  In the 19th century, several astronomers made observations of sunspots,
recording their positions and sometimes their areas. These observations were
published in the form of extensive tables, but have been unhelpful until now.
Three of these observers were Richard C. Carrington, Christian H. F. Peters,
and Warren de la Rue (and their respective collaborators). They published, in
various articles the data corresponding to 26 641 sunspot positions
(Carrington, Peters, and de la Rue registered 4 900, 14 040, and 7 701 sunspot
positions, respectively). In this paper we present a translation of more than
400 pages of their printed numerical tables into a machine readable format,
including an initial analysis targeted at detecting possible mistakes in the
reading or in the original transcription. The observations carried out by these
three astronomers have been made available at the Centre de Don\'ees
Astronomiques de Strasbourg
(http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/VizieR?-source=VI/138).
