Michael Gandy started his talk by outlining how important it is to know why a list was compiled in order to make the most of the information and to understand why someone did, or did not, appear in a list. For instance, after 1757 militia lists were compiled. These were of men, aged 18-60 who were liable to serve in the militia. If there are a series of these lists and an individual disappears this tells you that he: died, turned 60 or moved to a different parish. Likewise someone who suddenly appears in the militia lists has either just turned 18 or has moved in from elsewhere.
If you know of several brothers but one does not appear in militias lists, the chances are that he was disabled in some way; some clerks listed invalids, many did not. Some places avoided sending married men to fight in the militia because of the likely additional burden to themselves in supporting his family.
Lay Subsidies, to be found at TNA or county archives were additional taxes paid by all but the poorest in times of war, determined on either income or property and Roman Catholics paid double.
The 1641 Protestation list included non-conformists but not Roman Catholics. During the civil war there were many Royalist gentry in property lists which can include tenants.
Theoretically everyone wanted to donate to the “Free and Voluntary” present given to King Charles II on his return. Many people, especially Quakers, gave one shilling, being the least they could reasonably offer, whereas his true supporters gave a lot more.
The Association Oath Rolls were of people who signed to show their support for King William III after an assassination attempt. By the 18th century there were only anti-Catholic lists.
During the 18th century though most taxes were about doing something or buying something so the big name lists get fewer. Window tax and land tax lists are mostly only extant from the 1780s. However there are a great many. There are many, many sources where you might find someone named including: visitations (upper classes only), estate papers, feet of fines on land transactions, university students, sailors and soldiers records, forfeited goods, trades lists and directories, Apprentice records, fire insurance records, poll books, tontines (which start from the 1770s) and newspapers.
Report by Brenda Paternoster