Politics and Loyalty in Post-Revolution Oxfordshire

The '1690' County Parliamentary Poll: The Association Oath Rolls, 1695-6

This is a used book which has been donated for us to resell

Book is in excellent condition, some minor knocks to cover

Transcribed and Edited by Jeremy Gibson

A5, 80 pages, ISBN: 978-1-906280-30-7

The 1690 Parliamentary Poll is the earliest for the County of Oxfordshire to survive.

Its haphazard list of 1,487 voters has been rearranged and indexed according to the place where their freehold property was situated. This, providing forty shillings or more annual income, was their qualification to vote. The listing shows whether they voted Whig or Tory (no secret poll in those days). Nearly all individuals have been identified with men at least bearing the same name occurring in contemporary records.

The Association Oath of 1695-6 was a nationwide expression of loyalty, after an assassination attempt on King William lll. Every office holder and all others who wished might sign. The Rolls for Oxfordshire, parchment membranes stitched together, together are well over one hundred feet long, totaling approximately 11,850 signatures.

Unfortunately many of the membranes do not name places. However, a close examination of the rolls (this took around five days) has identified places that are named. They are now logically numbered.

Thus this analysis at last makes possible quick and easy examination of the rolls for the listing relating to any of the identified places; lists of fifty or more men for a parish, men who could sign their names. This adds a new source for village historians, one unusable until now.