Our collections

Southampton Archives holds Church of England parish records for Southampton, including original registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. Our earliest surviving parish register is for St Michael’s church and dates back to 1552. Transcripts and surname indexes are available for all the pre-1837 registers; a cross-parish surname index exists for some post-1837 registers.

Parish records can also include churchwardens` accounts, overseers` accounts, poor rates, settlement certificates and items relating to the administration of church schools and charities. You may find the document Index to Church of England Parish registers useful for finding records in Southampton.

There is free access to Ancestry and Find My Past access in Southampton City Libraries, which is also a Family Search Centre.

Non-conformist churches are those which do not belong to the established Church of England. The term is generally used for non-Anglican Protestant denominations. Archives has the records of several different non-conformist denominations, including:

• Baptist
• Congregational - Above Bar Church and others
• Evangelical Methodist (Southampton Methodist Circuit extends beyond Southampton City boundaries)
• Presbyterian
• Unitarian
• Catholic churches

The Archives holds some Roman Catholic records. Some marriages registers for other religions can also be found here. Please see the guides for details. There are different restrictions on access in place to view some of these records, please contact us in advance for advice.

The records of Southampton City Council and predecessor local authorities are held in the Archives and date from 1199 onwards. These constitute an excellent series of documents, particularly for the 15th to 17th centuries, reflecting all aspects of local authority business.

The documents fall into three types:

Southampton corporation records

• Town Administration: charters from the 12th century onwards; minutes from the 14th century to date (including those of committees); admissions of burgesses and freemen from the 15th century onwards; electoral rolls from 1834 to date; local acts and byelaws; Town Clerk's papers 16th century to 20th century
• Property records: Corporation deeds and leases 1275 to 1900; registers of Corporation properties from 15th century onwards
• Finance and trade: town stewards', mayors' and treasurers' account books from the 15th century to the 20th century; books of debts 1525 to 1619; petty customs account books 1426 to 1803; brokage books 1430 to 1566; Cloth Hall, Linen Hall and Weigh House books 15th century to 1601
• Justice: court leet 1549 to date; town court 1374 to 1833; admiralty court 1488 to 1827; Quarter Sessions (rolls and papers 1622 to 1970, examination books 1571 to 1698, licensing 1698 to 1753 and 1833-1834)
• Poor Relief: rates 1552 to 1614; charities to 1837; settlements 1711 to 1901
• Military: defence terrier 1454; muster books 1522 to 1589; militia 1820 to 1860
• Parliamentary Taxes: various tax assessments (eg ship, hearth tax) 1523 to 1699 and 1711 to 1855

Records of Local Boards, commissioners and companies

• Pavement and Improvement Commissioners (paving, repairing and cleansing the streets): minutes 1770 to 1848; rate books 1771 to 1836
• Southampton Board of Health (and later, Health Department): minutes 1850 to 1974
• Shirley Board of Health: minutes 1853 to 1895
• Board of Guardians: minutes 1823 to 1930; workhouse; settlement records 1730 to 1917; rate books c.1750 to 1910
• Waterworks (including South Hants Waterworks): minutes 1799 to 1850; rate books 1748 to 1763; Acts, deeds and accounts from c.1870 onwards
• Southampton School Board: minutes 1850 to 1903; records of individual schools
• St Mary Extra School Board: minutes 1890 to 1898
• Hound and Sholing School Board: minutes 1885 to 1898
• Itchen Urban District: minutes 1898 to 1920; accounts; rates 1914 to 1920
• Bitterne Parish Council: minutes 1894 to 1920
• Millbrook Parish Council: minutes 1894 to 1954; accounts
• North Stoneham Parish: poor rates 1835 to 1920
• South Stoneham Parish: poor rates 1839 to 1916
• Northam Bridge Company: minutes 1838 to 1930; deeds; accounts
• Floating Bridge Company: minutes 1833 to 1933; mortgage deeds and agreements

Records of Southampton Council Departments

Records of Southampton Council departments are held in the archives though it should be remembered that many of the records in these categories are subject to closure periods.

Some of the more substantial departmental records are:

• Architect: plans, files, photographs, records of war damage
• Building Control: plans and registers 19th century to 20th century
• Education: minutes from 1903 onwards; records of individual schools
• Engineer: plans, files, photographs
• Fire Brigade: occurrence books from 1884 to 1954; ambulance registers 1913 to 1939
• Magistrates Court: registers from 1909; licensing records from 1900
• Motor Taxation: declaration forms and index cards
• Police Force: minutes from 1902; Chief Constable's records; personnel including registers of service 1861 to 1966; records of occurrence 1923 to 1960s; charge registers 1893 to 1960s; committals to Quarter Sessions and Assizes 1876 to 1942; hackney carriages; brewster sessions; war emergency
• Treasurers: accounts; rates; committee minutes and agendas

We hold records for many Southampton schools, past and present, including board schools, council schools, church schools, grammar schools, independent schools and some material relating to further education. These include:

• Admission registers
• Log books
• Punishment books
• Honours books
• Managers' minute books
• Other records including photographs, programmes and school magazines

A list of school records can be found in the research guide.

Please note that records that contain personal information and that are under 100 years old are access restricted.

Southampton Archives holds extensive records for several hospitals in Southampton and the surrounding area. These include:

• Royal South Hampshire and Southampton Hospital
• Southampton Dispensary
• Southampton Eye Hospital
• Southampton General Hospital
• Southampton Isolation Hospital

You may find administrative and staff records, some patient records (for example admission and discharge registers), plans and photographs. Please note that records containing sensitive information about patients or staff are closed to the public for 100 years after they were created.

Electoral registers are listings of those people eligible to vote in parliamentary or local elections. The earliest Southampton register in 1832 records just 1403. Before 1918 the right to vote was based on a property qualification and (for parliamentary elections) generally excluded women. The Reform Act of 1918 gave women over 30 and all men over 21 the right to vote. A further act in 1928 gave votes to women on equal terms with men.

Some 19th century registers list voters in alphabetical order within ward, however as the electorate grew, names in the registers began to be arranged by ward, then street then house number. Whilst this is useful for compiling house histories, it can be frustrating for family historians since there are no name indexes to the registers.

Archives holds Southampton electoral registers for 1832-1918 and 1930-2018 apart from the war years (1940-1945). The Local Studies and Maritime Library also hold Southampton electoral registers from 1932 to date (except 1940-1945).

Also available in Archives are:

• Poll books (1727-1837, with gaps) listing those who voted in parliamentary elections together with a note of the candidates who received their votes
• Burgess lists were drawn up for local elections: these include women (those who met the required property qualifications) as early as 1869

Please note that there are restrictions in place when using electoral registers under 10 years old.

Southampton Archives holds records for various types of businesses, including architects, solicitors, grocers, stonemasons and shipping lines. Records in collections of local businesses may include financial records (eg ledgers, account books), minutes, annual reports, shareholding information, publicity, order books as well as personnel records.

Substantial business collections held here include John I. Thornycroft & Co Ltd, shipbuilder, H.D. Cox & Sons, bookbinders, Lankester and Crook, grocers, Brazier and Sons, builders, Page and Moody solicitors.

The Local Studies and Maritime Library have Southampton and County directories from the 18th century onwards, in addition to annual reports, books, pamphlets, articles and clippings on local businesses.

A wealth of information can be found amongst records of local groups and societies. Archives holds records of groups including employment, and professional associations, commercial associations, educational and youth societies, political groups, campaigning and pressure groups, welfare associations, residents’ associations, clubs relating to art, craft, music, drama, dance, film, literature, history and heritage groups, scientific and medical associations, sporting groups, women’s groups and more.

We have records which have been deposited by many significant local families and individuals, ranging from politicians to schoolteachers. Collections can include business records, personal letters and diaries, title deeds, photographs and much more. Some of the collection held include:

• Bunney family
• Butler-Harrison family
• Camfield family
• Jack and Irene Candy
• Cox family
• Crabbe family
• Day family
• Percy James Crickmore
• Walter Greenaway and family
• Captain John H. Isherwood
• Sir Sidney Kimber
• Horace Maybray King
• Lungley of Spear Hall
• Sir James Matthews
• William and Samuel Molyneux
• Napier family
• John Ransome estate
• Elsie Sandell
• Smyth family
• Tanner family

Southampton Archives hold a wealth of Merchant Navy and shipping records, including records of merchant naval personnel, crew lists and records of shipping lines. Sources include:

• Crew lists for Southampton-registered vessels (or some other vessels which regularly sailed from the port), 1863-1913
• The Central Index Register of Seamen, including over a million and a quarter record cards with details (and sometimes photographs) of those serving on board British-registered vessels 1918-1941
• Records of shipping lines, including Furness Withy Shipping Line (incorporating Royal Mail Line and Prince Line); Shaw Savill & Albion service records

Records are available to view in the Archives; additionally, the Central Index Register is available via Find My Past, which is accessible for free in Southampton City Libraries. We also offer a research service to search the Central Index Register on your behalf.

Maps and plans may appear in different types of collections, for example estate or solicitors' collections, architects' or business records or local authority records. They can be an excellent starting point to trace the history of your house, or to give an idea of how Southampton has changed over the years.

• Ordnance Survey Maps, from the 1845-46 Survey of the Borough of Southampton onwards
• Copies of parish tithe maps, mid-19th century (originals available at Hampshire Archives and Local Studies)
• Enclosure maps (Woolston and Bitterne,1814 and Hill and Shirley, 1830)
• Parliamentary plans, accompanying local Acts of Parliament obtained for major works (eg construction of Docks, railways, bridges and public buildings)
• Plans attached to sale catalogues
• Plans of works by council architects and engineers (for example, public buildings, roads, housing estates, bridges)
• Plans submitted to Building Control, 1878-1954

Maps and plans can also be found at the Local Studies and Maritime Library. Our Interactive Map also contains a number of layers relating to the history and heritage of Southampton.

Southampton Archives has many images in its collections. These include engravings, postcards, photographs, negatives and glass lantern slides.

Our photographs date from the 1860s to the present day. They illustrate all sorts of different subjects: people at work and at play, families, school groups, notable events and even celebrities visiting Southampton. Collections include:

• Photographs of war damaged properties
• Houses demolished in the slum clearances of the mid-20th century
• Ships in Southampton docks
• Harbour Board photographs
• Architect's department photographs (including building works)
• Vosper Thornycroft shipbuilders
• Publicity photographs
• Planning photographs
• School photographs
• Work of photographic studios (Dennis Turner and Harlow collections)
• Southampton Camera Club records(founded 1896)

In the reading room you can find name, address and subject indexes to the photographs. Many images are also available on the Local history & maritime digital archive.

Southampton Archives hold a substantial collection of interviews and project material recording the history of local communities and the lives and work of Southampton people. These were mostly created by the renowned Southampton Oral History Unit, which operated from the 1980s-2008 and produced over 800 recordings on a variety of subjects, including:

• Local communities (Chapel and Northam, Woolston, Millbrook, Holy Rood)
• Leisure (cinema, football)
• Maritime history (dockworkers, seafarers, Queen Mary, women at sea, Titanic, Thornycroft's shipyard)
• Wartime (WWI women workers, Blitz, D-Day, Home Front)
• Migration (African Caribbean, Asian women, Polish community)

For most of the recordings there are summaries, timed synopses and in some cases, transcripts. The Oral History Unit often collected copies of photographs from interviewees. The collection was digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project. A small selection of the Oral Histories is available online through the Local history & Maritime Digital Archive.

There may be charges or permissions required for copies or use of material.

Links to these oral history projects and archives may be of interest:

• British Library Listening Project
• Oral History Society
• Wessex Film and Sound Archive

Southampton keeps a list of mayors from 1217 to the present is based on the research done by Miss S.D. Thomson when City Archivist. There are some gaps in the record, particularly for the 13th century.

The first use of the term 'mayor' in Southampton was in a letter dating to around 1217. At that time the mayor could serve as long as he liked, providing he was in good health and behaved himself. In 1234 one mayor discharged himself from office on the grounds of age and infirmity. Now the mayor is elected annually and serves for just one year. Read more about The current mayor.

In very early medieval times the mayor was appointed by the king or queen of the day. Later, he was appointed by the outgoing mayor, however since 1835 the mayor has been elected by councillors. The mayor was often a local tradesman or businessman, for example, Richard Andrews the coachbuilder, who was Mayor of Southampton five times during the 19th century. The first woman mayor was Lucia Foster Welch, who was elected in 1927.

The mayor's duties were many and varied. He presided over the weekly council and over various town courts, supervised regulations controlling trade and industries, managed corporation properties, dispensed poor relief and charity and carried out orders from central government. During the Commonwealth period he could even perform marriages. After 1835 the mayor's role gradually became more ceremonial. The current duties of the mayor range from chairing council meetings to hosting events and engagements.

Sorry, there are no mayors matching that name. Try an alternative spelling.