The History of Parliament Trust was established in 1940 to complete historical research on the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors. Covering over 700 years of English, and then British political history, our work has focused, and continues to focus, on the publication of:
- a biography of every MP and peer to have sat in Parliament.
- a history of every election in every parliamentary constituency.
- surveys of political and parliamentary life since the thirteenth century.
Since 1964 we have published over 30,000 biographies and over 3,000 local constituency histories. This work is available to access free on our Research Hub, as well as in our traditional multi-volume collections.
The work of the Trust is ongoing. We are currently organised into six small teams of researchers, or ‘sections’, focused on specific time periods. Our researchers regularly share highlights from their ongoing work on this website, which can be explored via our collections:
Current Projects
More information about our current projects can be found below:
Previous Publications
Our published work is available to access free on our Research Hub and in print. Details of our print publications can be found below:
House of Commons
House of Commons, 1386-1421, eds. Linda Clark, Carole Rawcliffe and J. S. Roskell (Boydell & Brewer, 1993)
House of Commons 1422-1461, ed. Linda Clark (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S. T. Bindoff (Boydell & Brewer, 1982)
House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P. W. Hasler (Boydell & Brewer, 1981)
House of Commons 1604-1629, eds. John P. Ferris and Andrew Thrush (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
House of Commons 1640-1660, ed. Stephen Roberts (Boydell & Brewer, 2023)
House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B. D. Henning (Boydell & Brewer, 1983)
House of Commons 1690-1715, eds. David Hayton and Eveline Cruickshanks (Boydell & Brewer, 2002)
House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. Romney Sedgwick (Boydell & Brewer, 1970)
House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. Lewis Namier and John Brooke (Boydell & Brewer, 1964)
House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R G Thorne (Boydell & Brewer, 1986)
House of Commons 1820-1832, ed. David Fisher (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
The Political Lives of Postwar British MPs, eds. Emma Peplow and Priscila Pivatto (Bloomsbury, 2020)
House of Lords
House of Lords 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
House of Lords 1660-1715, ed. Ruth Paley (Cambridge University Press, 2016)