England Land Taxes (National Institute)

Taxes On Land
There have been many taxes levied upon the value of holdings. A reasonable expectation might be that records of taxation would indicate who held which pieces of land, however such is not the case (Camp 2000). Surviving records of rates, as taxes are often known in England, usually only give the total rateable (taxable) value of land or property held by each person.

Land Tax Assessments (LTAs)
The Land Tax was first assessed in 1692, replacing the older Hearth Tax, and lasted until the 1950s. Records from the early period are rarely extant, but copies were made from 1745 until the 1832 Reform Act to provide a register of those qualified to vote in Parliamentary elections. These were deposited with the Clerk of the Peace thus the survival rate from this period is better, particularly since 1780 when printed forms were issued which identified both owner and occupier.

A parish land tax record usually follows the same pattern each year, thus it is most useful for tracking tenancy and family changes if one can access a long run of them. Used together with the tithe maps and apportionments of the 1830s and 1840s, and the 1841 and 1851 censuses, they can provide a way to locate and follow the occupation of ancestral property for roughly a century. All land occupiers should be listed from 1786 thus, with careful use, they can be a heads-of-household census substitute in the difficult era prior to the commencement of civil registration when non-Anglicans are hard to find, or where parish registers are missing. However, the sub-tenants are not listed.

The reliability of the land tax assessments in the period 1780-1832 stems from the fact that they were used as electoral registers for every male over 21 and a forty-shilling freeholder who had been assessed for land tax. Post-1832 LTAs are also useful to augment tithe surveys, census and civil registration, and are cheaper than the latter to find out exactly where your family lived each year. Pearl’s article (Parish Sources Part III Land Tax: Yesterday’s Electoral Register. Family Tree Magazine Vol 7 #8, page 24-25) is useful and Ponting (Land Tax Assessments. Family Tree Magazine Vol 9 #5, page 15-16) shows how LTAs were helpful researching his family. The current guide to extant LTAs up to 1949 is that by Gibson, Medlycott and Mills (Land and Window Tax Assessments, 1993).

The assessments often start with the larger properties and proceed to the smaller ones, and the actual number of landowners will indicate whether the parish was an open or closed one. However caution has to be used as only the main subtenants’ names may appear, and the succession of a new tenant may only give a rough clue as to the date of death of the previous one. In addition, if holdings are scattered throughout a parish it may be difficult to identify a particular one. The Land Tax Returns are lists of the actual monies collected.

Prior to 1780 usually only owners of land are listed in annual (occasionally quarterly) LTAs. From 1780 typically the owners were listed in the first column and the occupiers in the second one, but sometimes this was reversed and if no column heading is given then one should consult previous or later years to find the pattern.

Chart: 1814 Land Tax Assessment for Long Ditton, Surrey

Chart: Devon Heads of Households Index—Extracted from LTAs by Patterson et al.

Many LTAs are on the FHLC under COUNTY - PARISH – LAND RECORDS, such as the examples shown in charts 57-59 which show the LTAs for the parish of Woodland, Devon from 1823-1831.

LTAs By Date
Chart: Land Tax Assessment by Date Woodland, Devon 1823–1831

LTAs By Property
Chart: Land Tax Assessment by Property Woodland, Devon 1823 – 1831

Chart: Summary Analysis of Land Tax Assessment Woodland, Devon 1823 – 1831

Most LTAs are at county archives in parish bundles arranged by year and Gibson, Medlycott and Mills (Land and Window Tax Assessments, 1993) have provided a list of surviving assessments with current location.

Guildhall Library holds those for the City of London 1692-4 and 1703-1930 and a leaflet guide with additional information. Indexes are appearing, for example for Hampshire 1800-1832 by Neville (An Index to Land Tax Assessments for Hampshire (1800-1832). Hampshire Family Historian Vol 27 #2, page 82), and West Sussex 1785 by Readman et alia (West Sussex Land Tax 1785. Sussex Record Society Vol 82. [East Sussex in vol 77]). Heskins (Land Tax Records Are a Worthwhile Source for Family Historians. Journal of One-Name Studies Vol 7 #1, page 8-9.) provides assurance that Land Tax records were useful in her research.

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