England, Cheshire, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records

England Cheshire

What is in the Collection?
This collection includes tax records for the county of Cheshire for the years 1778-1832.

Beginning in 1692, land tax assessments were records of taxpayers from year to year, and were organized parish, hundred, and county. For the period of the collection, these records also served as a form of voter registration. Most of the physical documents were handwritten, but later assessments were recorded on pre-printed forms.

One of the 39 historic counties of England, Cheshire is a coastal county in northwestern England which shares its western border with Wales. For a list of the parishes which historically made up this county with links to more information about each of them, see the Cheshire Parishes page.

Collection Content
Tax assessment records may contain the following information:


 * Name of the place
 * The year for the tax assessment
 * Name of proprietors or landowners
 * Names of the occupiers or tenants
 * Sums assessed are arranged in pounds, shillings, and pennies.
 * In some cases, additional columns that keep track of additional taxes or sum redemptions in pounds, shillings, and pennies
 * Includes the name or names of the assessors
 * Includes the name or names of the collectors
 * Includes the names of those who approved the taxes

How Do I Search the Collection?
This section provides information on how to search the collection, what to do with the information once you've found it and tips to help with this and further searches. To begin your search in the tax assessments, it would be helpful if you knew the name of your ancestor and some identifying information such as the approximate year and place of residence.

To search this collection by name: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the wiki article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Make a photocopy of the record, or extract the genealogical information needed. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details. Add this new information to your records of each family. The information may also lead you to other records about your ancestors. The following examples show ways you can use the information:


 * The source film number can identify the original entry.
 * The records will reveal where they lived and how much they paid in land tax from year to year.
 * If they rented the land, the landowner is also identified.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * The Land Tax assessment sheets vary in the number of individual entries for a given location in each year. Some large landholders may be found listed repeatedly within the index for the same place and year. The index was compiled by FamilySearch Indexing volunteers who were instructed not to record landowners such as "the Rectors of Malpas" in the index, but some inconsistency within the index will result in errors.
 * For information about the historical land associated with Malpas, Cheshire and its dual rectories refer to the parish page, there are several other landowners which will appear, such as Navigation Boards, Trustees, the Bishop of Chester, Executors, Titled Nobility, and Businesses.
 * Some indexed images contain several hundred names on each page/image, so omission and duplication may result.
 * The index is limited in content; it does not record the names of the assessor and collector for each place. The full image view of each page therefore may disclose much more information than the index only.
 * Check for variant spellings of the names.
 * Search the records of nearby localities.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):