Publications for sale

All publications are available at the Dorset History Centre reception desk, or send a cheque made payable to Dorset County Council to Dorset History Centre, Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RP.

Dorset History Centre publications

1. Who's A'feard of Family History

The indispensable guide to starting your family history research at the Dorset History Centre. This volume takes you through all the main sources for family history using examples of Dorset documents held at the History Centre such as parish registers, census returns, tithe maps, wills, quarter sessions and prison records.

A4 size, 60 pages. Published in 1999 now reduced from £7.50 to £4. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

2. Railway Records in the Dorset Record Office

A comprehensive guide to the history of all of the Dorset railways and branch lines. This guide includes a map of the railways in Dorset, and a descriptive catalogue of their records held at the Dorset History Centre.

A4 size, 65 pages. Published in 1998 now reduced from £7.50 to £4. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

Dorset Record Society Publications

Volumes 1-6 and 13 are no longer in print.

Vol. 7 (1981)

The Case Book of Sir Francis Ashley 1614-1635, ed. J. H. Bettey

Ashley was Recorder, or borough magistrate, of Dorchester from 1610 until his death in 1635. His case book shows the wide variety of local affairs with which JPs were then concerned. Ashley was not only involved in the trials of offenders in Dorchester, but also tried many of those arrested each year at Woodbury Hill Fair, and his case book provides much detailed evidence about this annual event (150 pages, index of personal names) .
Price £4. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

Vol. 8 (1983)

The Building Accounts of Mapperton Rectory 1699-1703, ed. R. Machin

The complete building accounts for Mapperton rectory are in the parish records, a rare survival providing detailed information on building practices and costs at an important period. The house too is still in existence, not drastically altered (56 pages, 2 illustrations, 3 plans, glossary of technical terms).
Price £4. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

Vol. 9 (1985)

Touchinge Witchcrafte and Sorcerye, ed. G. J. Davies

Six cases of Dorset witchcraft are included in the collection - two from the 16th century, three from the 17th century and one from the diary of a 19th-century vicar. By its very nature little evidence survives about beliefs in witchcraft and magic, so these cases are of great historical significance, as well as being full of human interest (80 pages).
Price £4. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

Vol. 10 (1986)

The Love Poems and Letters of William Barnes and Julia Miles, ed. C. H. Lindgren

The poems dedicated by William to Julia and the letters they wrote to each other between 1820 and their marriage in 1827 are brought together in this collection. It also includes 21 of Barnes' drawings and engravings, making it a charming and attractive volume (110 pages, illustrated).
Price £4. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

Vol. 11 (1988)

Puddletown: House, Street and Family, ed. C. L. Sinclair Williams

Dr Dawney, vicar of Puddletown, compiled an account of his parishioners in 1724-5, recording their names, ages and occupations with interesting additional comments. His private census anticipated the first detailed state census by 116 years. It was continued and brought up to date by his successor in 1769 (96 pages, 2 maps, index of personal names).
Price £6. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

Vol. 12 (1991)

William Whiteway of Dorchester: his diary 1618-1635

Whiteway was the son of a leading Dorchester merchant and a friend and associate of John White, the rector of Holy Trinity and a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who turned Dorchester into a model Puritan stronghold in the generation before the Civil War. In his diary, brought to an abrupt end by his early death, Whiteway gives a first-hand account of these momentous years (195 pages, index of personal names).
Price £10. Please add £1.50 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.

Vol. 14 (2006)

Dorset Quarter Sessions Order Book

The courts of quarter sessions were held four times a year to hear criminal cases and deal with administrative business. Criminal offences ranged from physical violence, theft and damaging property to begging or causing a public nuisance. Those found guilty were punished with a fine, imprisonment, hard labour, public whipping, the pillory, or even death by hanging, according to the seriousness of the offence.

Administrative business included the maintenance of roads and bridges, the licensing of alehouses, bastardy, pensions for ex-service men, the relief of poverty, and the collection of rates and taxes. The order book provides an insight into the administration of the county in the years leading up to the profound political upheavals of the English Civil War.

The volume includes a glossary of less familiar legal terms, a list of justices and a comprehensive index of places and personal names. An introduction explains the work of the quarter sessions courts. The index of several thousand personal names, often with indication of rank, domicile and occupation, makes this volume of great value to those in search of family history.

Price £25. Please add £2.50 postage to the United Kingdom, £3.50 postage to Europe, £5 postage to the rest of the world.

Dorset Natural History And Archaeological Society Occasional Paper no. 1 (2008)

Early Years: Recollections of Life in Sturminster Newton in the Early Nineteenth Century, by Robert Young [Ed. Alan Chedzoy]

At the age of 97, Young sat down and filled an exercise book with his remarkable memories of life in the opening years of the 19th Century. His life saw the coming of the railway, horseless carriages and a gradual improvement in the lot of the working man in the largely agricultural society he knew so well. A friend of William Barnes, his memories provide a direct glimpse of the world described by Barnes and Hardy. The book is illustrated with early photographs of Sturminster Newton and the area.

A4, 22 pages, price £4. Please add £1.75 postage if ordering online, £2.50 if outside the United Kingdom.