Muster Rolls and Pay Lists

Muster Rolls and Pay Lists form one of the most comprehensive series of army records available. They can be used to trace the service of soldiers who served in the British Army between around 1730 and 1898. Of particular interest are those in the National Archives, Kew, relating to the years, series and piece numbers as follows:
1708-1878 WO10 Pieces 1-2887 Artillery.
1816-1878 WO11 Pieces 1-432 Engineers.
1731-1878 WO12 Pieces 1-13307 General including Household, Cavalry and Infantry.
1780-1878 WO13 Pieces 1-4675 Militia and Volunteers.

In 1878-1898 a new series emerged as WO16 Pieces 1-3049 and continued on from WO10 to WO13. Thus Artillery, Engineers, Cavalry, Infantry and Militia can be found in this single series.

Monthly Returns to the Adjutant General

Series WO17 comprises returns to the Adjutant General showing the distribution of each regiment at home and abroad, and its effective strength in all ranks, with the names of all commissioned officers present and absent. The Returns give general particulars as to the health of the regiment, the dates of death of officers dying within the month and the numbers of men discharged for any cause. Access to this series on the AJCP microfilm or online portal does not commence until 1837 which is unfortunate for the purpose of researching the earlier detachments of Redcoats in Western Australia.

Colonial Office Records

Colonial Office correspondence is particularly illuminating for records of the early days of the Swan River Colony. 

The Colonial Secretary’s Office records (CSO) have been filmed onto 16mm film in chronological order and have been entered under Accession 36 in the State Records of Western Australia. In most volumes, every second page was given a consecutive number known as a Folio Number. The early volumes contain between 150 and 200 folios. Hence Acc 36/4/102 refers to Accession Number 36, Volume Number 4, Folio Number 102. Volumes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 were transcribed by the late Graham Bown. Each Volume has been fully indexed in relation to subject and individual names. Occasionally the quality of the material or the illegibility of the handwriting prevented a complete transcription and accordingly dots (……..) are shown in the translation. https://www.friendsofbattyelibrary.org.au/colonialsecretarysoffice. 

This is a guide to other CSO material – not yet transcribed or online – Click here for Colonial Secretary’s Office Correspondence 1828-1878 Quick Reference Guide.  

And in in the shape of things to come, here is some very good news… 

The Western Australian State Records Office  has commenced a project to digitise the Colonial Secretary’s Office records held in the State Archives collection. These records are considered the ‘backbone’ of WA Colonial history and record a wide range of activities about WA  in the 1800s, correspondence with Colonial settlers and matters to do with Aboriginal people (a conservative estimate is that at least 10,000 Aboriginal people are referenced in these records).

Within this collection, there are approximately 500,000 letters. Funding has kindly been provided by the Friends of Battye Library Inc, through the Sholl Bequest, for the SRO to employ a digitisation officer – Gabriel Maddock – to digitise the correspondence. Gabriel is currently engaged in digitising, from the original documents, up to the year 1850 as part of Stage 1 of this project. Ultimately, the SRO plans to digitise the full set of this correspondence up to 1883, although this will require further funding.

The Australian Joint Copying Project

The AJCP was probably the longest-running project of its kind in the world. It located, described and filmed thousands of classes and collections of Australian, New Zealand and Pacific records held in hundreds of institutions, organisations and homes in almost every part of Britain and Ireland. It produced and despatched to Australia over 10,000 reels of microfilmed records dating from 1560 to 1984. The complete collection is in the National Library in Canberra but State Libraries across Australia hold complete or part copies of the collection. Western Australia has copies of the collection relevant to that State, including WO12 (Infantry) Muster Rolls and Pay Lists and WO17 Monthly Returns. The relevant films numbers and pieces for the Redcoats in Western Australia are listed here.
AJCP Handbooks
Eleven AJCP Handbooks were published to provide an index to the material filmed in the Project. Part 1 is a general introduction and shelf list of copying.  Parts 2-7 and 9-11 are series and piece lists for Public Record Office (now the National Archives) records filmed by the Project. Part 8 provides a brief description of each Miscellaneous Series collection.
The National Library of Australia Digitisation Program
The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created by the National Library of Australia with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020.  The War and Colonial Office records are part of this online portal.

From Old to New Technology for the Australian Joint Copying Project