'Land Tax Assessments’, as Eric Probert our speaker described them, were an annual list of owners and occupiers of land and property with a rental value and tax amount. He gave us a very interesting illustrated talk using many examples of an area of family history that few of us knew well. As Eric was based in Essex, he used Purleigh in that county for many of his examples.
Land Tax Assessments were first levied in 1692 and collected up until 1963 so they have a long history. They generally show the name of the owner (of a building or piece of land), the name of the occupier, a brief description of the property, the sum assessed and the amount of tax. As women could own land and were occupiers, females feature in land tax assessments whereas they are absent from electoral registers. In 1745, an Act specified that freeholders could only vote if they were assessed for land tax and this was reinforced in 1780 by a further Act. Payments of this tax qualified land owners to vote in elections for Parliament therefore Clerks of the Peace needed to keep copies of these records so they could draw up poll books at Parliamentary elections. Due to this, most counties have good land tax record survival from 1780 – 1832. The tax was levied on the owners of buildings, land and moveable goods and the cost from 1772 – 1832 was four shillings in the pound. From 1798, Land Tax could be redeemed by the payment of a lump sum and landowners were thereby exonerated. The lump sum equalled 15 years’ tax; at the same time, owners of land valued at less that £1 were exempted from the tax. Most of the names in the assessments are the heads of households so relationships are not included.
Land Tax assessments may be useful to determine the period over which a person was in a parish (name, date, location) and to distinguish between people of the same name by property description and rental value. They may be used to locate people who have migrated to another parish, gauge wealth and social standing and occasionally find occupations from property descriptions.
Though it is a useful source of landownership and occupiers in parishes, Eric said that the information has to be used with caution. Not all landowners or tenants will be recorded and poorer sub-tenants and labourers will be absent. Many individuals will appear several times in various parishes and large landowners may appear in a number of counties across the country. The description of property is limited and names of properties are rarely given but you may find more householders’ names in Land Tax assessments than in electoral registers.
Eric went on to outline sources of data and information, some accessible from online databases and websites, others by visiting TNA and County Record offices. The National Archives has complete records for England and Wales for the year 1798 which are also available on Ancestry. He also recommended various books – for further information, see Eric Probert’s website scroll down to ‘Land Tax Assessments for Family Historians’.
Lesley J Smith Secretary Deal and District Branch of Kent FHS