This dataset compiles historical records of European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) fisheries and reef habitats from public and private documentary archives, describing the reefs before and during intensive bottom fishing. It was assembled by the Historical Ecology Working Group of the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA), formed in 2020. Records were sourced from scientific, popular media, government and archaeological publications published between 1524 and 2022, and describe observations from 200 BC to 2008, most of them from 1850 to 1899. Each record gives the estimated location of a past oyster fishery or reef, the year in which the habitat was stated to exist (or the year of publication of the source when no year was given), the source reference, and the level of confidence that the record refers to biogenic reef habitat and in the accuracy of the location. Where the sources allow, the extent of the reefs (area or length), their depth and, for the French coast, their outlines on historical maps are included. The records show that oyster reefs were once a dominant three-dimensional habitat along much of the European coast and in some shallow shelf seas.\nThis Darwin Core version contains 1,664 occurrence records of Ostrea edulis with an ExtendedMeasurementOrFact extension (confidence of reef habitat, area and length of oyster beds, status of the beds on the French historical maps) and the outlines of 167 oyster beds on the French coast. It is based on the supporting data published on Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6884167) and was prepared together with the data providers for EMODnet Biology and EurOBIS.