This week I’ve uploaded to Github a fairly large amount of data and documentation about the Propositions. This was a system of voluntary contributions to the parliamentarian war effort in the early part of the First English Civil War. It was very successful at first but didn’t last long and was replaced by compulsory taxes. The readme file in the main directory that I’ve linked to gives a slightly more detailed overview of the system, with links to sources. There’s also a list of manuscript records that I haven’t transcribed but that could be useful if anyone else wants to research the Propositions in the future.

The most important dataset that I’ve uploaded is a transcript of three account books in TNA, SP 28/131/3-5 listing horses, arms, and riders contributed for the parliamentarian army in 1642 and 1643. These books name thousands of horse owners, often with their address and status. They also give descriptions of the horses, often including details of colours and markings. The transcript is marked up with XML. This data needs more systematic analysis, as most historians have only cherry-picked examples from it. There is also lots of scope for more detailed research on individual people and places. The record linkage that I’ve done is only very rough and could be improved on.

There were probably far more contributions of money and plate than of horses and arms, but there isn’t such a comprehensive record of money and plate. One source that I’ve transcribed and uploaded is an account covering Propositions money and assessments on non-contributors in part of the county of Essex. This can only be a tiny fraction of total contributions, but it’s unique as far as I know in allowing a direct comparison of contributors and non-contributors. Some accounts of money collected in other places are listed in the readme file but not transcribed. Even these are likely to be only fragments of the total.