New Databases Added at The Original Record

The following databases have been added this week at the Original Record:

1597-1601 – Salford Portmote
The earliest surviving records of the portmote of the borough of the township and manor of Salford in Lancashire were transcribed and edited by J. G. de T. Mandley and published by the Chetham Society in 1902. The court was held after Easter and Michaelmas each year. The record usually starts with a list of jurors, sometimes with a general suit roll. Officers are appointed in the autumn court – borough reeve, constables, miselayers, burleymen, alefounders, scavengers, and overseers for the pump. Where a freeholder had died since the previous court, an inquiry was made as to his or her heir. There are presentments of minor offences, particularly affrays and selling ale contrary to statute.

1756 – Europeans at the Siege of Calcutta
S. Charge Hill, Officer in Charge of the Records of the Government of India, compiled this comprehensive list of Europeans and others in the English Factories in Bengal at the time of the siege of Calcutta, including those who died in and those who survived from the Black Hole. One of his main sources, the returns of payments made by the government of Bengal to ‘European sufferers’, is printed as an appendix – September 1759 pages i-iv; October 1759 iv-vi; November 1759 vi-vii; December 1759 vii-viii; February 1760 viii-xii; March 1760 xii-xiv.

1800 – Subscribers to Thomas Sanderson’s Original Poems
Thomas Sanderson’s ‘Original Poems’ was published in Carlisle in 1800. The list of subscribers is arranged geographically: London; Tunbridge; Gloucester; Epsom; Exeter; Nottingham; Northampton; Cambridge; Oxford; Hertford; Carlisle; Penrith; Longtown; Hesket Newmarket; Wigton; Keswick; Durham; Newcastle; Maryport; Dublin; Edinburgh; York; and Liverpool, each including surrounding areas; Madras; and the West Indies. Where more than one copy was ordered, the number is given after the subscriber’s name. At the foot of the list is this note: ‘The Author cannot take leave of his friends without warmly thanking them for the generous encouragement they have given to the subscription. Their benevolence does them the more honour, as it was called forth in the favour of a Person who cannot make them any better return than mere professions of gratitude.’

1835-1844 – Merchant Seamen
At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen’s Registration Bill. Under this act a large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships’ crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and the register was abandoned after less than two years: the system was then restarted in this form, with a systematic attempt to attribute the seamen’s (ticket) numbers, and to record successive voyages. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (S = seaman, &c.); and the name and official number of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all. The system was still very cumbersome, because the names were amassed merely under the first two letters of surname; an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. In this volume the register is restarted from 1840 onwards, with the mariner’s previous number (if any) being entered in the column after his birthplace. In the event of it becoming known that a man had died during the course of a voyage, that information is written across the remaining empty columns. This volume (BT 112/11) covers mariners whose surnames start with Ca (and McCa).

1847 – Deaths and New Superannuation Allowances: Public Officials
The annual return for 1847 of ‘Allowances or Compensations granted as Retired Allowances or Superannuations in all Public Offices or Departments’ lists new compensation allowances (usually for loss of office under reorganization), superannuation allowances (for retirement), and temporary allowances (for sickness or accident) arising during the year; and the cessation of such allowances by death (or occasionally because the individual has been re-employed, or the allowance has remained unclaimed for six years). The format of the returns varies from department to department, but generally the details of a new allowance give full name or surname and initials, office, age, length of service, affliction, and rate of allowance. The lists of deaths give full name or surname and initials, office, date of death, and the amount paid in the year. Throughout the death returns the column ‘annual amount’ means ‘the amount actually paid out during 1847’, rather than the yearly amount of the allowance.

1899 – Naturalizations
The Home Office issued monthly lists of aliens to whom Certificates of Naturalization or Readmission to British Nationality had been granted by the Secretary of State under the provisions of 33 Vic. cap. 14 and been registered in the Home Office pursuant to the act during each previous month. These notices, from January to December 1899, refer to naturalizations from December 1898 to November 1899.

1931 – Imperial Service Medal
Awards by king George V of the Imperial Service Medal to officers of the Home Civil Service. The names are arranged alphabetically by surname and christian names, with office or rank in the service.

Free unlimited search at TheOriginalRecord.com You can purchase sets of scans, or buy open access to the surname(s) of your choice, including variants. For more information, see: www.theoriginalrecord.com

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

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