Militia: further research

1. Why use this guide?

This guide provides instructions on how to find records held at The National Archives containing details of officers and ordinary soldiers who served with the Militia between 1522 and 1914. The guide may prove useful if you are trying to trace the career of a militiaman and will give you an idea of the kind of information you can expect to find in these records. Information on how certain militia records can be used as a kind of annual census of all men aged between 18 and 45 from 1758 to 1831 is also provided.

2. Essential information

2.1 What was the Militia?

From Anglo-Saxon times, men aged between 15 and 60 were obliged to serve in local defence forces, later known as militias, as and when the need occurred. Local militias ceased to be summoned after the Civil War but were revived in 1757, when the Militia Act established militia regiments, made up of volunteers, in all counties of England and Wales. Additional volunteer forces, the Yeomanry, the Volunteers and the Local Militia were introduced later (for information on these see the British Army: auxiliary forces 1769-1945 research guide). In 1908 the Militia was revived as the Special Reserve.

Following the Cardwell reforms of 1881, the Army was reorganized and, amongst other changes, militia regiments were attached to units of the regular Army. Some records series at The National Archives are indexed by the pre-1881 names, some by the post-1881 names and some by both. By consulting the Army Lists (available in the reading rooms at our building in Kew) of 1882 or after, you can find out which militia regiments were attached to which regular Army regiments. Each volume of the Army List has an alphabetical list of regiments: find the appropriate page for the post-1881 regiment name where lists of the component parts of the regiment will also be listed.

3. How to find records of militiamen 1522-1649

The principal sources for records of militiamen who served between 1522 and 1649, during the Tudor and Stuart dynasties, are the militia muster rolls. Muster rolls were kept for accounting purposes and listed all those liable for military service.

3.1 What information do Tudor and Stuart militia muster rolls contain?

The earliest preserved muster roll is from 1522 and was unusual in that it listed landowners and the value of their lands as well as all males over 16 and the value of their goods. Some 1522 returns also give occupations and the names of lords of the manor. See Cornwall or Hoyle in Further reading below for a fuller description of the 1522 musters.

Subsequent muster rolls in the early modern period were lists only of the names of local inhabitants who were liable to military service and the equipment they were required to have, with no information on landowners. From 1570 most muster rolls (also known as certificates of musters) listed the total numbers of men but without listing names. Musters listing names may only be of the 'trained bands' (those men who were selected for special training). Unlike later musters, Tudor and Stuart muster rolls do not represent a complete census of the male population. It has been estimated that, on average, a muster roll is likely to omit one third of the names it was supposed to contain.

3.2 Record series containing musters

Some muster rolls have only survived with the private papers of those local gentry families who served as commissioners of array or deputy lieutenant and these may be in local record offices. The private papers of a Cheshire gentleman, John Daniel of Daresbury, in The National Archives in SP 46 or SP 52, contain correspondence and papers relating to musters and commissions, and several muster rolls of the trained band of which he was captain.

3.3 Finding aids for Tudor and Stuart musters

The essential guide to the present location of muster rolls in The National Archives is Gibson and Dell's book (see Further reading below). Arranged by county, and then by hundred, wapentake, lathe and so on, it gives:

• what is held by The National Archives, with full document references
• what is held by local record offices
• what has been transcribed and published

Many publications by local record societies are held by The National Archives Library.

3.4 Finding the right district

If you do not know the right hundred, wapentake, lathe and so on, you can find this out from one of the following sources, all available at The National Archives library:

• Samuel Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of England (S. Lewis and Co., 1840)
• The 1851 Census Index to the Names of the Parishes, Townships and Places in the Population Tables (HMSO, 1852)
• FA Young, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, 2 vols (Royal Historical Society, 1980, 1991)

4. Militia conscription 1758-1831: a kind of census

Each year, every parish in England and Wales was supposed to draw up lists of adult males, and to hold a ballot to choose those who had to serve in the Militia, effectively a form of conscription. The militia lists (of all men) and the militia enrolment lists (of men chosen to serve) should in theory provide complete and annual censuses of all men aged between 18 and 45 from 1758 to 1831. For information on where the surviving lists are now held see 'Records in other archives' below.

5. How to find records of service 1757-1914: officers

5.1 Searching using the online Catalogue

Searching series WO 68 is a logical starting point as it contains exclusively militia records but references to militia officers are often to be found among records of the regular army. The following records series can be searched online by date and keyword from the Catalogue search screen. In most cases you will need to order the original document and visit The National Archives at Kew to view its contents.

5.2 Searching using other resources

Militia Lists
Available in the library at the National Archives at Kew. Published in annual volumes, starting from 1794, and arranged by militia regiment. Each volume contains lists of all the officers who served that year with any militia regiment and can therefore be used to trace the outline of an officer's career. Some have name indexes.

London Gazette
Lists of officers' commissions appear in copies of the London Gazette and can be viewed online at the London Gazette website. The original gazettes are kept at The National Archives at Kew and can be searched for using the online Catalogue by date only in series ZJ 1.

6. How to find records of service 1757-1914: other ranks

The main source for records of service of ordinary militiamen is WO 96, the Militia Attestation Papers, which were filled in at recruitment and, in most cases, were annotated to the date of discharge thus forming a complete record of service for each militiaman. Most date from the mid-nineteenth century.

7. How to find records of casualties and deserters 1744-1925

Casualty lists for 1759-1925 are among the Militia records in WO 68 (see table above). For the South African War, casualties of the Special Reserve are in WO 129/8, WO 129/9, WO 129/10, WO 129/11 and WO 108/338 all of which are only viewable by ordering the original documents. References to deserters may be found in the musters in WO 13 (see table above). Names of those for whom a reward was offered may be found in E182 (see table above). Lists of deserters, including militiamen, are in WO 25/2934, WO 25/2906 and WO 4/591-654.

8. Medals

In general militiamen did not receive campaign medals. Militia Long Service and Good Conduct Medal records are in WO 102/22, viewable online in Discovery. Militiamen who received the Queen's (or King's) South Africa Medal or the Queen's Mediterranean Medal, while serving with the regular army, are named in the medal rolls in WO 100, available on microfilm at The National Archives at Kew.

9. Records in other archives

Lists of militia were sometimes published in local newspapers and as booklets. Some have been transcribed or reprinted in county historical society journals, internet sites and as pamphlets.

In 1839, 1840 and 1862 lists of officers were presented to the House of Commons, and can now be found among the Parliamentary Papers: HC 1839, xxxi, 267; HC 1840, xxx, 253; and HC 1862, xxxii, 583. These records may be accessed via Parliamentary Papers, access to which is free onsite at The National Archives at Kew.

Those militia lists that survived are held locally and can be very informative, giving details about individual men and their family circumstances. However, the coverage of the country, for various reasons, is not complete. For more information see JSW Gibson and M Medlycott's book, listed below in "Further reading". Records of the militia once formed are also usually in county record offices. Other locally-held sources are the poor law records, which can include orders for the maintenance of children of militia men.

10. Further reading

J Cornwall, A Tudor Domesday: The Musters of 1522, Journal of the Society of Archivists, vol. iii (1965-69)

JSW Gibson and M Medlycott, Militia Lists and Musters, 1757-1876 (FFHS, 1989)

Richard Hoyle, Tudor Taxation Records (PRO, 1994)

M Roper, The Records of the War Office and Related Departments 1660-1964 (PRO, 1998)

W Spencer, Army Records: A Guide for Family Historians (The National Archives, 2008)

W Spencer, Records of the Militia & Volunteer Forces 1757-1945 (PRO, 1997)