J Roland Powell was born in London in 1889, the son of a clergyman. Educated at Sherborne School he graduated with a degree in History from Queen's College, Cambridge, in 1911. He served as a chaplain with the Yeomanry in the Middle East during World War One, and believed himself to be 'the only man to have organised a whist drive on the Mount of Olives'. He then held a number of curacies, principally in London, where he spent several years working in Limehouse, before becoming Vicar of Kingsbury, greater London, in 1931. He served on the Council of the Navy Records Society for many years, subsequently serving as a vice-president, and died in Bedford in 1980.

E.K. Timings was Head of the Search Department at the Public Records Office. He is frequently thanked in the introduction and acknowledgements in history volumes relating to the 17th century.