National Land Tax Assessment

National Land Tax Assessment

The 1798 land tax assessment had several purposes. It was used to make a more uniform version of the land tax between the various parishes in all counties of England and Wales. As part of the 1798 national land tax assessment, one record was made for every parish in England and Wales. Some parishes didn't follow the proper form or didn't properly turn in the assessment, so these parishes were asked to submit a correct form in 1799. It was 1806 before the government completed the project with at a single uniform assessment from every parish. Thus, the 1798 national land tax assessment could actually be from any year between 1798 and 1806, but has a single return from each and every parish.

This one set of assessment records are kept separately at the National Archives, organized


 * first by the name of the county,
 * second by the hundred, and
 * finally by parish.

Indexes will often be found at the beginning of the county and hundred. These records are held at the National Archives and are also at the Family History Library (FHL) on microfilm. The FHL call numbers may be located by searching the FHLC Locality Section heading England-Taxation. One way to find the FHL call numbers is use film/fiche number search in the Catalog using film number 1483001. The catalog record is also listed under the Author/Title heading Great Britain - Board of Inland Revenue - Land Tax Assessments or the old DOS catalog under computer number 505539.

Use this set of land tax assessments when the time period (1798 to 1806) fits what you are searching and the land tax assessments for your parish are not available to you.