AROUND BRITAIN
Jonathan Scott returns to explore the rich heritage of Hampshire
Our expert guide to researching Hampshire relations
Hampshire has an impressive variety of heritage attractions, research hubs and museum collections on offer for family historians. Although all of the city and county collections are currently closed because of Covid-19, staff are working hard towards longer periods of stability.
The county is home to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the ‘military quarter’ of regimental museums in Winchester, and the medieval walls of Southampton. It was here that in 1909 Noel PembertonBilling purchased engineering workshops on 3,000 acres of land. The Pemberton-Billing company would eventually become better known by the name Supermarine, producing the Spitfire fighter during the Second World War, alongside many other aircraft including seaplanes and flying boats. Indeed the company won the Schneider Trophy, a seaplane race held between 1913 and 1931, three times in a row.
Southampton Confusion
Researchers unfamiliar with the history of the county often assume that their relative was from Southampton. This is because, right up until 1959, Hampshire was often known as ‘the County of Southampton’. Therefore many family historians see a record, read the word “Southampton”, and assume it means that the city was home.
If Southampton was a relation’s home, then the city collections include important resources for maritime researchers, such as shipping registers, crew lists and records of merchant seamen, as well as unique items such as the 1454 terrier. This lists all of the properties within the town’s walls, together with their owners and tenants, and is one of the earliest surveys of a medieval town.
There’s a dedicated record office on the Isle of Wight, as well as city collections in Portsmouth and Winchester, where you’ll also find the main county archive.
The county headquarters is home to a host of unexpected, unique and esoteric items. Little-known gems include the original census-enumerator lists for Lymington in 1801 and 1811, and for Fordingbridge in 1801–1821; and there’s the rare survival of forms from the 1915 National Registration Act. These list residents of Droxford Rural
District aged between 15 and 65 who were not in the armed forces.
There are some fascinating register entries in the vaults. An example from St Cross, Winchester, records the burial of Richard Hart in a coffin he made himself from wood taken from a Spanish man-of-war some 20 years before. Another register entry for West Meon records the 1801 burial of John Elton, a native of Madagascar who was taken prisoner with his master, a French officer, on the Island of Diego Rois in the Indian Seas by Captain William Brereton in 1761. The captain rescued him
us ‘Working from home enabled to focus on a number of projects’
from slavery, brought him to England and under his protection Elton “has lived near forty years”.
Another unique entry is in the front of the Steventon marriage register (1755–1812), where a mischievous, teenage Jane Austen (whose father was rector) filled in fictitious details of her marriages to Henry Frederic Howard
Fitzwilliam of London, Edmund Arthur William Mortimer of Liverpool and Jack Smith.
Other important collections held here include the vast Royal Green Jackets regimental archive, and probate material that include some 110,000 wills and 35,000 inventories (which can be searched via the online catalogue at calm.hants.gov.uk).
Principal archivist (ICT) Heather Needham explains that the extreme circumstances of 2020 offered an opportunity for useful behind-the-scenes work.
“During the lockdown periods, working from home enabled us to focus on a number of projects, including adding name- and detail-rich descriptions to our online catalogue. We also reached audiences through digitalengagement initiatives, such as our 100 Days of Film project and our VE Day celebrations.”
Material held here includes parish registers, wills, Poor Law records, wages books and local directories. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, staff have strictly followed the latest government guidelines. This includes supporting socially