About the List and Index Society

The List and Index Society is a not-for-profit society that publishes editions and calendars of historical records. It has also published monographs from time to time. Its publications can be found in the major British and American public and university libraries: they are also available for purchase by individuals. The society is managed by its officers and a council representing the British historical community.

When Sir Geoffrey Elton and others founded the Society in 1965, its aim was to meet an immediate need by publishing and distributing ‘photographic copies of unprinted lists and indexes kept in the Public Record Office, London, and of other unprinted guides and aids to the use of public archives in the British Isles', so that historians working at a distance from London could find out what was available in advance of their visits. As the Society nears its half-century, the dissemination of lists and indexes in facsimile has been replaced by the online catalogue. In these very different circumstances, the Society continues to serve the historical community by publishing texts, editions and tabulations of historical manuscripts that are outside the range of the online catalogue, but judged to be unremunerative by academic and other presses.

Central to the Society’s recent activities has been the multi-volume publication of some major series of documents such as:

• the medieval Enrolled Customs Accounts edited by Stuart Jenks
• the Calendar of Patent Rolls Elizabeth I
• the Judges’ Reports on Criminals, 1783-1830 in the National Archives series HO 47.

We are currently part way through publishing Professor Lou Knafla’s project to draw together all the legal materials for an English county, Kent at Law. Many of our publications are, however, single volumes, often originating as by-products of research projects.

Find out more about our current publications.

We welcome proposals for future volumes.

The Council and Officers of the Society

The List and Index Society is ruled by a Council, which consists of a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and not fewer than six other members. The Council is responsible for regulating all the affairs of the Society.

The current Officers of the Society are:

The current Council members are: