Mark Simner
If your ancestor served in the British Army in the 18th or 19th centuries, you can learn more about his experiences from his regiment’s muster rolls, says Mark Simner
When he’s not writing books on military history or writing for us, Mark runs the Napoleonic and Victorian Wars forums.
Often overlooked by family historians, muster rolls can be a useful source of information when tracing an ancestor’s service in the British Army. Beginning in the early 18th century, the rolls were taken by regiments for pay and accounting purposes, usually on a monthly or quarterly basis. In essence, they were records of the everyday services of men in the Army.
The information they contain varies from regiment
‘A series of muster rolls can paint a picture of your ancestor’s service’
to regiment and over time, but typically includes dates of enlistment, details of movements, and dates of discharge. Although muster rolls date as far back as c1730, from around 1868 they also sometimes contain marriage information, providing details about wives and children living in Army married quarters. Other information may include places of birth, civilian trades prior to enlistment, and dates of death in service. A series of muster rolls together can paint an interesting picture of your ancestor’s military service over a period of time – and, of course, they are particularly useful when official service records have not survived.
A National Resource
Muster rolls can be found at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew, London. To locate relevant muster rolls, you need to know which regiment(s) the soldier served in together with his name. The rolls are held in the War Office (WO) series, and the relevant series will depend on the regiment. For example, the General Series (WO12) contains muster rolls for Household troops, cavalry, guards and regular infantry. Other series include: Artillery (WO10, WO54 and WO69); Engineers (WO11 and WO54); and Militia and Volunteers (WO13 and WO68). A special series (WO14) contains muster rolls for British troops who were based at the Scutari depot during the Crimean War (1854–1856).
You can search TNA’s catalogue using the search engine Discovery: discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk. Enter the name of the regiment and the relevant series
as outlined above – for example “38th Foot WO12”. This will return the muster rolls available for the regiment, each of which bears the dates for the period it covers. Once the relevant muster rolls have been found, they can be ordered for inspection at Kew. Although this can be done while at TNA, it will save time if you do it ahead of your visit.
Online Collections
A limited number of muster rolls are also searchable online. Ancestry has a selection from WO12 at bit. ly/anc-wo-12, while the muster rolls of the 84th Regiment of Foot (for 1808–1818) are on Findmypast ( bit.ly/ fmp-84th) together with the muster rolls (for 1879–1882) of the 3rd Battalion of the 60th Regiment of Foot, also known as the King’s Royal Rifle Corps: bit.ly/fmp-60th. And TheGenealogist has records from WO13 (1778– 1878) plus a Worldwide Army Index listing all officers and other ranks serving in the first quarter of 1851, together with the location of their regimental headquarters, compiled from musters included in WO10, 11 and 12: bit.ly/gene-musters.
Muster rolls from 1878 onwards are all in the series WO16. A further complication, however, comes with rolls that are dated after the 1881 Childers Reforms, which saw a major reorganisation of the Army’s infantry regiments.
Before the reforms, infantry regiments were numbered; following the reforms they were given titles, usually along county lines. The first 25 regiments had two battalions, but from the 26th Regiment of Foot onwards regiments had a single battalion. Therefore two single battalion regiments were paired together into a single regiment. For example, the 38th Regiment of Foot and the 80th Regiment of Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the South Staffordshire Regiment respectively.
When searching WO16, note that the series is organised to reflect these changes. So, although it’s easy enough to look for the name of the regiment, the family historian working backwards chronologically may need to know the regiment’s antecedents.
Foreign Affairs
Finally, a special note should be made regarding the muster books pertaining to the British Foreign Legion, which included men recruited under the 1854 Enlistment of Foreigners Act during the Crimean War. Some 14,000 soldiers served in the legion, recruited from the British German Legion, the British Italian Legion and the British Swiss Legion. While none of these men subsequently saw service in the Crimea, their muster rolls (along with their service records and attestation papers) are among the resources in WO15, although no records for the Italian Legion survive.
‘The 1881 Childers Reforms saw a major reorganisation of infantry regiments’