Land Tax question

[Davedrave]

I was unaware of the existence of Land Tax records until yesterday. I think that some of my farmer ancestors must have paid this. However, the individuals I know of who would have paid it are already well documented in that I have some estate records which even give maps, names and acreages of fields farmed in the 1760’s and 1780’s, together with the crops grown.

I’m sure I’m not missing any family members, but would like to fill in a bit more of the social history. For example, one of the smaller tenants of 1787, who was noted to be an “extraordinary good farmer” deserving more land, had, by the time of his death in 1814 become the largest farmer in the village (deduced from the rental cost of his son’s farm in 1817, passed on at his father’s death). So I wonder whether the Land Tax records might shed any light here?

Dave

[goldie61]

I'm not quite sure what your question is here Dave.

From the Land Tax records I've seen of my particular ancestors, some of them (generally the earlier ones) can be written on a single sheet of paper, or sometimes written in a printed book (this seems to come later).
Some of them give quite a bit of information which can include - the proprietor's name, the occupier's name (often different as and when land was rented out), the name of the holding, and the sum assessed.
Some of them don't give all that information - the printed books I've seen just give proprietor, occupier and sum assessed, which is a shame.
I don't think I've seen any that give acreage of a holding. You can of course work out the approximate relative standing of any person within that community from the amount they have been assessed at.

Quite a lot are online now, and any information about ones ancestors always seem worth looking at for me. It all helps to fill out their lives.

[Essnell]

Hi   
Not sure whether you are talking about Britain or Erie. That is Eng, Wales, Scotland, Nthrn Ireland and Southern Ireland.   

I have only looked at some from Southern Ireland or the Irish Republic as they applied to my ancstor.    They gave info on the lessee and lessor or the owner if not leased land, the area of the piece and if there were buildings associated with it.  There were others that were specifically for assessing dwellings and those gave similar as to size, stories, lessee/lessor and occupier condition etc.  And of course the tax required or charged. 

Did not get any info on what was actually done on the land etc.  those come from estate books or other resources... I have not found any of those. I would dearly love to.

look for the post " Can someone please explain the difference"  in the common room. 

Essnell

[Davedrave]

Thanks for the answers. I have previously found some really interesting C18th farming documents and maps and also very good 1840’s tithe information. I was really just wondering what information I’d be likely to find in a land tax record that could potentially fill in a gap in my knowledge of an ancestor in the same English village. I knew that he was farming on a fairly small scale around 1787 but was considered by the estate bailiff (I assume) to be a very good farmer who was going to be able to rent more land from the estate when it became available. When he died in 1814 he was clearly pretty well off, leaving large legacies in a PCC will. I thought that land tax information from 1798 might show whether he was farming on a larger scale by then.

I decided to take out an Ancestry subscription for this and other records. Unfortunately, unlike some other tax records in the same book, which detail all the tenants of an estate, for this specific case the information is highly uninformative, simply telling me that “X, Y etc” (only two tenants actually named) paid £52-19-8. I suppose that since “Y” is the individual of interest to me, the fact that he is mentioned probably suggests that he was now a larger tenant than previously.

Fortunately I have found a few tax records which are relevant to other branches of my tree.

Dave