The British Record Society is a British learned society that focuses on publishing historic records , or, more specifically, indexes to such records. In recent years, the Society has concentrated on the publication of name indexes to English probate records, and the texts of 17th-century Hearth Tax returns.
8-526: The Society was founded in 1889 to take over the Index Library , which had begun life the previous year as W. P. W. Phillimore's private scheme for the publication of indexes to British public records, now the brief of the List and Index Society . The Society was also always interested in record conservation, and to act as what would now be called a pressure group for archives and their users, pushing for
16-806: The Royal Historical Society 's website. William Phillimore Watts Phillimore William Phillimore Watts Phillimore (formerly Stiff ) MA BCL (27 October 1853 – 9 April 1913) was an English solicitor , genealogist and publisher. William Phillimore Watts Stiff was born on 27 October 1853 in Nottingham , the eldest son of Dr William Phillimore Stiff M.B. Lond., M.R.C.S. Eng., of Sneinton , Nottingham, afterwards superintendent of Nottingham General Lunatic Asylum , and Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Watts of Bridgen Hall, Bridgnorth , Shropshire . In 1873 William Stiff senior changed
24-616: The Society's Record Preservation Section was similarly taken over by the newly founded British Records Association (B.R.A.). Since the 1930s, the British Record Society has been primarily a publishing society for English records, frequently in conjunction with county historical societies. By 2012, 126 volumes of the Index Library had been published over 123 years, besides two extra volumes and some microfiche. Over
32-553: The creation of county record offices and county record societies . The inception of an official series of Lists and Indexes in 1892 reduced the need for private publication of indexes to records in the Public Record Office . The Society consequently turned its attention to records held in other repositories. In 1898 the Society’s Scottish section became the totally independent Scottish Record Society . In 1933
40-527: The family surname by royal licence to Phillimore, his great-grandmother's maiden name. William junior studied at The Queen's College, Oxford , and was awarded a second-class degree in Jurisprudence in 1876. Phillimore was a solicitor. In 1897 he founded the publishing business which bears his name. From 1888 onwards, he advocated the formation of local record offices , and to that end prepared bills to be put before Parliament. Phillimore initiated
48-748: The foundation of several record publication societies : the Index Library (afterwards the germ of the British Record Society ) in 1887; the Scottish Record Series (afterwards Scottish Record Society ) in 1896; the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire in 1897; the Canterbury and York Society in 1904, publishers of English medieval ecclesiastical records; and the Irish Record Society in 1909. He
56-504: The past half century the Society has largely, but not exclusively, concentrated on the publication of name indexes to probate records, and the texts of Hearth Tax returns from the 1660s and 1670s. A longer history of the Society and its current activities will be found on its website. A complete list of its publications up to 1982 will be found in E. L. C. Mullins, Texts and Calendars , I and II, Royal Historical Society, 1958 and 1983. Details of those published after 1982 can be found on
64-786: Was a corresponding member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society , the Virginia Historical Society , and the Chicago Historical Society . Phillimore married Jane Graham in 1887 and they left one surviving son, Wilfred Henderson Phillimore. Phillimore died on 9 April 1913 in Torquay , Devon. The publishing house he founded, Phillimore & Co., later based in Chichester , West Sussex, became
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