All Collections
22 collections, over 13,000 records spanning 1559 to 1896 — growing as new transcriptions are added. Full archive access for £9.99 — one-off payment, no subscription, never expires.
Trade Directories
Alphabetical listings of merchants, manufacturers and tradespeople from English towns. Entries give name, occupation and street address. Most are from two major 18th-century series: The Merchant's & Tradesman's Useful Companion and Pigot & Co's directories.
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Trade directory
Liverpool Directory 1766
Merchants, tradesmen and principal inhabitants of Georgian Liverpool — pre-industrial Lancashire at the height of the Atlantic trade era.
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Trade directory
Wolverhampton Directory 1780
From The Merchant's & Tradesman's Useful Companion. Wolverhampton at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution — metalworkers, japanners and buckle makers.
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Trade directory
Walsall Directory 1780
Companion volume to the Wolverhampton directory from the same publication — buckle makers, chape makers and tradespeople of 1780 Walsall.
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Trade directory
Leeds Directory 1781
From The Merchant's & Tradesman's Useful Companion — bankers, merchants, manufacturers and artisans of Georgian Leeds.
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Trade directory
Sheffield Directory 1781
Sheffield's steel trades at their 18th-century peak — cutlers, filesmiths, razor makers and scissor grinders alongside the usual merchants and professionals.
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Trade directory
Hull Directory 1781
Ship builders, merchants, rope makers and traders of Georgian Hull — one of England's principal east coast ports in the late 18th century.
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Trade directory
York Directory 1781
Merchants, tradespeople and eminent citizens of Georgian York — the principal city of northern England, with a wide range of trades from silversmiths to brewers.
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Trade directory
Gateshead Directories 1782 & 1795
Two directories combined — traders listed with precise street positions. Cross-reference the two years to see who was still in business a decade later.
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Trade directory
Manchester Directory 1783
One of the largest collections in the archive — fustian and cotton manufacturers, silk merchants, hatters and dyers of pre-industrial Manchester.
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Trade directory
Stockport Directory 1784
Calico printers, silk throwsters and cotton machine-makers — Stockport in 1784 was at the heart of the emerging textile revolution, straddling the Cheshire and Lancashire border.
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Trade directory
Bristol Directory 1783
Bankers, attorneys, merchants, manufacturers and eminent traders of Georgian Bristol — one of England's foremost ports at the time.
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Trade directory
Chester Directory 1789
Merchants, tradespeople and principal inhabitants of Chester in 1789, with occupation and address. A cathedral and assize city — lawyers, clergy and craftsmen alongside the county gentry.
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Trade directory
Alnwick Directory 1827
From Pigot & Co's directory — miscellany of gentry and residents plus a classified trades list by occupation. Includes the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle.
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Trade directory
Stockton on Tees Directory 1827
Pigot & Co's 1827 directory — gentry, clergy and residents alongside a classified trades list covering 40+ occupation categories.
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Trade directory
Sunderland Directory 1827
The largest of the northeast England 1827 directories — anchorsmiths to hosiers, covering Sunderland, Bishop-Wearmouth and Monk-Wearmouth.
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Trade directory
Birmingham Directory 1780
From The Merchant's & Tradesman's Useful Companion. Completing the West Midlands picture alongside Wolverhampton and Walsall — available soon.
Poll Books
Electoral records listing voters by name and occupation. Poll books prove a man was alive, present and a property owner in a specific year — often valuable evidence in its own right.
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Poll book
Colchester Poll 1768
Voters in the Colchester parliamentary election of 16 March 1768 — listed alphabetically with name and occupation. Some surnames partially obscured due to damage to the original.
Memorial Inscriptions
Transcriptions of church memorials and gravestone epitaphs. Entries include monument type, epitaph text and family relationships.
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Memorial inscriptions
Hastings All Saints MI
Detailed transcription of All Saints Church, Hastings, compiled by Alfred Ridley Bax. Monument types, full epitaphs and family relationships recorded throughout.
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Memorial inscriptions
Westbourne Church MI
Chancel monuments and churchyard stones compiled by Rev. J.H. Sperling. Chancel entries include heraldic descriptions — rare detail for Sussex gentry families.
Parish & Burial Registers
Primary source records from church registers spanning four centuries — baptisms, marriages and burials. The archive's earliest records date from 1559, shortly after parish registration was first mandated.
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Parish register
Quedgeley Parish Records 1559–1876
Three centuries of one Gloucestershire parish — baptisms, marriages and burials from the Elizabethan era through to the Victorian period.
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Parish register
Wakefield Cathedral Registers 1600–1605
Baptisms, burials and marriages from Wakefield Cathedral at the Tudor–Stuart transition, recorded month by month across six years.
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Parish register
Kidlington Parish Marriages 1574–1754
180 years of marriage records from Kidlington Parish across two register books — Tudor through Georgian periods, with banns and licence details from 1729.
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Burial register
Leigh Bethesda Chapel Burials 1815–1853
Burial register of the Bethesda Independent Chapel, Leigh — a now-closed nonconformist burial ground. Includes name, date, age and grave number.