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Balsden Surname Ancestry Results

Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'balsden'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 5 records (displaying 1 to 5): 

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National ArchivesBritish merchant seamen (1835-1836)
At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act this large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. Each seaman was assigned a number, and the names were arranged in the register by first two letters of the surname (our sample scan shows one of the pages for 'Sm'); in addition, an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. But no effective method was devised to prevent the same man being registered twice as he appeared in a second crew list; moreover, the original crew lists were clearly difficult for the registry clerks to copy, and some of the surname spellings appear to be corrupted. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and this register was abandoned after less than two years: but it is an apparently comprehensive source for British merchant seamen in 1835 to 1836. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (master, captain, mate, 2nd mate, mariner, seaman, fisherman, cook, carpenter, boy &c.); and the name and home port of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all (for instance, Charleston and Stockholm appear in the sample scan). The final column 'How disposed of' is rarely used, and indicates those instances where a man died, was discharged, or deserted his ship during the voyage.

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British merchant seamen
 (1835-1836)
National ArchivesMerchant Seamen (1840-1844)
The Registry of Merchant Seamen, including fishermen, sought to identify individuals securely in this series of registers by assigning to each man a unique number, grouped together by surname, and then by christian name, whereas in previous registers names had been jumbled together under the first two letters of the surname. Each man's age and birthplace was recorded, together with any number brought forwards from previous registration, i. e. the number assigned to the man in the registers for 1835 to 1840. Then each voyage is listed, with his status (e. g. S for seaman, M for mate, &c.) on that trip, the identification number of the ship, the date, and then the name of the ship. In the event of it becoming known that a man had died during the course of a voyage, that information is written across the remaining empty columns. BT 112/3.

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Merchant Seamen
 (1840-1844)
National ArchivesPersons of standing recommending London police recruits (1843-1857)
The Metropolitan Police Register of Joiners (MEPO 4/334) lists policemen joining the force 1 January 1843 to 1 April 1857 (warrant numbers 19893 to 35804). The register is alphabetical, in so far as the recruits are listed chronologically grouped under first letter of surname. It gives Date of Appointment, Name, Number of Warrant, Cause of Removal from Force (resigned, dismissed, promoted or died), and Date of Removal. Although the register was closed for new entrants at the end of 1842, the details of removals were always recorded, some being twenty or more years later. Those recruits not formerly in the police, the army, or some government department, were required to provide (normally) at least two letters of recommendation from persons of standing, and details of these are entered on the facing pages. Where a recruit was only recently arrived in the metropolis, the names and addresses of the recommenders can be invaluable for tracing where he came from. Those recruits not formerly in the police, the army, or some government department, were required to provide (normally) at least two letters of recommendation from persons of standing, and details of these are entered on the facing pages: the names in these are indexed here (the police recruits are indexed separately and not included here). Recruits transferred from other forces or rejoining the force did not normally need recommendations - in the latter case, former warrant numbers are given - but some recommendations are from police inspectors, even other constables. Recruits coming from the army sometimes have general military certificates of good conduct, but most often have a letter from their former commanding officer; recruits recommended by government departments (most often the Home Office) similarly have letters from the head of department. But the great majority of the names and addresses in these pages are of respectable citizens having some sort of personal acquaintance with the recruit. Where more than two recommendations were provided, the clerk would only record one or two, with the words 'and others'. Tradesmen are sometimes identified as such by their occupations; there are some gentry. Although the bulk of these names are from London and the home counties, a scattering are from further afield throughout Britain and Ireland.

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Persons of standing recommending London police recruits
 (1843-1857)
Trustees and solicitors in England and Wales (1858)
Perry's Bankrupt and Insolvent Gazette, issued monthly, included lists of assignments of bankrupts' estates. Each entry gives the name of the bankrupt (surname first, in capitals), the date (in brackets), address and trade; followed by the names and addresses of the trustees to whom the estate was delivered, and the name and address of the solicitor. This is the index to the names of the trustees and solicitors, from the issues from January to December 1858.

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Trustees and solicitors in England and Wales
 (1858)
Long-stay Paupers in Workhouses: Medway (1861)
This comprehensive return by the Poor Law Board for England and Wales in July 1861 revealed that of the 67,800 paupers aged 16 or over, exclusive of vagrants, then in the Board's workhouses, 14,216 (6,569 men, 7,647 women) had been inmates for a continuous period of five years and upwards. The return lists all these long-stay inmates from each of the 626 workhouses that had been existence for five years and more, giving full name; the amount of time that each had been in the workhouse (years and months); the reason assigned why the pauper in each case was unable to sustain himself or herself; and whether or not the pauper had been brought up in a district or workhouse school (very few had). The commonest reasons given for this long stay in the workhouse were: old age and infirm (3,331); infirm (2,565); idiot (1,565); weak mind (1,026); imbecile (997); and illness (493).

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Long-stay Paupers in Workhouses: Medway
 (1861)

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