Nature of Source
Records from a tax levied year-by-year on all land held by landowners with an annual value of more than 20 shillings. The surviving documents consist of assessments and returns and show the owners of real estate in each parish, organised by county, hundred and then parish. The tax replaced a number of levies and subsidies most notably the Hearth Tax. From 1772, the returns were altered to include not just the owners but all occupiers/tenants of land and property in the parish with the exception of paupers.
Most documents survive from 1780 to 1832, a period when the returns were used to establish a person’s entitlement to vote (see Poll Books) and were in effect electoral registers. From 1780, duplicate copies were lodged with Clerk of the Peace and are now found amongst Quarter Session records housed in County Record Offices. Therefore owners and tenants not subject to the tax should appear. Few records exist after 1832 following the Reform Act which widened the voting franchise and introduced electoral registers so the necessity to record land holdings diminished. Voting arrangements in Boroughs were different so no returns were made for these areas. By 1813 about one third of land was no longer subject to the tax and therefore does not appear in the returns.
From 1788 land owners were able to commute their tax demands into a one off payment that exonerated or freed their property from the tax. However, their names were still recorded each year with columns showing property ‘exonerated’ and ‘not exonerated’. As part of the process of land tax redemption a near complete listing of all occupiers and owners for the whole country was compiled in 1798 and can be found at The National Archives in series IR 23. Those that commuted their tax can be found in IR 22 and IR 24. Commutation was made compulsory in 1949 and the tax finally abolished in 1963. Roman Catholics were forced to pay double the rate from 1693 until Catholic emancipation in 1831.
Unfortunately very little transcription or indexing work has been undertaken and the records in county record offices are often found in bundles which makes searching for names an onerous task. Often the records fail to provide any name or description of the property and often fail to identify all the occupiers. Caution is needed as sometimes headings were omitted with the clerks reversing the names of proprietors and occupiers.
In Scotland a land tax was levied from 1667 until the introduction of Valuation Rolls in1855. The surviving records recorded the value of land for each parish together with the names of the owners. The records are now held at the National Records of Scotland in the Exchequer series. However, very few returns exist and those that do only include a very small percentage of the population as so few people owned landed property. The usefulness of the records are also undermined as the returns do not list occupiers or tenants.
Additional Resources
The following GenGuide sources could assist in researching land and property records:
- House Histories
- Land and Property Records including Title Deeds
- Lloyd George Domesday Survey (Valuation Office)
- Rate Books
- Return of Owners of Land
- Valuation Rolls & Stent Rolls (Scotland)
Where Found
County Record Offices
Local archives commonly hold land tax assessments, returns or duplicate assessments that list proprietors, occupiers and the amount assessed. In some places these survive as part of Quarter Sessions records, while in others they are catalogued as a separate land tax series. The main surviving series in many counties are duplicate assessments kept by the Clerks of the Peace from about 1780 to 1832. Pre-1780 survival is patchy and such records may be found in Quarter Sessions records, estate papers, parish records and sometimes other local or private collections.
- Series IR 23, 1798-1914, Land Tax Redemption Office: Quotas and Assessments. This series consists mainly of an enumeration of all occupiers and owners of property in England and Wales subject to Land Tax, including an enumeration of all occupiers and owners of property in England and Wales.
- Series IR 22, 1799-1953, Parish Books of Redemptions. Details shown in the volumes are (1) the name of the redemptioner, (2) the name of the occupant, (3) the amount of tax redeemed.
- Series IR 24, 1799-1963, Registers of Redemption Certificates. This series contains registers of redemption certificates from the Land Tax Redemption Office.
The London Archives
The Archives holds the Guildhall Library’s historical manuscript collections, including its comprehensive Land Tax Assessments dating from 1692 to 1932 for the City of London, the county of Middlesex and certain parishes in Kent and Surrey.
ScotlandsPeople Centre
Land Tax records (also called Cess Rolls or early Valuation Rolls) held at the Scotland’s People Centre are part of the National Records of Scotland Exchequer series (E106). Later Valuation Rolls from 1855 onwards name both owners and occupiers/tenants.
Period Covered
1693 – 1963
Genealogical Value
- The names of owners.
- The names of tenants and occupiers are listed between 1772-1832.
- The name and parish address of the property.
- The rental value and amount payable.
- Useful for house history research.
Further References
- Chapman, Colin. Pre-1841 Censuses & Population Listings in the British Isles: Lochin Publishing, 2002 (Preview available from Google Books)
- Gibson, Jeremy & Medlycott, Mervyn & Mills, Dennis. Land and Window Tax Assessments. 2nd ed.: Federation of Family History Societies, 1998
- Munby, Lionel M. & Thompson, Kathryn (eds) Short Guides to Records: First Series-Guides 1-24: The Historical Association, 1994
- Oates, Jonathan. Tracing Your Ancestors from 1066 to 1837: Pen and Sword Books, 2012
- Unwin, R. W. Search Guide to the English Land Tax: West Yorkshire County Record Office, 1982
- Ward, Reginald. The English Land Tax in the Eighteenth Century: Oxford University Press, 1953
Websites
The National Archives
The Land Tax 1692-1963. Mark Pearsall, Family History Records Specialist, Advice and Records Knowledge, discusses the development of Land Tax and the records available at TNA.
Devon Archives and Local Studies
Research Guides: Land Tax Records.
FamilySearch Research Wiki
Land Tax Assessment Records
University of Cambridge
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. The Land Tax in England and Wales 1798 and landownership and tenancy distribution. The project aims to create the earliest accurate national picture of landownership and tenancy patterns in England and Wales using the 1798 Land Tax assessments held at The National Archives.
University of Nottingham
Manuscripts and Special Collections. Tax Records. This research guide provides a concise overview of the main types of historic tax records including the Land Tax (1692–1963) and especially the detailed assessments from 1780 to 1832, which list owners and after 1772 occupiers.
National Records of Scotland
Research Guide: Taxation Records. National Records of Scotland holds several series of records relating to taxation. Various early attempts at taxation can be found in taxation records in the Exchequer records.
National Records of Scotland
Research Guide: Inland Revenue Survey Maps and Field Books. This guide will explore and explain the records of the Inland Revenue Scotland survey of land values and ownership which took place during the years 1910-1915.
Scotland’s People
Guide to historical tax rolls covering the late 17th to early 19th centuries. The guide covers the Land Tax (1645-1831) which includes owners (heritors) and rental values.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language
DSL Online. The website brings together the two major historical dictionaries of the Scots language: Modern Scots after 1700 in The Scottish National Dictionary; Older Scots before 1700 in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue.
Scots Online Dictionary
The site translates between Scots and English and for reading through the dictionary like a book. The dictionary supports both Scots-to-English and English-to-Scots lookups.
Online Databases
- UK, Land Tax Redemption, 1798. The records list names of owners and occupants of property in England and Wales that was subject to the national land tax extracted from series IR 23 held at The National Archives.
- Gloucestershire, England, Land Tax Records, 1713-1833.
- London Land Tax Records, 1692-1932. This database contains land tax records for various areas in London from the years 1692 through 1932, produced in association with The London Archives.
- Warwickshire Land Tax, 1773-1830. This database contains land tax assessment records for both landowners and tenants produced in association with Warwickshire County Record Office
- Surrey, Land Tax Records, 1780-1832. This collection contains land tax books from Surrey, England. Records list all households in the area, who occupied the house, who owned the house, the name or situation or the property, and how much tax was collected
- Dorset Records: Land Tax Returns, 1780-1832.
- Bedfordshire, England, Land Tax Records, 1797-1832.
- Edinburgh, Scotland, Extent Rolls, 1580-1847. Browse or search extent rolls which were tax documents comprising information about rental owners’ properties. The land tax was collected annually and typically show the names of the owners and occupiers/tenants, the street address and the occupation of the owner. The extent tax was abolished by parliament in 1896.
- Northamptonshire Land, Poll & Window Tax Lists. This record set contains transcriptions from a number of taxation records held by Northamptonshire Archives including Land Tax for 1801 for most parishes in the county, and for Northampton in 1805, Land & Window Tax for Daventry in 1776 & 1779 and for Wellingborough in 1782.
- Westminster, Poor Law and Parish Administration. The database contains over 1.7 million records from the poor law and parish administration records. The records cover Parish apprentices, Bastardy bonds, Settlement examinations, Paupers outdoor relief, Land tax and valuations and Workhouse admission records.
- Devon, Plymouth & West Devon Land Tax and Valuation Records, 1897-1949.
- Norfolk Land Tax Assessments 1665-1837 Browse. Browse through over 60,000 assorted tax assessment records for the county of Norfolk including: Assessment for ongoing war; Assessment lists for royal aids; Assessment lists for royal aids; Land tax assessments; Poll tax assessments; Window tax assessments
- Norfolk Parish Chest Records 1300-1990 Browse. Explore a variety of parish chest records from Norfolk spanning over 600 years including Land tax account book & game certificates, and Land valuations and Rate assessments.
- Land Tax Billinghurst, Sussex, 1780-1832.
- Cheshire Land Tax Records, 1786-1832.
- Cheshire, Land Tax Assessments, 1778-1832.
- Kent, Land Tax Assessments, 1689-1832
Cornwall OPC Database
Search Land Tax records, 1799
RootsWeb
Greenwich, Kent, Land Tax Assessments for 1830.
Scotland’s People
Virtual Volumes: Tax Rolls Search. Inhabited House Tax Rolls, 1778-1798. The tax rolls include all houses valued over £5 per annum with the names of the householders.
CD Roms
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