What happened to my ancestors during the English Civil War?
QI’d like to find out what my ancestors did during the Civil War in the 17th century. I have traced my Jackson family back to the small market town of Pocklington in East Yorkshire. My starting point is Richard Jackson of Pocklington born in 1678. His father was called Richard Jackson too. I do not have a birth date yet for him, but am guessing he would have been born 1634-54. The family were Anglican. Can you give me some pointers? Hazel Mary Jackson, by email
AResearching Civil War soldier ancestors can be a challenge, as most surviving sources have not been indexed by name in the way that later military records have. This means there are no handy subscription-site search engines available as a gateway to downloading records of service, or even pinpointing the ‘right’ document box, which may contain hundreds of items.
The exception to the rule is State Papers Online (SPO), which is only available to institutions, but can be accessed at any library or archive that holds a subscription. However, these catalogued names generally represent officers, rather than the rank and file. Though your earliest known ancestor was born during the Civil War era, so not of an age to have fought in the wars, I ran the name Richard Jackson through SPO’s search engine in case his father shared the same given name. No results were generated, which may be due to my having run the wrong forename, or his having been an ordinary soldier, if he did indeed engage in the fighting.
The National Archives (TNA) holds several record sets that mention names of men who fought both in the Civil Wars and during the Interregnum, but as its guide to Medieval and Early-Modern Soldiers warns: “There is very little material on rank-and-file Royalist soldiers” and “no comprehensive lists of officers in the Parliamentary forces” or its ordinary soldiers ( nationalarchives.gov.uk/ help-with-your- research/researchguides/medieval-early- modern- soldiers).
These record sets are mainly financial in nature, catalogued by date, and sometimes place. Following the money is the most effective way to track rank-and-file soldiers, in repayments made to villagers with whom they were billeted and petitions by distressed widows, as well as regimental pay lists, warrants, and musters. The information relating to any individual in these accounts is skeletal but, taken as a whole, offers a wider window onto the life of communities that found themselves in the firing line.
There is always the chance of being rewarded with a ‘ lucky dip’. While reading my way through a 1648 box of military warrants, I happened upon two slips of paper certifying the death of Joseph Cannon, a “troope of horse” soldier in the New Model Army, “slaine before Oxford June 9th – 1646”. Not the subject of my search, nor one of my ancestors, but someone who personalised the siege for me, and whom I will never forget.