Allowing for the fact that Land Tax Assessments were compiled to facilitate the collection of a tax, rather than to provide a comprehensive record of all owners and occupiers of property in a parish, they still constitute an invaluable source for the local and family historian.
The Land Tax was introduced in 1692 and was finally abolished, after many changes, in 1963. The surviving assessments list owners of land in each parish and (sometimes) occupiers.
The assessments survive best for the 1780-1832 period, when copies were provided for the Clerk of the Peace, who could then use them to check who was entitled to vote in parliamentary elections.
It is quite common for Assessments from before c.1780 to contain only one set of names. Generally speaking these can be assumed to be the proprietors. Throughout the period the names supplied are usually those of the male heads of households.
From 1798 the tax was fixed at four shillings in the pound and became a permanent annually levied charge on the land. Owners of land valued under one pound a year were exempt.
Standard forms were introduced for Assessments from this date bearing the following column headings:
Rentals: the annual value of the property (often not completed)
Names of proprietors and copyholders: names are often abbreviated and no indication given of residence or profession.
Names of occupiers: all tenants may not be specifically mentioned e.g. ‘James Thornton and others’; one cannot assume in such cases that Thornton is a more substantial tenant than any other.
Names or description of Estates or Property: house numbers or street names are rarely provided, property is most commonly described simply as ‘House’ or ‘Land’ although public houses, shops, mills, etc. may be identified. Sums assessed and exonerated: in 1798 the option of securing exemption from annual payments by a one-off payment equivalent to 15 years tax was introduced.
Cambridgeshire Land Tax returns
For a handlist of land tax returns held at Cambridgeshire Archives see the link below.
The following indexes are also available:
1750 Ely and South Witchford division: typescript index of owners with parishes
1798 Wisbech and North Witchford division and Liberties of Thorney and Whittlesey: typescript index of owners and occupiers with parishes
1829 Cambridgeshire, Cambridge Borough and Ely and South Witchford division:
card index of owners and occupiers with parishes
The following publications, available for reference in our searchroom, provide more detailed information on the history and applications of Land Tax Assessments:
Land Tax Assessments - H.G. Hunt in Short Guides to Records ed. Lionel M. Munby, 1972
Land and Property, The English Land Tax, 1692-1832 - M. Turner and D. Mills, 1986
Family Roots, Discovering the Past in the Public Record Office pp.63-64 Stella Colwell, 1991
Land and Window Tax Assessments - J. Gibson, M. Medlycott and D. Mills, 1998
Search Guide to the English Land Tax - R.W. Unwin, West Yorkshire County Record Office, 1982.
Halsbury’s Statutes of England Third Edition Vol 18, 1970.