The Dugdale Society are delighted to announce that our new two-volume text, Warwickshire’s Civil War ‘Loss Accounts’, 1640-1647, edited by Maureen Harris, will be available for purchase from November 2026,
In 1646, Parliament’s Accounts Committee ordered inhabitants across England and Wales to submit details of their financial and material losses as a result of parliamentary military activity since 1640.
The resulting ‘Loss Accounts’, both individual and communal, detailing heavy taxation, financial loans and charges, the frequent ‘free quartering’ of soldiers, and their indiscriminate, and sometimes violent, plunder of household goods, clothing, food, horses and livestock, have created a remarkable series of documents.
Although extracts from the ‘Loss Accounts’ of several counties have featured in the work of historians for over sixty years, no attempt has previously been made to collect and transcribe all the ‘Accounts’ for a single county.
In this ground-breaking work, the Dugdale Society are publishing for the first time Warwickshire’s entire returns in two volumes, fully indexed by person, place and subject.
They provide a unique insight into the experiences of named individuals, from the relatively humble to the county elite, and record their memories of a war in which they were often on the front line. These ‘Accounts’ will be of immense value to those researching economic, family, local, military and social history as well as to those interested in material culture and war memories.
The two volumes of Warwickshire’s Civil War ‘Loss Accounts’, 1640-1647 cost £45 plus postage and packing for non-members. Members of the Dugdale Society receive the volumes as part of their subscription. Details of how to order may be found here.
