England Militia Records for Family History - International Institute

Militiamen’s Records
A great variety of material is available but scattered in location so persistence is needed. I show below a call-up paper, two papers regarding provision of substitutes and information on attestation papers and muster rolls, finishing with a look at what the man’s local parish chest may hold relevant to him and his family.

CHART: Militia Call-Up Paper 1803

CHART: Payment for Substitute

CHART: Certificate of Provision of Substitute

Attestation Forms
WO 96 is the class containing the attestation forms of those who served only as militiamen, but they only cover 1806 to 1915 and most are in the last half of the century. They are similar to the soldiers documents in WO 97, and indeed some (mainly Irish) militia regiments are found therein if they later volunteered to serve in the regular army. They are organized by regiment then surname. There is an index for WO 97 but not for WO 96 yet; one example found on the WO97 index at National Archives is shown below.

CHART: Militiaman in WO 97 Index

Muster Rolls
The researcher can trace a man from his date of enlistment to discharge or death through the muster books and pay lists. The Public Record Office has them for all kinds of militia from 1780-1878 in WO 13. Others remain in county hands, naturally, and they can turn up in the strangest places since there was no national co-ordinating agency for taking or storing the records. There are two union lists showing what is known to survive for each parish in England, Wales, Scotland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Ireland:


 *  Gibson and Dell’s Tudor and Stuart Muster Rolls (pre 1757)
 *  Gibson and Medlycott’s Militia Lists and Musters 1757-1876.

The latest edition should be consulted as more lists continue to be discovered, such as the ones I found for 1803, 1807 and 1810 on inscribed inside the front cover of a Halifax Out Town Poor Relief book. Please assist the compilers, as I did, by reporting any lucky finds that are not yet included. Most seem to be microfilmed and can be found on the FHLC.

CHART: Subdivision Rolls of Ballotted Men and their Substitutes Serving for the Parish of Halifax 

Some indexes for Militia Records exist and mention should be made of the magnificent series by parish produced by the Hertfordshire Family and Population History Society. The 1781-2 musters for most counties, indexed by Hore and Tamblin, can be purchased through the Society of Genealogists. Other family history societies have also been active; extracts from East Surrey’s fiche index for Mitcham can be seen in the chart below. Indexes of Volunteers for southern England are being produced by Defence of the Realm Indexes.

CHART: Extracts from Militia Index for Mitcham, Surrey

Other records exist for militiamen at the Public Record office, such as Chelsea Pension Records in WO23, and payments to men and their families in E 182 Exchequer: King’s Remembrance: Particulars of Account or Land and Assessed Taxes (Fowler and Spencer, Thomas 1993, and being indexed by Chambers.) Leaflets M2, M18, and M72 from the TNA website give further details. All kinds of miscellaneous records and ephemera will be found in county archive collections and as not all is on microfilm an enquiry is worthwhile. Thus, Wiltshire Record Office has a poster offering a reward for the apprehension of Michael Byrne belonging to the Ulster Volunteers, illustrated in Cole and Titford’sTracing Your Family Tree. Another example of material held at a County Record Office, entitledCheshire Militia 1759-1826, is on four films starting at.

Parish Poor Law Records
According to Acts of Parliament of 1758, 1793, and 1803 each parish had to support the dependants of its militiamen. The militiaman got a certificate of service from his captain which he sent to his wife. She gave it to the Overseers of the Poor or obtained a Justice of the Peace’s Order for payment (Camp 1999-2) which could come from the Poor Rates or the special Land Taxes. Charts 41-43 are examples from parish collections, found on the FHLC through POORHOUSES, POOR LAW ETC. of the COUNTY or PARISH listings. Other records are findable through the OCCUPATIONS category.

CHART: Order to Support a Militia Wife Walter Sergeant of Pulborough is serving as a substitute for George Lovell of Brightling. Pulborough is ordered by a JP to pay for his wife’s upkeep but will be reimbursed by Brightling.

CHART: Payment of Support to Militiaman’s Wife From Tonbridge Parish Chest material on. The Goodwins live in Tonbridge but William is substituting for a Maidstone man thus Maidstone re-imburses Tonbridge.

CHART: Payment of Support to Militiaman’s Wife From Hadlow parish chest material on film 1701919. William Pearce and his family are of Marden and he is serving as a substitute for John Stevenson, ballotted to represent Hadlow.

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