Drum heads, historically, were made out of calf, goat, or sheep skin. The Duke of Norfolk in the 15th century made
payments for repairing instruments - a cord for a tabor (1464) and parchment [4d to the taborets for parchment]
to repair a tabor (1481).
Accounts of the household of Thomas and Edmund, the king’s sons
11d to Martinettus the taborer, for the repairing of drums of the king’s sons and for moneys paid by him for
parchment for the covering of the said drums: London, 18 November.

In the 17th century in France, Mersenne (1636) notes that the heads should be made of sheepskin.

Also… "writing parchment, drum-heads" …etc etc

“Friday last the Glassmakers at Newcastle made a most droll and laughable procession.—
- Their champion and other officers were mounted on asses, …sticks and shovels in place of music,
and empty butter firkins for drums.”

Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 10 November 1772

1795 story ‘The Village Assembly’

“…two blind fidlers, and a pipe and tabor, the parchment of which had met with a fraction,
consequently emitted a most horrid report, but every body's oral nerve not being so quick as
mine, it did not appear to affect them. …”

[Ed This passage is followed by a hilarious description of some of the dancers]

'The Observant Pedestrian; or, traits of the heart: in a solitary tour from Cærnarvon to London: in two volumes,
by the author of The mystic cottager. 1795: Vol 2'

1843 new inventions: a case heard in the Vice Chancellors’ Courts [part]:English Chronicle and Whitehall Evening Post - Saturday 11 November 1843

More information on this case in the Morning Herald (London) - Thursday 02 July 1846, pages 6, 7

1896 advert [detail] Derry Journal - Monday 17 August 1896

Newspaper advertisements for sales of drum-heads continued into the twentieth century.

England, cases heard at The Old Bailey, London and in the newspaper:
6th September 1693
“John Redshaw was arraigned for stealing a parcel of Parchment Writings, value 200 l. from one John Day
on the King's Highway , but no Evidence coming against him, he was acquitted .”

17th January 1739
"124. of London, Gent . was indicted, for that he, on the 28th of October , &c. with Force and Arms,
in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West , did feloniously steal, &c. a certain Parchment Writing, … 
the large Pieces the Witness's Wife sold at a Turner's Shop, to make Drum-heads. …"

3rd April 1816
"372. CHARLES RICHARD HURD and RICH-ARD KILMINSTER were indicted for stealing, on the 6th of November,
one hundred pounds weight of parchment, value 5l. the property of our Lord the King .
 In the month of November last, I missed four bundles of bills and answers, and twenty three bundles of replications.
I suppose I missed from one to two hundred weight. I know the two prisoners by their being writers in the office.
They are father and son-in-law. In consequence of some information, I went to Mrs. Bridges, Drum-maker, at Hoxton,
on the last day of February. I found there a great quantity of the parchment which I had lost, made up into drums
and tambarines. I should suppose altogether I found about a hundred weight of it there. It all consisted of bills,
answers, and replications."

1816 newpaper report of a Court case in London: Bell's Weekly Messenger - Sunday 17 March 1816

24th November 1834
"FREDERICK JOHN MUNTON (police-constable G 145.) On the 20th of November, at half-past six o'clock, I was on duty
in Ropemaker-street—I saw the two prisoners—Shelley had a bundle under his arm—I asked what it was—he said some
parchment which belonged to that young man, (pointing to Gray who was behind him,) and it was some that his master had given
him—my brother officer took Gray—we went to the station-house—in going along, Shelley said it was some that Gray bought of
his master, that he had given it to him to carry, and they were going to Whitecross-street, to sell it to a drum-maker"

The British Columbia Folklore Society writes in 2023:

“The parchment sides—one of which is fitted with a snare, should, we are told, be cut from an old will or testament,
because the skins upon which these were engrossed were peculiarly resonant!”