display over the centuries. The motto beneath the shield, often in Latin, French or English, formed no part of the formal grant, was changeable at will and frequently used by various families at the same time.
The great majority of arms granted between 1687 and1898, together with many earlier ones, can be found in J. Foster’s Grantees of Arms. As with other subjects, heraldry was subject to much vanity and pretension, and in Victorian times a man might assume a simplified coat of arms or crest on his stationery, cutlery or silver, essentially for display but in no way proof of being armigerous. You can check Burke’s The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and the later period in A.C. Fox-Davies’ Armorial families to see if a particular family had a coat of arms, and if you come across a coat of arms with no indication of the family name attached to it, refer to J.W. Papworth and A.W. Morant’s An alphabetical dictionary of coats of arms belonging to families in Great Britain and Ireland which lists British coats of arms in alphabetical order of the various charges on the shields, enabling you quickly to locate a shield bearing, for example, three lozenges or a leopard’s head.
Bibliography
Armytage, G. (ed.), Visitation of Kent 1663–1668, Harleian Society, Vol. 54, 1906
Bannerman, W.B. (ed.), Visitations of Kent 1530, 1574, 1592, Harleian Society, vols 74–5, 1923, 1925
Boutell, C., English heraldry (rev. edn 1965)
Brooke-Little, J.P., An heraldic alphabet (2nd edn 1975)
Burke, B., The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time (1884, repr. 1961)
Butters, L., Fairbairn’s crests of the families of Great Britain and Ireland (4th edn 1905, repr. 1996)
Councer, C.R., Lost glass from Kent churches (1980)
Foster, J., Grantees of arms (1915–17)
Fox-Davies, A.C., Armorial families, a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour (repr. 1970)
——, A complete guide to heraldry (rev. edn 1969)
Friar, S., A new dictionary of heraldry (1987)
——, Heraldry for the local historian and genealogist (1992)
Hovenden, R. (ed.), Visitation of Kent 1619–1621, Harleian Society, Vol. 42, 1878
Humphery-Smith, C.R., Armigerous ancestors and those who weren’t; a catalogue of visitation records together with an index of pedigrees, arms and disclaimers (1997)
Lynch-Robinson, C. and A., Intelligible heraldry (1948)
Moncreiffe, I. and Pottinger, D., Simple heraldry (1953)
Papworth, J.W. and Morant, A.W., An alphabetical dictionary of coats of arms belonging to families in Great Britain and Ireland forming an extensive ordinary of British armorials (1874, rev. edn 1961)
Pine, L.G., The story of heraldry (rev. edn 1963)
——, Heraldry and genealogy (4th edn 1974)
Sims, R., An index to the pedigrees and arms contained in the heralds’ visitations and other genealogical manuscripts in the British Museum (1849)
Squibb, G.D., Visitation pedigrees and the genealogist (1978)
Summers, P. (ed.), Hatchments in Britain, 5: Kent, Surrey and Sussex (1985)
——, How to read a coat of arms (1986)
Wagner, A., Heraldry in England (1946)
——, The records and collections of the College of Arms (1952)
——, Heralds and ancestors (1978)
D. LAND AND ITS POSSESSION
a) The Early Mediaeval Period
Saxon charters were beginning to be superseded in the tenth century by much simpler sealed writs or letters addressed to the shire courts. Early mediaeval deeds (or charters) also survive in large numbers and, if calendared or indexed, offer valuable references to place names and individuals, especially if the seals are still attached. They record that on a certain date a person had given and delivered seisin (the handing over of a physical part of the property, such as a turf) to another person in the presence of named witnesses.
An early charter: a grant to the barons of Faversham, 1252. It is typically written in small, neat and abbreviated Latin and, with a little practice, not too difficult to read. (Reproduced by kind permission of Faversham Town Council)
b) Final Agreements
Later on the place of charters was taken by fines, and then recoveries, used to record the transfer of property. Vendor and purchaser cooperated in legal proceedings about a fictitious dispute over possession of land to obtain a court judgement recording the purchaser’s right to a property, the vendor now bound by a ‘final agreement’ (finalis concordia) after which the court permitted the settlement to be effected and the land was passed to the purchaser. The final concord recorded the court’s judgement in triplicate on the same piece of parchment, one copy going to each party, the third at the foot retained by the court to be enrolled on the feet of fines of the Court of Common Pleas (TNA: CP 25/1-2). These survive in an almost unbroken series of seven centuries from 1195–1834 with calendars and indexes (TNA: IND 1/7178-7232), many also having been published. Typically they give a date, personal details of vendors and purchasers, and descriptions of the land in question, perhaps also naming heirs. Uniformity of handwriting and format makes searches fairly easy.
The ownership of land could be registered in other ways. There are four other prime sources of substantial longevity. The Close Rolls (TNA: C 54) survive for 1227–1903 and are named from the fact of not being readable until the seal was broken. They were used to enrol documents for preservation, such as grants of land by the Crown and deeds recording the sale of private property. Such material includes deeds of bargain and sale, deeds poll, deeds of conveyance, patents, the estates of bankrupts and the deeds and wills of papists.
Patent Rolls date from 1201–1946 (TNA: C 66) and were a record made in Chancery of such matters as correspondence, treaties, grants of land, offices and pardons and are another rich source of personal and place names. Both the Close and Patent series are available at TNA and CCA, are mostly calendared and indexed, and coming online.
Charter Rolls (TNA: C 53; calendared) record the granting by royal charter, 1199–1537, of land, honours and privileges to individuals and corporations. The Pipe Rolls survive almost in their entirety from 1155–1832 (TNA: E 372; duplicates in E 352). Their purpose was to record money that a sheriff had collected, how much money was outstanding and his expenses. The rolls include the names of landowners and other debtors, the location of the property and perhaps also the names of wives, heirs and other relatives. Various years have been published by the Pipe Roll Society and county record societies.
The Patent Rolls: Kentish traitors and rebels are pardoned. (Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, 1553–4, HMSO, 1937)
d) Inquisitions Post Mortem
Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPMs), also known as escheats, were held by chancery writ after the death of tenants-in-chief of the Crown to ensure that all the monarch’s rights as overlord were respected. This was a reliable source of royal income from 1066 until the abolition of feudal tenures in 1660. A tenant-in-chief held directly of the king for rent or service, and even if he possessed very little land his heir would succeed only by paying a relief and then taking possession (livery of seisin). Failing an heir, the land would revert or escheat to the king; if a heir were a minor, the king claimed wardship, administered the estate and took its profits until the heir was disposed of in marriage.
On the tenant’s death a writ was issued to an official and a jury summoned to which the family steward supplied answers: the name of the tenant; date of death; description of lands; names of various lords of whom property was held; value of individual properties; services due; and the heir’s name and age (if over 21, often an estimate), perhaps here reciting a family history. If proof of age was needed before succeeding to the lands (de probatione aetatis) the sheriff would summon a jury and members would recall events in their own lives as corroboration. In passing, details of local customs, the growth of industries, the existence of mills and jobs of town dwellers may be found, and also the names of townships, fields, lanes and estates.
The IPMs for 1236–1447 are in print with detailed summaries and indexes; these lead to the original documents in TNA: C 132–9 and E 149. From 1447–85 original documents must be examined in TNA: C 139–41 and E 149. From 1485–1509 the IPMs are published in English and lead to the originals in TNA: C 139 and E 149. From 1509–c.1640 the original documents must be examined in classes C 142, E 150 and WARD 7, all of which have indexes. All IPM records may now be searched online.
Inquisitions Post Mortem: a manor at Badlesmere is inherited by a 40-year-old uncle. (Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. XV, 1–7 Richard II, HMSO, 1970)
e) Bargain and Sale
From 1536, following the Statute of Uses, property might also be transferred by a bargain and sale which opens with details of the parties and the date before stating the consideration (or cash paid) and extent of the property involved. The particular formula employed is ‘doth grant bargain and sell’, after which the document was signed and sealed by both parties. The bargain and sale was a contract to convey interests in real estate following payment of an agreed price. The vendor bargained and sold his land to the purchaser, but remained seised to the use of the purchaser as implied in the terms of the agreement. Such a deed had to be enrolled with the clerk of the peace and written out in duplicate on one piece of parchment which was then divided between the two parties.
By about 1630 lawyers had become irritated by the publicity and inconvenience of both delivery of seisin and the enrolment of a bargain and sale, a situation that saw the introduction of a system that would last until 1845, that of lease and release: on one day the lessor (Smith) bargained and sold a release to the lessee (Jones) who normally paid 5s. Smith was seised of his property to the use of Jones for six months or a year, depending on the terms. However, the Statute of Uses caused the lease immediately to vest in Jones, and on the second day Smith released the freehold reversion to Jones who was already in possession. Jones then paid the full price of the property under the terms of the release. The lease is a short document folded inside the more substantial release, which is distinguished by the words ‘granted bargained sold remised released quitclaimed and confirmed’. This system swiftly had immediate effect wherever English law operated because no public livery of seisin or enrolment was involved; it was replaced in 1841 by a simple release and in 1845 by a deed of grant.
g) Title Deeds
Title deeds prove ownership to property by recording transfer from one owner to another. Legally necessary from 1677, they survive in large numbers, but suffer greatly from underuse because of imperfect cataloguing, dirt and folding, lack of indexes and complex Latin legal terms, in all making the effort of investigation sometimes out of proportion to the anticipated rewards. If your ancestor owned or leased a property, however, the search may well be worth it. A seller’s title to land that was not registered, or any land before registration was introduced, is evidenced by title deeds that will show whether the interest in it was freehold, leasehold or copyhold, describe its location and area, and record the dates and names of new owners, landlords and tenants. Archived title deeds are normally in bundles which reflect the need to prove title, to hand them to the new owner and lawyers’ filing systems. Once split, the deed bundles lose meaning and cannot reveal the sequential history of land or buildings.
Material should be deposited at KHLC or perhaps in the hands of the family that owned the land. It is possible that the deeds have been retained not by your family but by that of the landlord, in which case it is important to ascertain the names of the owners of any land that your ancestors occupied, perhaps from the evidence of land and hearth tax records, parish registers or directories. Some great landowners have deposited title deeds in their tens of thousands; municipal corporations, the Church, businesses and charities also held large amounts of property.
Even a humble farmhouse with a few cottages would have had title deeds including conveyances, mortgages, leases, admissions and surrenders of copyhold, and so on, often surviving from the 1600s, and sometimes considerably earlier. Abstracts of title will recite still older deeds. Such documents have survived in their millions, covering the smallest properties to enormous estates, and may include specific references to such things as advowsons, almshouses, deer parks, ferries, inns, markets, mills, shops and warrens. The information may be concise, giving only manors and parishes, or much fuller, itemizing farms and chief properties, with or without acreages and occupiers, and even with details of every building and field. Some will be located by ‘abuttals’ or ‘bounds’ where the adjoining property and its owner are given, making for a valuable source of names of lanes and roads, bridges, commons and greens, islands, marshes, streams and other landscape features. The state of cultivation of parcels of land may be shown, and detailed plans are sometimes found, generally after about 1840. Such material is occasionally catalogued in a highly summary way, and a single archive reference may actually include dozens of items with just a covering date.
h) Other Material
Deeds of the Exchequer (TNA: E 40–E44; E 210–E 214) comprise thousands of deeds from the mediaeval period to the nineteenth century, and records of the Court of Chancery include ancient deeds to 1603 (TNA: C 146–C 148), modern deeds to the 1800s (TNA: C 149) and deeds produced as court exhibits, 1200s–1800s (TNA: C 116). Many of these are calendared and published by HMSO.
State Papers Domestic, 1547–1665 (TNA: SP 10–SP 17) deal generally with the peace and prosperity of most localities, and are a vast collection of the papers of secretaries of state relating to home affairs, social and economic matters, law and order, religious policy, private correspondence and much else. Again, much is calendared and published, some are online and others searchable at British History Online.
E. MANORIAL RECORDS
Manorial organisation was in place before the Conquest when communities had already been divided into estates of varying size, developing yet further from a fusion of Anglo-Saxon agricultural estates and a feudal system of military tenures introduced by the Normans. The courts regulated the responsibilities and interrelationships of the lord, his steward, bailiff, reeve, hayward and constable with the village people. Courts were held as often as fortnightly and dealt with every aspect of agriculture, industry and social life; changes of tenure and tenancy; and with services, dues and rights, tying many people to lives of semi-servitude by the imposition of labour and carefully regulated series of payments and fines. As a rule, judicial cases were heard before the shire, royal or hundred courts, but the Saxon views of frankpledge at which people presented cases of breach of law and order among their own community are regularly found. The court was attended by all those free tenants whose attendance was a condition of their tenure, and also by customary tenants, often copyholders, who held their land by an agreement made at the court and entered on its roll, a copy of which was regarded as proof of title. From the fourteenth century the work of manorial courts was gradually transferred to the Church or secular courts and to the ecclesiastical parishes.
These records are frequently the only way to take a pedigree back before the parish register period. Material survives commonly from the thirteenth century, usually in the form of rolls or books, and includes court proceedings and verdicts, accounts, rentals, surveys, extents and much else, and is crammed with references to ordinary people. The courts survived nominally until 1922 when the Law of Property Act abolished the form of land tenure known as copyhold, but as proof of title to former copyhold was very often contained within manorial books and rolls, it was essential that they be preserved. The documents were placed under the charge of the Master of the Rolls and saw the establishment of the Manorial Documents Register, now housed at TNA.
The register records the whereabouts of all deposited material, whether at TNA, KHLC, Lambeth Palace, the British or Oxbridge libraries and elsewhere, and includes indexes of parishes and manors for which material has survived (Kent is soon to come online). The Victoria County History is sometimes also useful for manorial references. But it should be noted that much else still remains in private hands, and therefore the holdings vary enormously from parish to parish and manor to manor, some having nothing and others considerable collections, initially in Latin, and requiring considerable skills to read and interpret. Records after about 1660 are for the most part far easier to tackle, and are increasingly written in English.
There were perhaps double or triple the numbers of manors as there were parishes, one manor consisting of a farm and cottages, but often far larger and incorporating villages, farmlands and forests and covering perhaps several dozen square miles. Manorial boundaries were rarely contiguous with parochial ones, and large parishes would commonly include portions of several; some manors existed separately from the main body of the manor in different parishes or counties. For east Kent there is a copious index of manorial names by parish in D. Wright’s East Kent Parishes.
It is well worth familiarising yourself with life on the manor, how people’s lives were circumscribed, how land was apportioned and farmed, how the lord’s officials went about their duties, the development of tenancies, the workings of the courts and how people were charged or fined for everyday activities and misdemeanours. Deaths of tenants and the succession of heirs, occupations of lands, descriptions of boundaries, unproved wills, elections of local officials, the obstruction of highways and watercourses, and the name of the lord are some of the many fascinating subjects that may be found here, as is the presence of ordinary people at the court over periods of years.
Manorial tenants were not free and so could not transfer their lands to heirs or anyone else without the lord’s consent, dealt with by a surrender or admission in the manorial court. At a tenant’s death his heir would attend court to seek admission as the new tenant upon payment of a fine to the lord, at which point this was noted on the court roll and a copy given as proof to the new tenant, such customary tenancies becoming known as copyhold. The rolls normally note the relationship between old and new tenants, and sometimes their ages; surviving court rolls (or the tenants’ copies) may therefore reveal several generations of a family holding property, whether just a small plot or a large farm.
A typical manorial court roll records the date and type of court, and the names of the lord and his steward. Then follow tenants excused from attendance (essoins) and those fined (amercements) for non-excuses. Various men are then sworn as a jury to adjudicate on disputes and to act as accusers about offenders and disputes. Next, the court filled vacant manorial positions, after which disputes and offences were considered, a good description of which may be found in ‘Manorial Documents’, Genealogists’ Magazine (March 1983), and reveals fascinating insights into ordinary people’s lives, such transgressions usually being punished by fines or the stocks. Finally, the court dealt with property transactions, the deaths of tenants and the admission of heirs. Anyone’s ancestors may be found in these records, which frequently come well within the parish register period.
The 1922 Act did not abolish manorial lordships, and these may still be bought and sold, although a new lord is not automatically entitled to documents relating to the manor unless they have been specifically conveyed to him. It was established definitively in 1925 that the lord of the manor could sell the lordship whilst retaining ownership of any documents in his possession relating to the manor; and, conversely, dispose of any documents while retaining the lordship.
Many misconceptions surround the title ‘Lord of the Manor of X’ after the owner’s name. He is not automatically entitled to a coat of arms; he may apply to the College of Arms but cannot demand a grant simply on the basis of ownership of the title, which is quite unconnected to a peerage, and nor may he style himself ‘Lord X’ or sit in the House of Lords. The Land Registry keeps an index of registered lordship titles, and a guide to searching it may be found on their website.
Searches for Kentish manorial documents should start with the Manorial Documents Register at TNA. Many are held at KHLC, and just one at Canterbury, that of the Canterbury Barton manor estate, 1575–1963 (CCA: CC-P).
Bibliography
Bailey, M., The English manor c.1200–c.1500 (2002)
Bennett, H.S., Life on the English manor: a study of peasant conditions 1150–1400 (1937)
Coredon, C. and Williams, A., A dictionary of mediaeval terms and phrases (2004)
Ellis, M., Using manorial records (1997)
Harvey, P.D.A., Manorial records (1999)
Hone, N.J., The manor and manorial records (1925)
Humphery-Smith, C.R., Mediaeval genealogy (1974)
Jessel, C., The law of the manor (1998)
Overton, E., A guide to the mediaeval manor (1994)
Palgrave-Moore, P., How to locate and use manorial records (1985)
Park, P.B., My ancestors were manorial tenants (1990)
Pollock, E.M., Manors, their history and their records (1933)
Stuart, D., Manorial records: an introduction to their transcription and translation (1992)
Vinogradoff, P., The growth of the manor (1932)
Wrottesley, G., Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls, 1200–1500 (1905)
F. THE PROFESSIONS
A great many men who aspired to a formal career would first have gone to university. In England before 1829 there were just the two foundations of Oxford and Cambridge, the alumni of which are all in print (J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1886 and J. and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses to 1900) and will supply home parish, age and date of matriculation, and father’s name and occupation, sometimes leading to several generations as fathers and sons are crossreferenced.
a) Church
Clerical ancestors are perhaps some of the easiest to trace, especially as they were nearly all graduates and usually left wills. Start with Crockford’s Clerical Directory which from 1858 lists all Anglican clergy and was preceded by the Clerical Guide in 1817 and the Clergy List in 1841. Senior clergy and Oxbridge officials from 1066–1857 are listed with biographical details in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, which includes about 41,000 indexed clergy. The valuable Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835 website aims to record biographical details of all ordained men from the Reformation to the Regency.
The Victorian clergy: Crockford’s Clerical Directory is a mine of information.
Kent’s long coastline employed many coastguards. The service was formed in 1822 by the amalgamation of three anti-smuggling services. In 1831 it also incorporated the Coastal Blockade, at that time employing some 6,700 men. Records at TNA are scattered, the main series being succession books, 1816–78 (TNA: ADM 175) which give men’s service and some personal details, and also officers’ service registers, 1886–1947. Pension details are at TNA: ADM 23 and PMG 23.
c) Customs
From the 1300s to the reign of Charles II the Exchequer administered the customs system, levying duties on imports and exports at rates determined by the government. Excise duties have been levied on the manufacture, sale or consumption of goods inside the country from 1642 when Parliament raised the first excise to pay its army. Commissioners were appointed at the Restoration and the hated excise officers then appeared throughout the country. Customs and Excise records survive from 1688 to the late Victorian period after which the two departments were merged in 1909. These include pay lists, 1675–1829 (TNA: CUST 18, 19), pension registers, 1803–1922 (TNA: CUST 39) and officers’ records (TNA: CUST 50), the last containing much biographical information including age and place of birth.
d) Government
Civil servants’ records will be found at TNA, usually under the appropriate department. The Civil Service Commission was established in 1855 and required evidence of age to establish a pension entitlement; these down to 1930 are indexed at the SOG and include about 70,000 men born from the early 1800s onwards with names, addresses and dates of birth or baptism (with certificate sometimes attached). Many civil servants are listed in annual directories and almanacs, starting with the Royal British Kalendar and continuing from 1810 in the British Imperial Calendar (later the Civil Service Year Book). The names of those in government departments and the royal household have been published since 1669 in Chamberlayne’s Angliae Notitia and The Court and City Register. Also useful for appointments are the Foreign Office List, Colonial Office List, London Gazette and Whitaker’s Almanac. Records of the Treasury from the seventeeth century are at TNA and cover all aspects of central government finance. The Institute of Historical Research has published Office-Holders in Modern Britain which includes Admiralty, Board of Trade, Secretaries of State and Treasury, 1660–1780, and Home and Foreign Office, 1782–1870.
Canterbury attorneys: the Law List for 1855 provides useful details.
e) Law
Lawyers (now solicitors or barristers), proctors, advocates, attorneys, judges and justices will appear in all kinds of reference works including directories, journals, admission registers, biographical dictionaries, printed pedigrees and the like. Barristers, who usually had no degree and included all judges, were admitted through one of the four Inns of Court (Lincoln’s Inn, Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray’s Inn), the records of which are mostly printed and show age and the name and address of the father. The names of all solicitors from 1775–1976 appear in The Law List (BL, SOG, TNA) and will reveal the name of the firm and its location or address. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography may supply immediately a date of death and so facilitate probate searches. Solicitors’ articles of clerkship, 1756–1874 (TNA: KB 105–107; CP 71) are on Ancestry.co.uk.
f) Medicine
Before the twentieth century the medical profession was divided into physicians, surgeons and apothecaries, the last concerned with preparing medicines. Licences empowering the first two to practise were issued by bishops, and also by the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1580 and 1775, the fact being recorded in a bishop’s register and noting name, parish, date and fee. The Lambeth Palace Library website has an index to physicians and surgeons licensed, 1535–1775. By law, physicians needed a degree from 1522, and are likely to be found among the records of the medical schools of the Scottish universities, or of the Royal College of Physicians which was founded in 1518 and whose fellows’ and licentiates’ lives are printed down to 1925. Surgeons (together with barbers) formed the Worshipful Company of Barber-Surgeons from 1540–1745, but separated thereafter as the status of surgeons increased; information about them should be sought from the Royal College of Surgeons (its excellent museum of the history of the profession is well worth visiting).
The Society of Apothecaries was founded in 1617, such men originally treating most illnesses. Their records are at the Guildhall Library and, like most other guilds, include admission registers and apprentice bindings from 1617–1800s. They were licensed from 1815, and from that date include many physicians and surgeons who wished also to practise this further calling. All men licensed between 1815 and 1840 are indexed (SOG).
General practitioners developed in the earlier 1800s and were usually licentiates of the Society of Apothecaries or members of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons or Physicians. The British Medical Association was formed in 1823 and its Medical Directory first appeared in 1845, giving the names and addresses of practitioners. The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine at 183 Euston Road, NW1 has a fine collection of manuscripts and books relating to the entire medical profession, including doctors’ obituaries.
Biographical dictionaries exist for many other trades and professions including architects, painters, furniture- and clock-makers, gunsmiths, MPs, printers, sculptors, surveyors, judges, musicians, writers and so on.
See also F. Boase’s Modern English biography, which is especially useful after about 1850 before Who’s Who started.
G. THE SERVICES
a) The Army
England had no regular standing army before the Civil War, raising troops only as required and placing them in infantry or cavalry regiments.
From the earliest times other ranks (privates, corporals and sergeants) were usually poorer men, sometimes even criminals. Most enlisted voluntarily for life, but in practice for twenty-one years, a period reduced to twelve in 1871, and were then discharged to pension. Many were in reality discharged early because of ill-health or the ending of hostilities.
A very few early documents survive but it is not until the mid-1700s that records are much fuller. Unless your ancestor was an officer, progress may well be very difficult without a known regiment, as the papers are archived by these units rather than centrally, so family stories or documents may be essential. Note that civil registration birth certificates from 1837 often state a father’s regiment, as may deaths and wills. A child’s given foreign birthplace in the census may alert you to military connections and to finding the birth in the GRO army regimental indexes which cover 1761–1924 in one sequence. The GRO holds regimental registers of marriages and burials, but these are only partially indexed and not searchable other than by personal application. It also holds the Chaplains’ Returns for 1796–1880 and army births, marriages and deaths for men serving abroad, 1881–1955. If and when you achieve success with that elusive regiment and the rough period of your ancestor’s service, you may then investigate the campaigns in which his regiment took part, perhaps through one of the many published histories or a regimental museum.
West Kent Regiment of Foot: The Army List for 1822 gives interesting details of officers.
Much more information is available about officers, and often in published lists which will lead quickly to the regimental papers at TNA. Official army lists have been printed in overlapping series from the mid-1700s, are usually indexed and show as a minimum the dates of commission or promotion (good collections at TNA and the SOG) and in turn will direct you to service records (before 1922 at TNA, and thereafter at the Ministry of Defence, on which see just below).
The following, in summary, are the principal sources of further information, all held at TNA, Kew, and mostly online there or at Findmypast.co.uk. The ‘burnt’ and ‘unburnt’ documents (11 and 12 below) may be viewed at Ancestry.co.uk. Apart from the main sequence, the National Probate Index has additional soldiers’ wills from 1850–1986 in a separate series.
1. Attestation and discharge papers (‘soldiers’ documents’), 1760–1913 (TNA: WO 97). None surviving for men killed in action
2. Discharge papers, 1817–88 (TNA: WO 12, WO 16, WO 25, WO 121)
3. Muster rolls and pay lists, 1732–1898 (TNA: WO 10–WO 16). Quarterly returns of unit locations with men’s details
4. Description books, 1756–1900 (TNA: WO 25, WO 67). Personal details and physical description
5. Enrolment and casualty books, 1759–1925 (TNA: WO 68)
6. Casualty lists and returns, 1797–1910 (TNA: WO 25, WO 32). Include birthplace, trade and next of kin
7. Records of pensioners (both Chelsea and out-pensioners), 1715–1913 (TNA: WO 22, WO 23, WO 116, WO 117, WO 120)
8. Soldiers admitted to pension, 1838–96, certificates of service (TNA: WO 131)
9. Officers’ service records, 1764–1914 (TNA: WO 76)
10. Household Cavalry service records, 1799–1920 (TNA: WO 400)
11. First World War, 1914–20, service records, ‘the burnt documents’ (TNA: WO 363)
12. First World War, 1914–20, pension records, ‘the unburnt documents’ (TNA: WO 364)
Records of officers who served after 1922 and of other ranks after 1920 are held by the Ministry of Defence, which will release information only to next of kin (or to agents with the kin’s permission). Application is made through their website at a current cost of £30.
Apart from the usual GRO death certificates, French and Belgian death certificates for British soldiers who died in hospitals and elsewhere are at TNA: RG 35. The two works Officers/Soldiers who died in the Great War between them contain about 700,000 entries in 80 volumes (TNA, the SOG and elsewhere).
The justly famed Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains the graves of over 1,500,000 men who died in the two world wars. Its impressive website allows details about those men, their graves, next of kin and other details to be accessed rapidly.
From the Anglo-Saxon period onwards formal inspections or ‘musters’ were taken of all able-bodied men aged 16–60. Those surviving for 1522–1640 are at TNA including the whole country for 1544, listed by hundred and parish; scattered Kentish ones for the 1500s–1700s are at the British Library or KHLC, the latter including Aylesford Lathe for 1581, and Faversham, New Romney, Queenborough, Sandwich and Tenterden for various dates (see Gibson’s Guide). A man’s income determined what arms or armour he had to provide, and so the rolls may indicate either his income or the arms.
The Militia Act of 1757 established militia regiments for each county and required each parish to provide a certain number of able-bodied men aged between 18 and 50 (reduced to 45 in 1762) for training. Usually there were insufficient volunteers, so a ballot system would produce the required conscripts. Ballot lists between 1757 and 1831 usually show a man’s name, occupation and physical infirmities; from 1802 the number of his children and whether they were under or over 14; and from 1806 his age.
East Kent Militia: the Chilham overseers issue an account concerning the birth of a grandchild (CCA: U3/191/17/3). (Reproduced by kind permission of Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library)
Militia units served in Britain or Ireland, men being engaged for three years (five after 1786), and in wartime on duty almost continuously anywhere in the country. This explains the large numbers of stray marriages and children’s baptisms or burials whilst men were billeted in a camp (for example, Northgate Barracks in Canterbury or on Barham Downs, east of the city). Such entries in parish registers will generally note a man’s regiment and rank.
When the French wars ended in 1815 most volunteer units were disbanded except for the yeomanry who were retained, often to help in counteracting local disorders. The militia ballot was suspended in 1829, and henceforth only volunteers were taken on. Muster books and pay lists for militia regiments, 1780–1925, are at TNA: WO 13 and WO 68, arranged by county. Attestation papers of militia men, 1769–1915, are at TNA: WO 96 and WO 97, arranged by regiment and surname.
RECORDS HELD LOCALLY
Kent Regimental records:
Canterbury City muster lists, 1580–1795 (CCA: CC–N)
East Kent militia returns, 1781–1876 (TNA: WO 13/1056–1081)
West Kent militia returns, 1781–1876 (TNA: WO 13/1082–1107)
Kent Artillery, 1853–76 (TNA: WO 13/1110–1113)
Royal East Kent Yeomanry (‘The Buffs’): regimental and troop administration, 1795–1932 (KHLC: AG); persons killed or dying overseas OAS (KHLC; SOG)
Royal West Kent Regiment: regimental and troop administration, 1756–1961 (KHLC: B1)
Militia officers, certificate and enrolment of property qualifications for deputy lieutenants and commissioned officers, 1757–1879 (KHLC: Q/ROm)
Militia Tax (St Augustine Division), 1678–90 (KHLC: Q/RTm)
Wingham division ballot lists, 1764–85 (KHLC: L/M4)
b) The Navy
Britain’s long and venerable history of maritime exploration, trade and conquest means that many people have ancestors who were sailors or worked in dockyards and ports. As early as the reign of George I there were perhaps 20,000 men working as crew on merchant ships, and it is therefore quite likely that you may have an ancestor who was a a seaman.
Most records of officers and sailors down to about 1923 are at TNA. They are extensive, sometimes bewildering and not easy to use because of their dispersal among many different series. Officers are easily located in published lists and biographical dictionaries, especially The Navy List (1782–date). Ratings joining between 1853 and 1923 are also easily found in service records, but before 1853 a ship’s name will be necessary, perhaps discoverable through the census, a GRO certificate or parish register. If you know the ship’s name, you can turn immediately to the muster rolls for 1667–1878 (TNA: ADM 36–39 and ADM 41), which record the number of men on board, the ship’s location and the issuing to each named individual of clothes, tobacco and other necessaries. The rolls also supply a man’s place of birth, and date of joining and age at the time; a good picture of an individual’s career may be built up by following the musters rolls through in a chronological sequence. W.R. O’Byrne’s Naval biographical dctionary gives every officer of the rank of lieutenant and above, serving or retired, and alive in 1845. A valuable set of wills and administrations for all men joining the Royal Navy or Marines between 1786 and 1882 is at TNA: ADM 48 and online.
There was no systematic provision of pensions for naval personnel or their dependants until the late 1800s. The Chatham chest fund was established in 1590 (TNA: ADM 82) to provide sailors’ pensions for the wounded and the dependants of those killed in action. Its administration was transferred to the Royal Greenwich Hospital in 1803, where there are registers of Chatham Chest payments, 1653–1799. Other Greenwich Hospital records include admissions and discharges of in-pensioners, 1704–1869 (TNA: ADM 73), applications for admissions to the hospital, 1737–1859 and out-pensioners’ registers of application, 1789–1859 (TNA: ADM 6).
ROYAL MARINES
A regiment of soldiers was formed in 1665, specifically to serve on ships, and replaced in 1698 by two regiments of troops called marines, who became a permanent force in 1755 with company divisions at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth, and also at Woolwich from 1805. Nearly all records are at TNA in Admiralty class ADM, each division keeping its own papers which include births, marriages and deaths of marines and their families. Survival rates vary, and as a rule you will need to know the division your man served in to make progress. Certificate of service books, 1802–94, are searchable online (TNA: ADM 29). Officers were included in army lists from 1740, navy lists from 1814 and in Hart’s Army List from 1840; their service records, 1793–1925 are in TNA class ADM 196. Also online are continuous service engagement books and registers of service, 1853–1923 (TNA: ADM 139).
A marine usually remained in the same company for his entire service. Attestation papers giving age, birthplace, trade and physical description for varying dates between 1790 and 1923 are in TNA: ADM 157, arranged by division, company and date of enlistment or discharge. There are also description books for varying dates, 1755–1940, giving much information, in TNA: ADM 158. After 1884 each marine was given a number by his division and records of service were introduced and filed under this number in TNA: ADM 159; they record date and place of birth, trade, religion, date and place of enlistment, physical description and service record.
MERCHANT SEAMEN
Merchant shipping ultimately came under the responsibility of the Board of Trade, and all records are therefore at TNA in class BT. There are detailed indexed records of merchant seamen from 1835–57 (TNA: BT 112, 113, 116, 120; all on Findmypast.co.uk) and 1918–72, but for other periods you will need to ascertain a ship’s name before investigating, perhaps from a will, the census, parish register or other source. The GRO marine register indexes of births, 1837–1930 and deaths, 1837–1965 may supply a ship’s name immediately. Muster rolls will provide much information about an individual and survive for 1835–1994 in various sequences (TNA: BT 98).
Masters’, engineers’ and mates’ tickets of competency from 1845, 1861 and 1883 respectively to about 1921 (TNA: various BT classes) supply date and place of birth and of certification. There are also boys’ apprenticeship books, 1710–1811 (TNA: IR 1); from 1823 all merchant ships over 80 tons had to carry apprentices and these are indexed, 1824–1953 (TNA: BT 150). Agreements and crew lists, 1747–1860 are at TNA: BT 98 and online.
Trinity House dispensed charitable funds to seamen, their widows and dependants from 1514–1854. Petitions giving useful genealogical and career details survive for 1784–1854 at the London Guildhall Library, with films at the SOG and elsewhere. The Guildhall Library also holds registers of money paid to almspeople and out-pensioners, 1729–1946, giving names, ages and the reason for assistance being granted.
Lloyd’s marine collection, also at the Guildhall Library, includes the Mercantile Navy List, the annual list of British-registered merchant vessels from 1857, which contains owners’ names and addresses from 1865. Lloyd’s Register from 1775 has very full details about each vessel. Lloyd’s Captains’ Registers lists the holders of masters’ certificates from 1869–1948, giving date and place of birth or examination and ships served on. Lloyd’s List from 1741 records ships’ arrivals and departures for each port, as well as reported losses.
RECORDS HELD LOCALLY
Crew Lists, all indexed (KHLC: RGS):
Deal, 1863–83
Dover, 1863–1913 and fishing vessels, 1884–1900
Faversham, 1863–1909
Folkestone, 1880–97
Ramsgate, 1863–1913 and fishing vessels, 1884–1914
Rochester, 1863–1913; calendared (MALSC: RGS)
Medway Navigation Company, 1740–1930 (MALSC: S/MN)
Shipping Registers (KHLC: RBS):
Chatham Custom House, 1824–65; transaction books, 1863–1913
Deal, 1825–78
Dover, 1824–1994
Faversham, 1824–1988
Folkestone, 1848–1985
Ramsgate, 1853–1992
Sandwich, 1786–1854
Chant, C., The handbook of British regiments (1988)
Crowder, N.K., British army pensioners abroad 1772–1899 (1995)
Hallows, I.S., Regiments and corps of the British army (1991)
Hamilton-Edwards, G., In search of army ancestry (1977)
Holding, N., World War I army ancestry (3rd edn 1997)
List and Index Society, Muster books and pay lists (1984)
Macdougall, P., Royal dockyards (1989)
Murphy, G., Where did that regiment go? The lineage of British infantry and cavalry regiments at a glance (2009)
O’Byrne, W.R., Naval biographical dictionary (1849)
Officers died in the Great War (1919)
Pappalardo, B., Using navy records (2001)
——, Tracing your naval ancestors (2003)
Peacock, E., The army lists of the roundheads and cavaliers …. the names of the officers in the Royal and Parliamentary armies of 1642 (1874)
Pols, R., Dating old army photographs (2011)
Rodger, N.A.M., Naval records for genealogists (1988)
Smith, K., Watts, C. and Watts, M., Records of merchant shipping and seamen (1998)
Soldiers died in the Great War, 80 vols (1919–21)
Spencer, W., Records of the militia and volunteer forces 1757–1945 (1997)
——, Army records: a guide for family historians (2008)
Steppler, G.A., Britons to arms! The story of the British volunteer soldier (1992)
Thomas, G., Records of the royal marines (1994)
Watts, M.J. and C.T., My ancestor was in the British army (1995)
Western, J.R., The English militia in the eighteenth century: the story of a political issue 1660–1802 (1965)
H. TAX RECORDS
a) Association Oath Rolls
Support for the Stuart cause remained strong after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and in order to protect the life of the new King William III and avoid the possibility of a Catholic restoration in the event of his death, likely opposition were to be identified and removed from positions of influence. This was effected by an Act of 1696 (the ‘Solemn Association’) compelling all office-holders to take an oath of loyalty to William and Mary and an oath that they would exact vengeance on the Jacobites in the case of a royal assassination. In fact, the oath rolls were open to all males to sign, and in most places all males of some age and standing were encouraged to take the oath, and their names, together with those of defaulters, were enrolled. They include clergymen, freemen, gentry, military and naval officers, office-holders and many others from Canterbury, Dover, Gravesend with Milton, Maidstone, Queenborough, Rochester and the Cinque Ports (TNA: C 213/129–37 and C 332).
Men accepting military or public office were required by the Corporation Act of 1661 and Test Act of 1672/3 to swear oaths of allegiance and royal supremacy before a justice, and to lodge a certificate at court confirming that they had received the sacrament. Catholics were excluded from official posts by a further declaration against transubstantiation. Records survive to 1828 when the acts were repealed (TNA: C 224, CP 37, E 196 and KB 22) and include good representation for Kent as it lay within the prescribed 30-mile radius of London. Most of these and other classes are online, some searchable by both surname and occupation group. Oaths of allegiance, test and abjuration sworn and enrolled in Chancery, 1673–1709 are at TNA: C 220/9.
b) Hearth Tax
This was collected every six months on Lady Day (25 March) and Michaelmas (29 September) between 1662 and 1689 on properties worth 20s. or more. Paupers and certain exempted householders paid nothing, but otherwise the charge was 2s. on each fireplace, hearth or stove. The records are arranged by hundreds, liberties and boroughs and comprise lists drawn up by the parish constable and submitted to the justices at the quarter sessions. They record head of household, the number of hearths taxed (or sum paid) and comments on changes since the last collection. A rule of thumb is that one or two hearths were modest, three or four comfortable and six or more affluent. In the Kent returns for Lady Day 1664 2 per cent of houses had ten or more hearths, but hardly any twenty or more, the notable exceptions being Penshurst with twenty-one, Westenhanger Castle with sixty and Knole House with eighty-five.
After May 1664, landlords had to pay the tax for tenanted property if the occupier was absent, and anyone with two hearths was liable to pay even if they would otherwise have been exempt. The tax was never popular and there was widespread evasion, but one valuable aspect of the returns is that from 1663 paupers and other exempt people still had to be listed, although this provision was often ignored.
The Lady Day 1664 returns are the most complete, and in the case of Kent lack only Canterbury, the Cinque Ports and their associated towns, and the Liberty of Romney Marsh. A full transcript and comprehensive indexes are in D.W. Harrington’s Kent hearth tax assessment, Lady Day 1664. At KHLC in class Q/RTh are partial county returns for 1662 and 1663, and also Canterbury for 1665, 1671 and 1673. There are also further Exchequer duplicates for various years (TNA: E 179).
c) Land Tax
Land tax was collected form 1692–1963 on land with an annual value of more than 20s., Catholics being charged double until 1831. Commissioners surveyed and valued all property in towns and villages, after which the government took a rate varying from year to year on its needs. Increasingly, the tax came more and more from the annual value of land, usually fixed at 4s. in the pound, and was made perpetual in 1797. However, it was possible for landowners to redeem their tax by a lump sum and never pay again, although they were still included in the lists until 1832 as evidence of entitlement to vote. The lists consist of assessments and returns giving addresses, landowners or proprietors and (from 1772) occupiers of a property with the amounts paid. Care must be taken in interpretation as proprietors are not always freeholders, and occupiers may actually be tenants or sub-tenants; additionally, not all occupiers are always listed. Survival before 1780 is patchy, but thereafter until 1832 remarkably complete as payment was evidence of the qualification to vote, and duplicates were therefore lodged with the Clerk of the Peace who was responsible for producing voter lists. The introduction of electoral registers in 1832 rendered these records unnecessary for electoral purposes, although there are later, if incomplete, survivals. TNA has the whole county for 1798 at TNA: IR 23/35–8.
d) Lay Subsidies
Various kinds of taxes were collected from the twelfth to seventeenth centuries by governments to pay the costs of administration and war. They were named lay subsidies because clerical property was exempt, although there were separate clerical ones. They were based on moveable personal property such as goods or crops above a minimum value, and sometimes also land or buildings, such thresholds effectively exempting the poor from liability. The many surviving and valuable lists are nearly all at TNA: E 179, for which an increasing TNA database should be consulted.
Two of the earliest and best preserved subsidies of 1327 and 1332 (the latter largely confined to better off householders) specified a quota to be levied, perhaps a tenth or smaller proportion of a man’s property. Those of 1378–80 often give occupations and relationships between members of the household. From 1334–1523 the government took no interest in how much a man paid; townships were expected to raise a certain sum of tax, and so assessments now listed places and the total tax payable, rarely including names. The Tudors reversed matters in making great use of subsidies but also assessing individuals by taxing a man on the basis of his wages, the value of his goods or his income from land. The first of these was the Great Subsidy of 1523, levied for four years at 4d. in the pound, and applicable to everybody over 16 with income from land or taxable goods of £2 annually, or who earned £1 or more each year. The rolls are arranged by hundreds and give names and a man’s taxable assets or tax actually paid, and are comprehensive enough to act as a basis for a simple family tree. Further returns survive for 1543, 1544 and 1545. All are now searchable at the TNA website.
e) Marriage Duty Act
The raising of monies to fund a war with France led to the imposition of a tax from 1 May 1695, payable on a sliding scale, on births, marriages and burials, and in addition an annual tax was payable by bachelors over 25 and by childless widowers. Those in receipt of poor relief were exempt. The assessments were partly based on parish registers and should have listed the number of people in a parish in 1695.
Revenues derived from it were insufficient and led to its abolition in 1706. The outstanding county survival is KHLC: Q/CTz/2 (copies at CCA, KFHS), and amounts to a virtual census for about fifty eastern parishes between Thanet and Dover, all summarised as the ‘Wingham Division’. There are also returns for New Romney, 1695–1706 (KHLC: NR/RTb 1–13).
Poll taxes counted heads, and monies were raised on them in the fourteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although, as so often, the poor were exempt. In 1377 a levy of 4d. per head was imposed on those aged over 14 (1s. on the clergy), and in 1379 on those aged over 16. In 1381 the Peasants’ Revolt arose partly from the levy being raised in 1380 to 1s. on those aged over 15 – a peasant couple would with great difficulty be able to pay 2s. There were further regular annual collections between 1641 and 1703 and a quarterly one in 1694–5. Commissioners were appointed who then oversaw local inhabitants drawing up the assessment lists which give names in 1377 and 1381, and amounts paid in all three years. The records are all at TNA: E 179 and are searchable online. The first three returns are also in print (C.C. Fenwick (ed.), The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381, Part One – Bedfordshire to Leicestershire).
g) Protestation Returns
A resolution of Parliament in 1641 asked for every male over 18 to take an oath in support of the Crown, Parliament and the Protestant religion. Lists of those men signing were prepared in each parish (sometimes actual signatures or marks) and sent to Parliament in 1642. Even those who generally would not comply (usually Catholics) were often listed, resulting in a virtual Commonwealth period census. The returns include about 100, mostly east Kent, parishes (HLRO: HL/PO/JO/10/1/92).
h) Window Tax
This was levied between 1696 and 1851, although the later years saw widespread evasion and the blocking up of many windows. Houses with between seven and ten or more windows were chargeable, but some windows including those of a business premises attached to a residence were exempt. The tax fell on occupiers, not owners, paupers not paying Church or poor rates being exempt. The returns usually show names and addresses, the numbers of windows and tax paid. From 1784 other taxes, such as on servants and hair powder came within its aegis.
The Gibson’s Guide lists window tax returns for these parishes, with runs of between about twenty and sixty years: Birchington, Canterbury city, Faversham, Folkestone, New Romney, Rodmersham, Sandwich, Thanet Sts John and Peter and the Wingham division.
In 1641 when civil war broke out in Ireland, the government authorised sheriffs, churchwardens and parish overseers to collect gifts and receive loans for the relief of Protestant refugees. The lists of men’s and women’s names with amounts paid (TNA SP 28 and E 179) are, exceptionally, very comprehensive for Kent.
In 1661 subscriptions were collected for a ‘free and voluntary present’ to clear the debts of the newly restored Charles II. Payment was voluntary, but as the contributors’ names were recorded, many people, especially the wealthier, did pay. The returns with names, and sometimes occupations, are at TNA: E 179.
There are other good runs of taxable commodities at KHLC:
Carriages, 1747–82
Coats of arms, 1793–1882
Dogs, 1796–1882
Game, 1784–1807
Hair powder, 1795–1861
Horses, 1784–1874
Male servants, 1777–1852
Silver plate, 1756–62
Uninhabited houses, 1851–1924
Bibliography
Chandaman, G.D., The English public revenue 1660–1668 (Oxford, 1975)
Dowell, S., Taxation and taxes in England (1884, repr. 1988)
Fenwick, C.C. (ed.), The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381, Part One – Bedfordshire to Leicestershire (1998)
Harrington, D.W., Kent hearth tax assessment, Lady Day 1664 (2000)
Hoyle, R.W., Tudor taxation records (1994)
Noble, M., ‘Land tax returns and urban development’, Local Historian, 15 (1982)
Patten, J., ‘The Hearth Taxes 1662–1689’, Local Population Studies, 7 (1971)
Turner, M.E. and Mills, D.R. (eds), Land and property: the English Land Tax 1692–1832 (1986)
Ward, W.R., The English land tax in the 18th century (1953)
——, The administration of the window and assessed taxes 1696–1798 (1963)