St. Helena

The East India Company occupied St Helena from 1659 when it became an important trading colony. Garrisons were installed to guard landing places from attack by foreign powers and a fort was established at Jamestown. The defence strength comprised "a regular garrison of Company's European Artillery and Infantry, and a militia drawn from the planters. The Charter Act of 1833 transferred the island to the Crown from 23 April 1834 and the Company's forces were disbanded on the arrival of British Army units in 1836.’’

Records

British Library

• Baptisms and Deaths recorded in St Helena Consultations 1737, IOR /G32/10
• Baptisms and Deaths recorded in St Helena Consulatations 1747-1766, IOR/G32/12-26
• Ecclesiastical Returns: Baptisms, Marriages and Burials at St Helena 1767-1835, IOR N/6/1-3. These records are probably included in the digitised records now available on the commercial site FindMyPast
• Summaries of civil and military establishment on St Helena 1780-1794, IOR/ G/32/41-47
• Wills and inventories recorded in St Helena Judicial Consultations 1820-182, IOR /G32/102

(For confirmation of the above five British Library references see British Library Sources)

• Nominal Muster Roll of St Helena Artillery, Infantry , Invalids and Pensioners 1789-1859 -British Library ref IOR/L/Mil/13/1-14
• St Helena Pensioners 5 Dec 1835- 19 July 1837 - British Library ref IOR/L/Mil/13/15

(For further details of what information is held under the two military records above see )

• The British Library's Endangered Archives Programme has digitised
  • some files from St. Helena (found by using EAP524 in the Search). Images are in TIFF format. Files include
    • Records of Births, Deaths, Baptisms and Marriages [1849-1924] for the Anglican parishes of St Helena. However, the only records viewable online are Banns of Marriage [1849-1924], See FIBIS Resources below for transcriptions/searchable database of the marriage records from this source.
  • Digitisation of the East India Company records of St Helena, South Atlantic (EAP1364). 2021 project, duration 24 months. Currently (20 July 2024) it appears that the digitisation has been completed, but the records have not yet appeared on the British Library's Endangered Archives website.

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Historical Papers Research Archive, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa holds the
Diocese of St. Helena, Parish Registers and Indices, Registers, 1680-1986 Reference code ZA HPRA AB2073. Records of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA), previously (prior to 2006) called CPSA, Church of the Province of Southern Africa.
Consists of 9 series of records including one series of Ascension Island records from 1839, and one series of records from Tristan d'Acunha. There is also a series of Boer Prisoner Burials, and a series of Gravestones and Memorials on St Helena.
The collection was digitised in 2014/2015 from microfilm filmed in 1989, and the images may be viewed online for free.

The data (possibly only the St Helena data) has been transcribed for a database St Helena Ancestors, part of the Friends of St Helena website. All users can run initial searches but only signed-in members (subscription fee applies) can see the full genealogical details.
Introductory Material for St Helena Ancestor’s Database friendsofsthelena.com.

FamilySearch

• FamilySearch, (free website), microfilms of records from St Helena may be found with this catalogue entry (keyword search St. Helena, India). Includes microfilms of some records from the India Office Records at the British Library and some records from originals at the Government Archives, Jamestown. Most microfilms have now been digitised and are available to view at FamilySearch Centres or FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries, see FamilySearch Centres.
• There are also some records for St Helena in the "World Miscellaneous" records on FamilySearch. The source of these records is unknown.

The National Archives

• There are muster rolls for the St. Helena Regiment at the National Archives WO 12/11042 – WO 12/11058 1842-1865. Note however the records after 1855 are only in respect of "St. Helena Regiment (Depot)", believed to be the Depot in England.

• The British Army Service records on the pay website findmypast appear to contain some records for men who served in the St. Helena Regiment

Records in St. Helena

• "Introduction to Seventeenth Century Records in the St Helena Archives" by Anna Winterbottom, Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, Queen Mary, University of London Lives and Letters, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2009 pdf xmera.co.uk
  • "Appendix 1: East India Company Consultations" pdf
  • "Appendix 2: Letters from England" pdf
  • "Appendix 3: Goodwin’s Abstracts" pdf
• "Records of the Island of St. Helena Lat. 15° 55' S. Long. 5° 428W" by G. C. Kitching The American Archivist Vol. 10, No. 2 (Apr., 1947), pp. 151-171 (21 pages). Published By: Society of American Archivists. Register with jstor to read online for free.
• See British Library above, for records digitised, or to be digitised, by the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme.

Also see

• East India Company Army for the period to 1836.
• Directories online contains online publications such as East-India Register & Directory, which for the early years contain references to St. Helena.
• Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories : African publications.

Information about the database African Newspapers: The British Library Collection, part of Readex World Newspapers Archive, and available at the British Library in the Reading Rooms. Contains some newspapers from St Helena for the period 1850s-1900.

FIBIS Resources

• FIBIS database: St Helena Musters 1819-1820. Artillery Companies. Transcribed from records held by the British Library IOR/L/MIL/13/10
• FIBIS database: Banns of marriages published in the Parish of St James 1849-1924 Taken from British Library Reference EAP524/2/3/1
• FIBIS Journal no 21 (pages 42-47) contains an article entitled "Some 'Anglo-Indian' and other Memorials at St Helena" by the late Trevor Hearl.
• Photographs of Gravestones & M.I.s in St James and St Paul's taken in 2008 fibis database
• Photographs of St Helena FIBIS Images Gallery

Ships and travel

• A Voyage to the East Indies in 1747 and 1748. Containing an Account of the Islands of St. Helena and Java. Of the City of Batavia. Of the Government and Political Conduct of the Dutch. Of the Empire of China, with a Particular Description of Canton ... 1762 Google Books. The Preface states the author was an officer in the service of the East India Company.
• The ship Friendship called at St Helena in October 1799 and on the return voyage in March 1801 as described in Cursory Remarks, on board the ship Friendship by Mrs Mary Anne Reid The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany page 452, Volume 8, 1819 and page 575, Volume 10, 1820. Google Books.
• St Helena in November 1804 page 287 A Voyage To India by Rev James Cordiner 1820 Google Books
• Pages 183-184 Asiatic Annual Register for 1806. Under a heading Deaths, May 1805, "At sea. On board the David Scott, East Indiaman, off the Cape of Good Hope, Mrs Clerk, wife to Lieut. Col. Clark, of the Madras establishment. ... Her remains were preserved in spirits until the 31st December following, when they were interred at St. Helena with all suitable attention, and followed to the grave by all the passengers of the fleet, and the greater part of the inhabitants of that island." The date of death of May 1805 is inaccurate, as Mrs Lucy Clarke died 20 December 1804.
• Twelve years' military adventure in three quarters of the globe: or, Memoirs of an officer who served in the armies of His Majesty and of the East India Company, between the years 1802 and 1814 Volume 2, page 118 by John Blakiston 1829. (Google Books) Describes calling in at St Helena on a voyage back to England c 1812.
• Journal of a Voyage in 1811 and 1812 to Madras and China returning by the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena; In the H. C. S. the Hope, Capt. James Pendergrass by James Wathen 1814. With Coloured Prints from drawings by the author. Archive.org. The final chapter describes the visit to St Helena.
• St Helena July 1862 page 115 Over five seas and oceans, from New York to Bangkok, Siam, and return. Some reminiscences by Thomas Miller 1894 Archive.org.
• The East Indiaman [ship] General Goddard in battle off St Helena in 1795 www.shipstamps.co.uk

Boer POW Camp

"Nothing remains of a prisoner-of-war camp on a high plateau where 6000 Afrikaners were held during the Boer War, but the graves of 156 who never saw their homeland again are carefully tended on a steep hillside. Two granite obelisks bearing their names stand as a memorial to farmers who fought bravely against what was then the mightiest army in the world".

Related articles

• POW Camps in India

External links

Other

• The St Helena Institute’s website, now archived said it aims to provide a focal point for research into St Helena and its dependencies, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha. It provides detailed resources for St Helena family history. Information is given about available records, including equivalent LDS microfilms.
• St. Helena Wikipedia
• Robert Brooke, Governor of St.Helena 1788-1800 Wikipedia
• Six Views of St Helena from Macquarie University’s Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archive
• "The East India Company slaving voyage of Nicholas Skottowe" by Professor Huw Bowen 09 January 2012 British Library Untold lives blog. The slaves were transported to St Helena and Bencoolen 1764-6.

"St Helena laws for inhabitants 1672" 04 September 2020. British LibraryUntold lives blog.

• "St Helena: 1792 – 1840: the latter days of Slavery" by Colin Fox, now an archived webpage. A short version of a presentation made to Society of the Friends of St Helena (FOSH) at their AGM held at Kenwood House on 21 May 2011. Members of Friends of St Helena may be able to access the full presentation.
• The Island History Pages sainthelenaisland.info. Includes
  • A Brief History Scroll down for an image of the sea routes to and from St Helena based on data 1750-1800
  • The St Helena Regiment ‘The Old Saints’ Formed in 1842 as part of the British Army for garrison duty, disbanded June 1863.
  • Boer POWs
• St Helena National Trust Education Packs : Places of Historic Interest - Pilling School, now an archived page. Includes a photograph of St Helena Regiment Soldiers.
• "Boer prisoners of war on the Island of St Helena" by A J Nathan Military History Journal 
Vol 11 No 3/4 - October 1999, The South African 
Military History Society

• "The Construction of Islandness, a Literal Example: St Helena in the Seventeenth Century" by Stephen A Royle (2008: 1–9) The Construction of Islandness (Refereed papers from the 3rd International Small Island Cultures Conference. Institute of Island Studies, University of PEI, June 29–July 2, 2007) pdf
• Company culture: information, scholarship, and the East India Company settlements 1660-1720s by Anna E Winterbottom 2010 PhD thesis, University of London. Pdf, core.ac.uk. Includes one chapter which has information about St. Helena.
• Anglo Boere Oorlog/Boer War (1899-1902) POW Saint Helena geni.com

Historical books online

• A history of the island of St. Helena: from its discovery by the Portuguese to the year 1806 Thomas H Brooke (1808) Google Books
• A history of the island of St. Helena, from its discovery by the Portuguese to the year 1823 Thomas H Brook (updated 2nd Edition 1824) Google Books
• A St. Helena who's who; or, a directory of the island during the captivity of Napoleon by Arnold Chaplin, 1914 Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged 1919 Archive.org
• "A Topographical and Statistical Account of St.Helena" by Dr McRitchie, Medical Staff of that Island. Page xxvii Appendix (back of book, digital page 198) Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, Volume 8 (Part 1), 1836. Archive.org
• Seventeenth Annual Report of the Church Society, St. Helena, 1861-62 Google Books.
• St. Helena: a physical, historical, and topographical description of the island ... The botanical plates from original drawings by Mrs. J. C. Melliss by John Charles Melliss 1875. Archive.org. British Library Digital Collection version with rotatable pages.

Article about the book: Page 501, Nature April 29, 1875. Archive.org.

• Extracts from the St. Helena Records compiled by Hudson Ralph Janisch, Governor of St Helena 1885 Archive.org
• St. Helena: the Historic Island from its Discovery to the Present Date by E.L. Jackson, illustrated from photographs, 1905 Archive.org
• Events of a military life: being recollections after service in the Peninsular war, invasion of France, the East Indies, St. Helena, Canada, and elsewhere Volume II by Walter Henry, Surgeon to the Forces 1843 Hathi Trust Digital Library (Volume I Google Books}
  • 1839 edition with title: Trifles from my Port-folio Volume I Google Books, Volume II Hathi Trust Digital Library
• [St Helena] Chapter 20 onwards digital page 254 There's a Secret Hid Away: Memories of Unusual Experiences and Mysteries in Southern Africa and African Isles... by Lawrence Green, first published 1956. Archive.org
• Colonial Reports-Annual. No. 323 St. Helena 1900 by Great Britain Colonial Office 1901. SUNDigital Collections Stellenbosch University.

Reports for additional years are available in the Archive.org collection Colonial Office (Great Britain) publications, including

• Colonial Office Annual Report on St. Helena 1947 HMSO 1949. Archive.org