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British Parliamentary Papers: History of Parliament

How to find British Parliamentary Sessional Papers, Debates and other documents.

Volumes in Perkins Library

Use this search to find the volumes of the History of Parliament in Perkins Library:

History of Parliament Trust

About The History of Parliament

The History of Parliament Online

The History of Parliament is a research project creating a comprehensive account of the parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the thirteenth century. Unparalleled in the comprehensiveness of its treatment, the History is generally regarded as one of the most ambitious, authoritative and well-researched projects in British history.

It consists of detailed studies of elections and electoral politics in each constituency, and of closely researched accounts of the lives of everyone who was elected to Parliament in the period, together with surveys drawing out the themes and discoveries of the research and adding information on the operation of Parliament as an institution.

Twenty-eight volumes covering eight periods have already been published. They deal with 1386-1421, 1509-1558, 1558-1603, 1660-1690, 1690-1715, 1715-1754, 1754-1790 and 1790-1820: in all about 20million words, 20,000 pages, 17,000 biographies, covering 281 years of parliamentary history.

CD-ROM

Ask at the Perkins Circulation Desk for Reference CD-ROM C213 (Library Use Only)

The History of Parliament on CD-ROM contains the revised text of all seven of the sets of the History of Parliament published up to 1998: 1386-1421; 1509-1558; 1558-1603; 1660-1690; 1715-1754; 1754-1790 and 1790-1820 - in total twenty-three volumes containing more than 16,200 pages and 13 million words. It improves on the existing text by including lists of MPs sitting in every Parliament covered by the volumes, replacing for those periods the previously standard source, the Return published by the House of Lords in 1879. It also includes illustrations, particularly of every Speaker of the House of Commons; plans of the buildings where the Commons met, images of Parliamentary work and the Commons sitting; and illustrative documents; it also includes substantial corrections and additions to the printed text including fifteen new or heavily revised biographies for the 1558-1603 Section.