Older Online Sources

The Wiltshire Record Society began publishing editions of Wiltshire records in 1939. Before this there had been important sources for the county’s history published by other bodies. On this page you will find links to those that are now available online, details of online editions of other key historical reference books and, at the foot of the page, links to other providers of source material for Wiltshire history. Please let us know of broken links, or of other titles which may be added to this list.

Aubrey, John, The Natural History of Wiltshire, ed. John Britton (1847) https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof00aubruoft

Jackson, J.E., Wiltshire. The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, F.R.S., A.D. 1659-70, with illustrations, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1862)  https://archive.org/details/wiltshiretopogra00aubr/page/n11/mode/2up

 Abstracts of Wiltshire Inquistitiones Post Mortem … 1242-1326, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1918) https://archive.org/details/abstractsofwilts37grea/page/n3/mode/2up

Abstracts of Wiltshire Inquistitiones Post Mortem … 1327-1377, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1914) https://archive.org/details/abstractsofwilts48grea/mode/2up

Abstracts of Wiltshire Inquistitiones Post Mortem … Charles the First, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1901)   https://archive.org/details/abstractswiltsh00frygoog

Davies, J.S. ed., The Tropnell Cartulary, being the contents of an old Wiltshire muniment chest, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1908), 2 volumes   https://archive.org/details/tropenellcartul01davigoog  https://archive.org/details/tropenellcartul02davigoog

Swayne, H.J.F., Churchwardens’ Accounts of S. Edmund and S. Thomas, Sarum, 1443-1702, and other documents, Wiltshire Record Society (1896)   https://archive.org/details/churchwardensacc01sway

Malden, A.R. ed., The Canonization of Saint Osmund, from the manuscript records in the Muniment Room of Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire Record Society (1901)   https://archive.org/details/cu31924029423773

Wordsworth, C. ed., The Fifteenth Century Cartulary of St. Nicholas’s Hospital, Salisbury, with other records, Wiltshire Record Society (1902):  https://archive.org/details/fifteenthcentury00worduoft

Fry, E.A., A Calendar of Feet of Fines relating to the county of Wiltshire remaining in the Public Record Office, London. From their commencement in the reign of Richard I, 1195, to the end of Henry III, 1272, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1930) No online edition traced

Britton, J, The Beauties of Wiltshire, vol. 1 (1801) https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=nIhKAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PP6&hl=en_US

Britton, J, The Beauties of Wiltshire, vol. 2 (1801) https://archive.org/details/beautieswiltshi00britgoog or  https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=zCADAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PP10&hl=en_GB

Britton, J, The Beauties of Wiltshire, vol. 3 (1825) https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=tnZKAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PR2&hl=en_GB  

Here are links to other providers of source material for Wiltshire history:

The Wiltshire Community History pages also give access to a number of digitised Wiltshire books  https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Book

 The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine was first published in 1854. All volumes, apart from those published in the last few years, are available online at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/12272

Many regional, county and local trade directories of the nineteenth and early twentieth century have been made available online by the University of Leicester https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/search/searchterm/Wiltshire/field/place/mode/exact/conn/and/order/nosort

Ordnance Survey and other historical maps of Wiltshire may be studied at https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=wilts and https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=9.0&lat=51.32673&lon=-1.92658&layers=6&b=ESRIWorld&o=100

The 1662 Wiltshire Hearth Tax returns are now available at https://gams.uni-graz.at/o:htx.wltshr1