Ordnance, Board Records

Military Records Information 66

1. History and Functions of the Board

The origins of the Board of Ordnance are generally associated with the development during the fourteenth century of the Wardrobe of Arms into the Privy Wardrobe of the Tower, a department specialising in the provisions of arms and warlike stores. Master Nicholas Merbury, appointed in 1414, is the first known Master of the Ordnance. The post was evidently a replacement for the virtually defunct Keepership of the Privy Wardrobe, though it is not clear how much, if any, administrative innovation was involved in the change. During the fifteenth century the status of the Master rose steadily, and from 1483 all holders of the office were knights or peers. The first major re-organisation came in 1543, when Henry VIII created the subordinate officers (Lieutenant, Storekeeper, Surveyor and Clerk of Deliveries) to assist the Master. As yet, all these officers held their posts by individual letters patent, and they were neither obliged in theory nor accustomed in practice to work together in a common organisation. Not until 1597 were they actually constituted as a Board.

Two elements were already present which were to characterise the Board throughout its history. Firstly, it was concerned with all "ordnance, emption and munition", not solely with heavy guns: indeed, its early development preceded the introduction of firearms. Though, in time, heavy guns came to be the most important of the Ordnance's responsibilities, they were only a part, and for long a subsidiary part, of the weapons, ammunition and stores which the Ordnance provided for the fighting forces. Secondly, the Board was not the child of either the Navy or the Army. At a time when both land and sea forces could be assembled ad hoc to meet any emergency, only the provision of arms required a standing organisation with permanent stores. In fact, the Ordnance Office may be regarded as the first permanent military department in England.

The Board continued during the seventeenth century and in 1683 assumed the form which it was to preserve, largely unaltered, into the nineteenth century. The Master-General, or in his absence the Lieutenant-General, was to preside over a Board consisting of himself and the four Principal Officers. Although the Board took collective decisions, it had no formal collective responsibility; each of the Principal Officers was individually answerable for his department to the Master-General and he, in turn, for the whole to the King. It often happened that the Master-General was absent for long periods and a regular correspondence was maintained between the Board, the Master-General and, sometimes, the Lieutenant-General. Many of the documents rather misleadingly referred to in the series lists as 'Journals of Proceedings' or 'Out-Letters' are, in fact, internal correspondence of this nature.

The establishment of the department was divided into Civil and Military. The former included the members of the Board itself, together with its clerks and other employees who formed the staff of the Ordnance Office in the Tower, which was the headquarters and principal magazine. The Military Establishment consisted originally of the Master-Gunner of England and his subordinates the fee'd (that is, salaried) gunners, who formed the only permanent garrison of forts and castles, together with a few civilian engineers (who designed and constructed fortifications and other works), a Firemaster and Fireworkers (who conducted experiments with explosives) and a Proof-Master (who did the like with guns). The Board also examined, nominated and passed the accounts of Gunners in the Navy, though it did not directly employ them.

The Board's responsibilities were divided into Sea and Land Service. The Sea Service, which was initially by far the larger, included the issue of all guns and warlike stores not only to ships but also to forts, whose guns and gunners were more or less interchangeable with those at sea. The Land Service comprised the issue of small arms to whatever military forces were raised, and also the provision of waggons, tents and the like to the Army and the Royal Household.

The Board in its original constitution was responsible for the issue of every species of warlike stores from infernal machines to the armour for the King's Champion but, in general, it had nothing to do with the actual use of the weapons. The reforms of 1683, however, entrusted the Board with the provision of artillery and engineer trains, if required. As there was virtually no field army at that date, this was an insignificant addition to the liabilities of the Office, but the great expansion of the Army during William III's reign, and the frequent wars of the eighteenth century, gave rise to large standing corps of Artillery and Engineers. The Board was now responsible for thousands of officers and men, and intimately involved in field operations in many parts of the world.

This naturally changed the character of the Ordnance. The Civil Establishment, which had once included all the Office and still included all the Principal Officers, came to be eclipsed by the Military. Military engineers succeeded to the posts formerly held by civilians; military officers ran the Board's numerous and important establishments, such as the Royal Arsenal, Royal Academy and Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, and the powder mills at Faversham and Waltham Abbey.

The Ordnance Board, therefore, entered the nineteenth century increasingly dominated by army officers. With the end of the Great War in 1815 the process continued. The Ordnance still, of course, supplied guns to the Navy, but the correspondence gives an overwhelming impression of a military office concerned chiefly with the construction of forts and batteries and the administration of regiments. Even the Principal Offices (of which the Lieutenant-Generalship and the Clerkship of Deliveries were abolished in 1833), hitherto always held by civilians, passed to soldiers. The Board came to present the appearance of a second war department. To a Whig government, searching for scapegoats for the Crimean War and opportunitites for retrenchment, the answer was obvious, and in 1855 the Board of Ordnance was abolished and its duties merged with those of the War Office. With that, control of the Navy's guns passed to the army, engendering a protracted and bitter departmental feud. This, however, falls outside the scope of a paper concerned with the Board of Ordnance alone.

Besides the principal responsibilities entrusted by Charles II to the Board (that is, the provisions of arms and ammunitions, the building and upkeep of fortifications and barracks, the Engineers and the Artillery), the Board acquired other responsibilities, either because they related naturally to its business, or because there was no other organ of government available. The Firemaster and Fireworkers supplied fireworks for royal entertainments, the Yeoman of Tents and Toyls and the Waggonmaster likewise supplied the royal household, and the Astronomer Royal was borne on the Ordnance books. These and other diverse activities are reflected in the Board's records.

2. Minutes (WO 47 ) and Reference Works (WO 45 )

WO 47 is a large and far from homogeneous series, including many things hardly to be described as minutes of the Board. Pieces 1-18 are described in the series list as 'Journals of Proceedings' (1644-1696, with gaps). The first four volumes are, in fact, titled quite accurately as 'Entry Books of Orders, Letters, Minutes and Reports'. The substance of these books is orders from the master, Parliamentary committees and other authorities to the Lieutenant and Principal Officers. To these have been added various other related papers, and on some of them are noted the Board's decisions arising, with some warrants and orders from the Board or Principal Officers. They thus form a partial record of the Board's activities. From Volume 5 (the first post-Restoration volume) the minutes are noted in an increasingly systematic fashion, so that the last pieces of this section may be regarded as partial Board minutes, with supporting documents. There seems, however, to be no reason to assume that these pieces include all the Board's business, and the last few volumes are almost entirely confined to financial matters. These pieces reflect a characteristic feature of all the minutes and journals kept by the Board at later dates; that the in-letter, order or paper from which the Board's action arose is noted, together with its consequences. Indeed, the evidence of the first four pieces of this series suggests that the orders and in-letters were preserved before the minutes arising began to be noted, at first on the letters themselves, later in minute books, with abstracts of the in-letters. Pieces 19A to 21B are described as 'Minutes Series 1' 1668-1727 (discontinuous). They are actual Board Minutes of the conventional sort, noting the proceedings of the Board on each day it met, giving the substance of in-letters and orders, the Board's decision and the substance of the out-letters arising. Volume 21B, unlike the others in this group, contains only minutes directed to the Clerk.

Volumes 22-26, 'Minutes, Series 2' 1705-1708, are substantially the same as Series 1, and only insignificant differences of form and a fuller account of out-letters distinguish them from the Series 1 Minutes which come before and after them. It is not clear why they should be classified as a separate series. Included with them is the sole survivor of the Board Minutes of the later eighteenth century; it is substantially the same as those of sixty and eighty years earlier.

Volumes 27-33, 'Minutes, Series 3' 1714-1720, likewise differ little from the preceding two series. There is a slight overlap with one volume of Series 1, which is the only obvious justification of yet another separate series. Volumes 34-120 are described as 'Minutes, Surveyor-General' 1749-1792. They are volumes kept in the Surveyor-General's office representing his activities in executing the Board's decisions. The in-letters, minutes and resulting orders are noted in the same style as the earlier Board minutes, but in more detail than they provide. A note to the series list implies, and the Guide to the Public Records by Guiseppi (Vol II, 1924 edition, p. 187) explicitly states, that these Surveyor-General's Minutes cover all the Board's proceedings, but the evidence does not establish this. The Board did not generally refer all its business to the Survyeor-General, though he certainly did report on or execute a substantial part. A comparison with the Reference Books, WO 45 , for the last decade of this series shows a considerable, but far from complete, correspondence between them. It would seem unwise to rely on the Guide's assertion that the Surveyor-General's Minutes form a complete record of the Board's daily proceedings.

Volumes 121-2357 are 'Board Minutes' 1809-1855. These are actual proceedings of the Board, giving very fully the same three elements present in the earlier minutes, viz the in-letter or order, the Board decision and the resulting action or out-letter. The greater completeness and the very lavish use of paper are reflected in the short periods covered by each volume - usually less than a week. They undoubtedly present a complete account of the Board's doings

Volumes 2358-2548, 'Extracts of Minutes, Series 1' 1782-1816, also represent the activities of the Surveyor-General rather than the Board. They consist of files of correspondence, or simply a single in-letter, annotated by the Secretary of the Board with the substance of the Board's orders on the matter, or with the date of the appropriate minute. In the Surveyor-General's department some further notes have sometimes been added. There are references to various Order Books which do not seem to have survived. The reference numbers do not agree with those in the early Reference Books to Correspondence, although the same items occur in both.

Volumes 2549-2759 form 'Series 2' of the 'Extracts of Minutes' 1786-1856, and differ from them chiefly in being entry books of the matter which, in Series 1, is in the original. There are annual indexes from 1810. The later volumes are more summary in form and give less information than the earlier.

Volumes 2760-2850 constitute a separate series of Pension Minutes, 1808-1834. They are applications and petitions for pensions, with the Board's decision and answer briefly noted on them. These letters should not be confused with those from pensioners in WO 44 . Finally, there are Volumes 2851 and 2852, containing minutes on Bounty and Pensions, and Ireland, respectively; and pieces 2853-2897, indexes to Board Minutes 1819-1852.

With WO 47 it is convenient to consider WO 45 , the so-called 'Reference Books to Correspondence'. There is, in fact, no reason to suppose that they were ever intended as a means of reference to other series. The early pieces do supply each entry with a number, but they do not correspond with those of any other surviving series. What the 'Reference Books' do provide is a brief summary of the in-letters to the Board; the Board's action, if any, and the disposal of the paper. In some ways they may be regarded as brief and summary Board minutes and used as a quick reference to the minutes proper, but many of the in-letters recorded never gave rise to a Board order, and many matters considered by the Board did not arise from in-letters, so the Reference Books must be used with caution. The later pieces served as a guide to the sections of the office in which a letter had been filed (a purpose now served by the indexes to WO 44 , for which see below). The Reference Books note for each in-letter the following information, in columns:

a. Reference number (early volumes only)
b. Date of in-letter
c. Date of receipt (not at first)
d. Correspondent
e. Subject
f. Officer referred to, and when; or any other action taken
g. Board's decision; gradually replaced, at first in longer entries, later in all, by the note 'See Minutes' and the date
h. Where put by (not in earlier volumes)

The first pieces in the series are arranged strictly chronologically and include a very brief summary of general Board Minutes. Later volumes are arranged alphabetically by correspondent and chronologically within letters. It is these later pieces which allowed the Ordnance staff to look up a particular correspondent and trace his former correspondence; the early volumes, being neither arranged alphabetically nor noting the disposal of the papers, could not have served this purpose.

Means of Reference to WO 47 and WO 45

In general, the only way of linking surviving records of the Board is by date. Almost all were arranged chronologically and their internal cross-references are chiefly by date. Most of the early Board Minutes are unindexed, but the Minutes Series 2 and 3 have an index in each volume, a practice which became common in most classes of Ordnance records during the eighteenth century. From 1810 the 'Extracts of Minutes, Series 2' have annual indexes in separate volumes. At the end of the seriesare indexes to the Board Minutes 1819-1852 and two indexes for 1691 and 1737-1753.

As noted above, WO 45 can itself be used as a limited means of reference, but the early volumes, being strictly chronological, offer no advantage over the minutes except brevity. The later, alphabetical volumes may be used as an index nominum of correspondents, though not, of course, of subjects.

3. In-Letters (WO 44 ) and Out-Letters (WO 46 )

WO 44 , original in-letters, is at first sight a disappointingly meagre class, covering only the first part of the nineteenth century. It has already been pointed out, however, that most of the minutes in WO 47 are founded on in-letters; originals or copies, verbatim or in abstract. Moreover, a large proportion of in-letters, including all those from artillery and engineer officers, will be found in WO 55 .

The in-letters in WO 44 were marked on receipt with a paper number, usually in red ink. This had three elements, of which the first was often omitted:

1. Year, omitting century, thus: 30 (1830);

2. Department or correspondent, thus:

These letters could also stand for the initials of promiscuous correspondents.

3. A paper number, thus:

Later papers were added, making a file bearing the number of the first paper on it, with sub-numbers for the additions, thus:

Many such files are annotated with memoranda and Board minutes, and sometimes draft out-letters, so making something like a complete set of correspondence. This filing system is no longer a useful key to the class, which is now arranged by subjects rather than correspondents. Pieces 1-496 are arranged geographically, under colonies and home districts, running chronologically within each heading. Generally each box contains two or three files on selected subjects, representing only a part of the former general correspondence. Later piece numbers cover subjects or important correspondents, as distinguished in the seriesList.

WO 46 , out-letters, consists very largely of correspondence between the Board, the Master-General and the Lieutenant-General. At periods when the Master-General was usually absent, as during the Duke of Marlborough's time in office, the pieces represent regular reports by the Board, sometimes enclosing in-letters in referring matters for the Duke's consideration. At other dates the volumes are the Master-General's letter books, including both in-letters from the Board and the Secretary at War, out-letters to Ordnance officers and others, and memoranda of 'business to be laid before the King' and suchlike. The pieces are far from homogeneous, but in general they represent records kept by or on behalf of the Master-General, or occasionally the Lieutenant-General, of correspondence with the Board and others. They are not the out-letters of the Board of Ordnance. Some pieces are confined to particular subjects, which are noted (not always reliably) in the seriesList.

The later pieces of WO 46 (111-169) are letter books kept by various offices and officers of the Ordnance during the nineteenth century.

Means or Reference to WO 44 and WO 46

There are three typescript indexes to WO 44 bound up with the seriesList. They cover the entire class, under three heads: officers' and men's services; inventions, and miscellaneous. These indexes cover both names and subjects.

There are no general indexes to WO 46 , but many of the volumes contain indexes or analytical tables of contents of varying completeness and utility.

4. Ledgers, Contracts, Quarter Books, Debenture Books and Bill Books (WO 48 - WO 54 )

These classes may conveniently be considered together because the information they provide is generally closely related.

The Bill Books, Debenture Books and Treasurer's Ledgers are for the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth century virtually identical in content. Indeed, it is plain from alterations in wording that they were copied from one another. The Treasurer's Ledgers are more formally presented.

All these volumes record payments for goods and services, salaries, allowances and the like. Each item is entered in some detail; a freight, for example, mentions the name, type, master's name, tonnage and home port of the vessel, the nature of the cargo, where and in what circumstances loaded and discharged, and the dates of the service. Payments for stores delivered by contractors, or for captured munitions returned into store, provide a detailed inventory of the items. These entries provide a wealth of information on the daily operations of the Ordnance Board and on the commercial life of the period.

The Bill Books are divided into four series, WO 50 - WO 53 , respectively, of which WO 51 and WO 52 form the principal corpus. WO 51 , Series 2, runs from 1630 to 1783, with some gaps and overlaps, and is followed by WO 52 , Series 3, which runs to 1859. These may be regarded as the most detailed financial records, though the amount of information provided does decrease slightly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From 1753 these two series include the Quarterly Bills for wages, salaries and allowances to Ordnance staff, which were formerly kept separately (see below).

The Debenture Books, WO 49/17-109 , running in unbroken series from 1592 to 1690, record exactly the same payments as the Bill Books (omitting only those few not paid by debenture), but carry the series forty years further back. Some of the early volumes from Queen Elizabeth's reign contain other information, such as issues of stores and arms in WO 49/17 .

Finally the Treasurer's Ledgers, WO 48 , running from 1660 to 1847, group expenditure roughly under heads, but at first copy each item exactly as in the Bill Books. During the eighteenth century the Ledgers grew more summary, and by the early nineteenth century gave details in columns, with date of payment, payee, nature of service or article (eg 'paper', 'freight', 'elastic trusses') and the sum. Lists of Debentures and Imprests are also included. From 1832 the Treasurer's Ledgers are divided into different series by subject. Also in WO 48 are the Expense Ledgers, WO 48/254 -305 , 1748-1821, which are less full than the Treasurer's Ledgers, but are indexed. The series is continued to 1832 by the Debenture Charge Ledgers.

These four classes, that is to say WO 51 , WO 52 , WO 48 and parts of WO 49 , may be said to constitute the core of the Board's surviving financial records, but there remain many others which may be briefly noted. WO 49/1-16 are original contracts, 1783-1835, chiefly for fortifications. WO 49/110 -206B are estimates, mostly for fortifications and works from 1639 to 1850, with a separate series for Ireland from 1823. Finally, there is a large number of miscellaneous accounts and financial papers from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries in WO 49/207 -293 .

WO 50 , Bill Books, Series 1, included the Quarterly Bills from 1694 to 1752 and a number of collections of bills on particular services, as 'French War' and'Quebec'.

WO 53 is described as Bill Books, Series 4, but few, if any, pieces are Bill Books at all. Rather they are the financial papers of paymasters abroad, principally in Flanders during King William's wars and at Gibraltar. They include accounts, musters, vouchers and orders, presented by the paymasters in clearing their accounts. Another class, WO 18 , contains similar papers of artillery agents from 1770 to 1820.

WO 54 contains personnel records of the Ordnance Board, beginning with the Quarter Books from 1594 to 1837 and the Establishments from 1676 to 1855. The Quarter Books list the officers and employees of the Board on the central establishment, that is to say chiefly in London, with their quarterly salaries and allowances. These are the sums the payment of which is recorded in the Quarterly Bills Books. The Establishment Books list all annual salaries and allowances payable to all Ordnance employees, including those abroad, with the names and seniorities of all military officers. The Establishment Books may be taken as complete lists of all Ordnance servants and pensioners, where the Quarter Books are confined to those who represent the original staff of the Board in the seventeenth century. These are followed by Commission Books, Returns of Engineer Officers, Description Books, Discharge and Casualty Books, Registers of Pensions and Letters of Attorney, Returns of Employees, Pay lists, Musters and Appointment Papers. These are mostly self-explanatory titles, and the records are almost entirely concerned with the artillery and engineers. They correspond very closely with the equivalent records of the regular army, and need not be described in great detail. There is also a quantity of miscellaneous registers and compilations, including some relevant to the Sea Service, such as lists of ships' armourers and of Ordnance tenders (this last misleadingly described as 'Certificates to Masters of Vessels').

In E 407/13 is an incomplete series of Quarter Books from 1587 to 1599, 1609 and 1621 to 1634, together with Corn Powder certificates for various years between 1581 and 1636, and other documents.

Means of Reference

Excepting WO 54 and some of the earlier volumes of the other classes, most of these pieces are internally indexed. For WO 48 see the note in the published Guide (Vol II, p. 188).

5. PRO 30/37

This is a small deposit of Ordnance Board records, official and semi-official, formerly in private hands. They are chiefly of the mid-seventeenth century and include some items which have strayed from surviving classes, as well as records of which no other example remains.

The entry books of contracts, deliveries and receipts are similar to those in WO 55 (see below) and the description of the latter may be taken to refer generally to the former. Pieces 12-15, letter books of the Master-General to the Lieutenant-General, 1660-1663, are less formal records. Pieces 16-17 are the letter books of the Commissioners for the Master-Generalship, 1666-1668. Pieces 18-19 are a very miscellaneous collection of letters, including some private. All the items in this group are noted in the appropriate parts of the serieslists.

6. Ordnance Miscellanea (WO 55 )

This is a very large seriesof records, most of which are not in the least miscellaneous, but form a number of discrete series with little in common.

Pieces 1 -329 are Reports, 1753 to about 1855. They are reports of all sorts, including many from officers and employees at home and abroad, reporting their actions to the Board (that is to say, in-letters); reports from the Surveyor-General to the Board on matters referred to him (internal); reports for the Board to the King on matters referred to them (out-letters); matters referred to the Director-General of Naval Ordnance, and his replies (out- and in-letters). With these are many supporting papers and others which offer no support at all. WO 55/283 , for example, 'North America, 1757-1760', commences with a report by Major Montresor, RE, on the recent campaign in that continent and continues with a collection of miscellaneous accounts of the artillery in Bombay. There are separate series of colonial reports from 1808 and later under separate heads. Volumes 330 -538 are Warrants, 1568-1855. They are divided into several series: 330 -385 are entry books of warrants from various authorities, including many from James, Duke of York, as Lord Admiral; 386 -422 are also entry books, but include many warrants and letters patent from the King; 423 -450 are original warrants; and later pieces cover warrants for particular purposes, warrants of the Board and the Master-General and a variety of others. Among these are part of the records of the Royalist Ordnance Office in Oxford, 1641-6 (see below).

7. Royalist Ordnance Office

The Parliament took over the Ordnance Office in the Tower and it continued to function for its new masters, so that the main series of records reflect the activities of the Parliamentary side. However, WO 55/423 , Warrants and Orders in Council from the King and other commanders; WO 55/459 , Warrants from the Master-General to the Lieutenant-General; and WO 55/1661 , Receipts and Issues of Stores 1642-1646; come from the Royalist Ordnance organisation at Oxford. There the King, the Master-General and senior commanders seem to have issued orders directly to the subordinate officers without the interpolation of a Board. The records give the impression of an informal and untidy but vigorous system.

8. The Value of Ordnance Records for Naval History

It has already been explained how the Board became increasingly preoccupied with military affairs during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and this is reflected in the records, which are almost exclusively naval in the sixteenth century and almost exclusively military in the nineteenth. The latter century has contributed the largest bulk of records and a cursory glance at the (sometimes misleading) entries in the serieslists might suggest that these are, indeed, War Office records. In fact, they are a very rich source for naval and maritime history, especially of the seventeenth century. Those classes which may be described as general Board records, that is to say Minutes, In-letters, Out-letters, Reference Books and financial records, have to be searched for the naval material among the rest. Board minutes, for example, contain entries of every order to fit, arm, store or strip every warship. From them it is possible to extract a complete record of the commissioning and paying-off of warships. The financial records, as has already been noted, provide an immense amount of detailed information about the daily working of the fleet, and even more about the merchantmen of the day. The Board was one of the largest employers of shipping during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in the Bill Books will be found the particulars of thousands of merchantmen, with copious material on wages, prices and freight rates.

The most useful seriesfor the naval historian is undoubtedly WO 55 , the so-called Miscellanea. The mass of orders and warrants, so many of which, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at least, were concerned with naval business, provide detailed information to supplement the surviving Admiralty records and State Papers Naval. Most important of all are the pieces described as 'Stores' (WO 55/1625 -1775 and some in PRO 30/27 ). These include large numbers of 'Issues' and 'Remains' of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At that time most warships put to sea only during the summer. When they commissioned in the spring, a detailed list was prepared of all guns, ammunition and Ordnance stores issued; and when they paid off in the autumn another of all that remained. From the early seventeenth century a 'Charge' or establishment was usually included. These lists are extremely detailed, mentioning even the most minute items of equipment. Before guns were standardized, they give the weight and dimensions of each piece. Such Issues, Charges and Remains begin with a large part of the Navy Royal in 1571 and cover most of the seventeenth century. By Queen Anne's reign the establishment of guns and stores for each rate was becoming standardized, so that it was no longer necessary to note any more than that such a ship had shipped the establishment of her rate. A point to be noted is that many early Issues and some Remains omit the heavy guns which remained permanently on board.

There is a particularly large number of Issues and Remains for the Spanish, Ile de Rhe and Rochelle fleets of 1626-1628. These cover merchantmen as well as men of war and include detailed tables of the stowage of munition transports in such a way that their cargoes would come to hand in the right order (a detail, it may be remarked, which has often been forgotten in more recent times).

Towards the end of the seventeenth century the standardisation of gunnery establishments gave rise to a number of detailed surveys, compilations and proposed ratings, which list guns and stores in every ship in the navy, the location and type of every naval gun in service, and suchlike (WO 55/1739 , WO 55/1762 , WO 55/1803 ). These provide detailed information of the composition and armament of the fleet of a kind not to be met with elsewhere at this date.

Later in WO 55 are the records of the Portsmouth Ordnance Office, which provide a very detailed picture of the operations of the Ordnance and, likewise, of the dockyard and the Navy from 1718. From them it is possible to trace every commissioning, paying-off or change of armament made at Portsmouth during a century and a half.

Even among the least promising parts of the Ordnance records will be found much of naval interest. WO 55/1272 , for example, is quite incorrectly described in the serieslist as an Artillery Letter Book, 'From the Board of Ordnance to the Adjutant-General', 1802-3. It is, in fact, an in- and out-letter book to and from individual artillery officers, written both ends towards the middle, in-letters at the back and out-letters at the front. It includes a lengthy series of detailed reports from Nelson's flotilla bombarding Boulogne, made by artillery officers commanding detachments manning mortars on the bombs.

In general, the records of the Board of Ordnance contain much of great value to the naval or maritime historian, and not solely to do with gunnery. This is especially true of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Ordnance Board was the only developed military department and inevitably found itself playing a large part in the administration of both fighting services.

The following is a brief annotated list of the most important, purely naval records among the Ordnance series, omitting all those where naval and military matters are included together in general Board business:

9. Select Bibliography

(ri2264) Last updated: 28 June 2004 | © Crown Copyright 2001