| Genealogical sources
in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle Sheila
de Bellaigue
Researching Berkshire families often throws up
ancestors who may have worked for the Sovereign at
Windsor Castle. In many cases the information is
given on marriage or burial certificates, but most
often the first indication comes from a census
return, either of the Castle itself - for those
servants who lived in - or those in the surrounding
area. For example in the 1881 Census, taken on April
3, Queen Victoria was in residence. Her four
Edinburgh grandchildren (children of Prince Alfred,
Duke of Edinburgh) were staying with her while their
parents were in Russia attending the funeral of their
maternal grandfather, Tsar Alexander II. The Queen's
youngest children, Princess Beatrice and Prince
Leopold, were there as was Eugénie, the ex-Empress
of the French. All the resident servants are listed
from maids and cooks to footmen and a nightwatchman,
including a governess, Amalie Heim, and a 'lectrice
to the Queen'. But how difficult is it to find
personal information about Household staff?
The Royal Archives, held at Windsor Castle,
comprise personal and official papers of the
Sovereign and some other members of the Royal Family
from 1760 to 1952 - from the reign of George III to
that of George VI. Papers of earlier monarchs are,
for the most part, held at the Public Record Office
at Kew. Papers of the present reign are transferred
gradually to the Royal Archives when no longer
required at Buckingham Palace.
The Royal Household formerly consisted of three
Departments, each headed by one of the Great Officers
of the Household: the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord
Steward and the Master of the Horse. Broadly
speaking, the Lord Chamberlain's Department dealt
with the ceremonial and social life of the Court; the
Lord Steward's Department with domestic and culinary
matters; and the Master of the Horse's Department was
responsible for the royal stables and for arranging
transport for the Sovereign and the Royal Household.
Until 1924 the Great Officers were political
appointees, changing with changes of government; and
until the end of the nineteenth century their
departmental records were deposited at the Public
Record Office. Thereafter their records have come to
the Royal Archives, the repository for all twentieth-century
Royal Household departmental records. There are now
five Household departments.
The Royal Archives holds an index of Household
employees from 1660 to 1901, known as the Household
Index. This index is mainly compiled from the records
of the Lord Chamberlain's and the Lord Steward's
Departments from 1660 to 1837 in the PRO and from
various printed sources such as The Court & City
Register and The Royal Kalendar. Information from
Household records in the Royal Archives is gradually
being added. The information in the index is
generally limited to the name, post held, the dates
of employment (in some cases with details of salaries
and pensions) and the relevant PRO, printed or Royal
Archives references. The index rarely gives dates of
births or deaths, or details of marriages or of other
family members.
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Mrs. Elizabeth Henderson, 1880.
Housekeeper at Windsor Castle 1867-1888 (RPC
Royal Household Portraits Vol 53/27c) |
For employees before Queen Victoria's reign, the
Archives hold a limited number of establishment books
and other records of service, although these tend to
give little detail other than name and post held.
References may occasionally be found in the
correspondence of George Ill and George IV.
Unfortunately the papers of King William IV do not
survive.
From Queen Victoria's reign there is more detail,
particularly on the more senior members of the
Household. For Ladies in Waiting (ie Ladies and Women
of the Bedchamber and Maids of Honour) there are
printed lists. But these posts were almost invariably
held by wives or daughters of peers, details of whose
families can be found in the standard works on the
peerage.1
 |
Mary Ann Hull, nee Cripps c. early 1860s.
Nurse to Queen Victoria's children 1841-1858 (RPC
Royal Household Portraits Vol 54/9d) |
There are a number of establishment and pension
lists and pay records for other staff. These are not
complete for Victorian times, but they are more
extensive in the early twentieth century. The
information they contain is generally restricted to
the employee and rarely includes family details.
Although most pre-1900 departmental records are in
the PRO, a certain number of nineteenth-century
records from the Lord Chamberlain's and Lord
Steward's Departments, including some establishment,
salary and pension books, have come into the Royal
Archives from other sources. These records contain
extensive, but not complete, lists of employees
throughout the Royal Household, sometimes
supplemented by references in letters and other
papers.
 |
Charles Hull c. early 1860s. Messenger to
Queen Victoria 1866-69, previously Groom Porter
1861-66 and Footman 1842-61 (RPC Royal Household
Portraits Vol. 54/49b) |
There are also records from the Master of the
Horse's Department from the late eighteenth century
onwards. Although not complete they probably
represent the best existing source of information on
employees of this department. An index of employees
up to the end of the nineteenth century has been
compiled from these papers.
In addition there are Privy Purse papers, covering
the private expenditure of the Sovereign. These
include information about privately-employed staff,
such as nursery staff, tutors and governesses, and
about the staff of the Privy Purse and Treasurer's
Department. For most of the twentieth century, this
Department's records include the personnel records of
the whole Household.
Records of individuals who worked in Windsor Great
Park, such as gamekeepers, gate-keepers, farm workers
and gardeners, are rarely found in the Archives, as
they were generally employed by the Office of Woods,
the Office of Works or the Crown Estate Commissioners.
The relevant records, including those relating to
Windsor Great Park, are preserved at the PRO,
principally in the CRES series.2 The
private estates of the Sovereign (for example
Balmoral, Sandringham and formerly Osborne) are
administered under the supervision of the Keeper of
the Privy Purse. Records concerning employees on the
estates can be found both in the Privy Purse papers
and in the estate papers produced by the Estate
Offices, also deposited in the Royal Archives.
The Royal Photograph Collection, which is part of
the Royal Archives, contains photographs and albums
belonging to members of the Royal Family from Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert to the present day. It
includes many photographs of Household employees,
some of which were collected by Queen Victoria as a
record of her Household. There are also occasional
group photographs, although the sitters are not
always identified.
Royal Warrant Holders
Unfortunately little information can be found in
the Archives about local tradesmen who supplied goods
and services to the Sovereign or the Royal Family at
Windsor Castle. From the eighteenth century Royal
Warrants were issued by each department of the
Household to the tradesmen who supplied its
particular needs. Until the end of the nineteenth
century records of the award of Royal Warrants are
mainly found in the PRO. Warrant holders are included
in the Household Index, which gives the relevant PRO
references. The exceptions are warrant holders in the
departments whose records are held in the Royal
Archives and not at the PRO: the Master of the
Horse's Department and the Privy Purse. There is
information about warrant holders in both departments
in the Royal Archives, although very little pre-1900
material on Privy Purse warrant holders, apart from
bills for private purchases and occasional references
in correspondence.
From the reigns of King Edward VII and King George
V there are lists of Privy Purse warrant holders and
correspondence relating to the warrants; there are
also lists and correspondence relating to warrants
issued by the Lord Chamberlain and the Master of the
Horse. The system of departmental Royal Warrants was
reformed in the 1930s and the administration of
warrants is now the responsibility of the Lord
Chamberlain's Department. There is also a limited
amount of information in the Archives about warrants
issued by other senior members of the Royal Family.
Bodyguards, guards and
police on duty at Royal Palaces
The only two bodies correctly described as
'bodyguards' to the monarch are the Yeoman of the
Guard (not to be confused with the Yeomen Warders of
the Tower of London) and the Gentlemen at Arms (formerly
known as Gentlemen Pensioners). There are a few
establishment lists in the Royal Archives which
include the names of those serving in these bodies,
and there may be occasional references to them in
other papers. Their names may also appear in the
Household Index, but otherwise records of these
bodies are held by the Exon, the Queen's Bodyguard of
the Yeomen of the Guard and the Clerk of the Cheque
and Adjutant, Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms,
at St. James's Palace, London SW1A 1JR.
The Royal Archives do not hold records for
servicemen, whether or not they did guard duty at
Royal Palaces. Military records can be found at the
PRO or sometimes at regimental record offices.
Similarly records of police officers on duty will be
in the Metropolitan Police records at the PRO or at
New Scotland Yard. Occasionally, however, names of
police officers do occur in Household records.
Records of the Yeomen Warders at the Tower of
London are at the PRO, but it may be possible to
obtain information direct from the Tower where one of
the Yeoman Warders acts as honorary archivist.
Grace & Favour
residences
The Archives hold registers of occupants of Grace
& Favour apartments at Hampton Court from about
1840, although they are not complete. The allocation
of apartments at Hampton Court and in other royal
residences is recorded in the Lord Chamberlain's
Annual Reports from 1852. Further information on the
apartments and their occupants can be found in the
records of the Privy Purse and in the twentieth
century in the Lord Chamberlain's Department records.
Residents often employed their own staff, but as they
did not form part of the Royal Household there are no
employment records for them in the Royal Archives.
Presentation at Court and
Garden Parties
Records of Drawing Rooms, Courts and Levees, at
which ladies and gentlemen were presented to the
Sovereign, may be found in the Lord Chamberlain's
records at the PRO for the nineteenth century and
possibly earlier. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
newspapers published lists of all those presented,
often including details of the dress worn by ladies.3
From 1902 the Royal Archives hold the Lord
Chamberlain's Office registers of presentations at
Court functions, including Garden Parties which came
to replace the presentation par-ties. Formal
presentation of ladies at Court ceased in 1958. For
Garden Parties since the War (both at Buckingham
Palace and at the Palace of Holyroodhouse), lists of
invitations have been preserved merely on a sampling
basis.
Honours and Awards
The Royal Archives do not hold complete records of
honours, although there are extensive records
relating to Orders created by monarchs to reward
personal service (the Victoria Faithful Service Medal
and the Royal Victorian Order). Citations for other
honours are rarely found. Lists of recipients of
honours at investitures can be found in the London
Gazette and also in the Court Circular and other
press reports. Photographs of recipients can also
sometimes be found in press reports of investitures,
both in national and local newspapers.4
Records of awards of Orders of Chivalry are held by
the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood at
St. James's Palace.
Other sources for names in
the Royal Archives
The Royal Archives maintain detailed manual and
computerised indexes which include many names of
those coming into contact with the Sovereign or
members of the Royal Family and referred to in
letters, journals or other papers. There are also
writer addressee indexes to certain sections in the
Archives, so that letters to or from named
individuals can be traced.
The Royal Archives receives large numbers of
enquiries from family historians from all over the
world. Most of these are answered by post, but if
there is much relevant material researchers may well
be invited to examine the records themselves.
Enquiries about records in the Archives should be
addressed to the Registrar of the Royal Archives,
Windsor Castle, Berkshire SL4 1NJ, and enquiries
about photographs to the Curator of the Royal
Photograph Collection at the same address. There is a
basic research fee of £10 plus VAT (as at Dec 2000).
Charges for photocopies and photographs can be
supplied on request.
1 George Edward Cockayne, "The Complete
Peerage" (St. Catherine's Press 1940) and
Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (Burke's Peerage Ltd.,
1999, and earlier editions).
2 Jane Roberts, "Royal Landscape: the Gardens
and Parks of Windsor" (Yale, 1997). Includes
many references to Great Park and Home Park employees.
3 British Library Newspaper Library, Colindale
Avenue, Colindale, London NW9 5HE. Tel. 020 7412 7353
4 British Libra ibid
Biographical note
Sheila de Bellaigue is the Registrar of the Royal
Archives. She was born in 1945 and read Modern Languages
at Oxford. She joined the Royal Archives as Assistant
Registrar in 1967; she worked for a short period from
1971 at the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in
London before returning to the Royal Archives in 1977.
She became Registrar in 1988.
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