A Word of Warning!

Time and time again I see comments about the difficulty of researching before the introduction of civil registration in 1837. It seems like entries of birth, marriages and deaths, as well as the 1841-1921 censuses have become the go-to resources. The commercial genealogy companies certainly aim to publish the ‘big-ticket’ sources that generate the most revenue. It’s possible that reliance on these online sources has led to a misunderstanding about the many documents that can be used for family history research. Many of these documents are simply not available online.

Recently, I even encountered the following warning on an online forum:

“A word of warning! Detailed, reliable records in England prior to c.1800 are few and far between; the further back you go from there, everything becomes more uncertain. The earliest records for most families are from c.1600, and even then they are parish registers that typically give very few details.”

Whatever you do, do not heed this warning! I made sure I offered an alternative view to the above statement. In fact, the above warning is based on a very limited understanding of the wide range of sources used in genealogical research. I am not saying that research prior to 1837 is necessarily easy or straightforward, but there are many sources that we can use to help us trace our family tree.

Marriage Duty Assessments:

This blog post will look briefly at Marriage Duty Assessments as a rich source of genealogical information.

Background:

In the late 17th century, the government was looking for ways of generating money. The Marriage Duty Act was approved by parliament on 1st May 1695 and was initially to last for five years. The act was later extended for a further six years and ran from 1695-1706. It generated money by imposing a tax on marriages, births and burials, as well as an annual tax on bachelors over the age of 25 and childless widowers.

The rate of taxation was set according to a graduated scale. This took into consideration factors such as an individual’s title and status in society or the wealth of an individual’s estate. There were also a number of exemptions. The full scale and details of exemptions can be found in Table 1a and Table 1b here: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-record-soc/vol2/introduction\

Administering the Marriage Duty Act:

Assessors were instructed to create detailed annual lists of everyone who lived in their assessment area, including servants and lodgers. Arkell (1992) explains that the assessments were intended to be “a complete annual nationwide household enumeration.” [1] Where they survive, these assessments are extremely important to historians and genealogists alike.

Surviving assessments range in the detail they provide and Schurer and Arkell (1995) explain that “the best… assessment lists were virtually complete local censuses arranged by household.” [2] In some cases, households are clearly marked on the assessments, but this is not always the case. It is important to critically analyse each source to understand how it was compiled, what it can tell us, and the limits of its usefulness.

Gibson (1996) identifies many of the surviving assessments in his book ‘The Hearth Tax, Other Later Stuart Tax Lists and the Association Oath Rolls’. [3]

Marriage Duty Assessments of the City of London:

Many assessments survive for the City of London and these have been indexed by the London Record Society. [4] The society’s publication, ‘London Inhabitants Within the Walls 1695’ has been made available online and essentially acts as a finding aid to the original documents which are held at the London Metropolitan Archives.

The assessments likely took some time to compile. They were signed by the assessors and then returned to the Commissioners who would also sign and date them. While many of the assessments were completed in May, June and July, those for St Mildred, Bread Street were not returned until 2nd August.

These assessments constitute complete population lists for eighty of the ninety-seven parishes. They include a wealth of information, including the following:

• The forename and surname of nearly every person is recorded.

• Houses are usually distinguishable and arranged in street order. The assessments for St Anne, Blackfriars and St Martin, Vintry record the names of the streets.

• Occupations are sometimes recorded. Occupational information is given in the assessments of ten parishes: St Andrew by the Wardrobe; St Benet, Paul’s Wharf; St John the Baptist; St Katherine, Coleman; St Lawrence, Pountney; St Mary Bothaw; St Mary le Bow; St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street; St Mary, Woolchurch and St Mary Woolnoth.

• The assessments for St Mary le Bow records the occupation of almost every inhabitant.

• Children, servants, apprentices and lodgers are often identified as such.

• Social status is often specified due to the graduated nature of the taxes, or liability for a surtax is recorded, including owning personal estate worth at least £600, or real estate valued at least £50 per annum.

• Assessments show if an individual was married, widowed or unmarried. For unmarried men, it is indicated if they were above the age of 25 years. Bachelors and childless widowers are shown separately in most assessments. Some assessments show all unmarried people liable for the marriage tax.

• The wife and children of the men are usually discernible.

• Sometimes the schedule records the sums due if a specified event were to occur.

• The family group that a servant is associated with is sometimes implied, although in some assessments, servants appear at the end of a house containing multiple households. In the latter case, it is impossible to link them to a particular household. Often specific terms were used to describe servants, e.g. maidservant, footboy or nurse.

• Some individuals are designated as ‘parish children,’ ‘inmates’ or ‘poor women,’ although the latter two may have been lodgers in some cases.

The London Record Society has also published ‘London Inhabitants Outside the Walls, 1696’. This covers the thirteen London parishes that are found outside of the City walls. This volume can also be found online. [5]

Assessments for Bristol:

Bristol has many surviving assessments, with a complete collection from 1696 being published by the Bristol Record Society under the title ‘The Inhabitants of Bristol in 1696’. This publication has been made available online in PDF format. [6]

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It is clear that any type of research requires a degree of skill and knowledge. There are always challenges and difficulties to be faced, but there are also many sources available that might help the genealogist. I hope I have been able to illustrate at least one source, amongst many, that can provide a wealth of information. A word of warning… know your sources!

End Notes:

[1] Schurer, Kevin and Arkell, Tom (eds.), Surveying the People: The Interpretation and use of Document Sources for the Study of Population in the Later Seventeenth Century, Oxford, 1992, p.168.

Note: This text can be borrowed for free from https://archive.org with a free account.

[2] Ibid., p. 132.

[3] Gibson, Jeremy, The Hearth Tax, Other Later Stuart Tax Lists and the Association Oath Rolls, 2nd Edition, Federation of Family History Societies, 1996.

[4] Glass, David, London Inhabitants Within the Walls, 1695, London Record Society, Volume 2, London, 1966, British History Online, available at: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-record-soc/vol2/introduction, accessed: 26th July 2022.

[5] Wallis, Patrick, London Inhabitants Outside the Walls, 1695, London Record Society, Volume 45, London, 2010, British History Online, available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-record-soc/vol45, accessed: 26th July 2022.

[6] Ralph, Elizabeth and Williams, Mary E. (eds.), The Inhabitants of Bristol in 1696, Bristol Record Society, Volume 25, 1968, available at: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/History/bristolrecordsociety/publications/brs25.pdf, accessed: 26th July 2022.