England, Cheshire, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection includes an index to tax records for the county of Cheshire for the years 1778-1832.

Beginning in 1692, land tax assessments were records of taxpayers from year to year, and were organized by parish, hundred, and county. For the period of the collection, these records also served as a form of voter registration. Most of the physical documents were handwritten, but later assessments were recorded on pre-printed forms.

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What Can These Records Tell Me?
Tax Assessment Records may include:
 * Date and place of assessment
 * Name of proprietors or landowners
 * Names of the occupiers or tenants
 * Tax sums assessed in pounds, shillings, and pennies.
 * Additional taxes or sum redemptions in pounds, shillings, and pennies
 * Name of assessor
 * Name of collector
 * Names of those approving the tax

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching, it is best to know the following information:
 * Name of the person
 * General date of the record

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Copy down all the information in the index entry.
 * Cite the record. See below for assistance citing this collection.
 * Use the information you have found to find the individual in other records. Particularly useful for research in nineteenth-century Cheshire are the England Census, Civil Registration, and Parish Registers.
 * Continue to search the index to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives.

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * When looking for an individual with a common name, look at all the search results before deciding which is the correct person. Use other information, such as place of birth, age, occupation, or names of parents, to help with this decision. If listed, a personal title may be a clue to property ownership or occupation, either of which might be noted in other records.
 * Try variations of given names and surnames. An individual might appear under a different name in a record for a variety of reasons:
 * - An individual might have been listed under a middle name, nickname, or abbreviation of their given name.
 * - Spelling was not standardized for much of the period of this collection, so names were often spelled as scribes heard them. Pay attention to how the name should have been pronounced and try spelling variations that could have that pronunciation.
 * - Some women returned to their maiden names after the death of their husbands.


 * Vary the search terms. For example, expand the date range or search by either the given name or surname to return broader list results.
 * Search the records of nearby locations. While a person in this period rarely lived more than 20 miles from their place of birth, moves within this range were common. For this collection, bordering locations could include parishes in the English counties of Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south, or in the Welsh counties of Denbighshire and Flintshire to the west.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

"England, Cheshire, Land Tax Assessments, 1778-1832." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2017. Citing Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, Record Office, Chester, England.
 * Collection Citation:

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