Land Tax Assessment

Calton - 1798

Land Tax was introduced in 1692, in the reign of William III and Mary, as yet another means of raising revenue and wasn't finally abolished until 1963. Administered at the local level, it was based on a tax quota for each parish, shared amongst the landowners.

The sums assessed are the actual amounts of tax charged, so by comparing the assessments you can get an idea of the size and value of the property. Between 1772 and 1909 the rate remained at 4s. in the £, but from 1798 properties valued at under 20s. per year were officially exempted from paying land tax.

Because the tax was levied locally, the surviving records are usually to be found in the local record office, normally in the Quarter Sessions records, but the survival rate of these tax lists varies greatly from year to year and place to place.

The annual Land Tax Assessments list the names of the Occupiers and the names of the Proprietors (owners of land) in each parish (or Township in the case of Malhamdale), many of the latter, for example Lord Ribblesdale, lived elsewhere. Occupiers may hold land in more than one parish or township, so did not always live where they are listed in the Land Tax Assessments. In Malhamdale farms often straddled several townships, as they do today.

After 1798 the tax could be redeemed or exonerated with a lump sum payment equivalent to 15 years’ annual tax. Exonerated properties and their owners were still listed because of the need to record voting rights (from 1780, payment of land tax on freehold property worth £2 or more a year qualified a man to vote). From 1832 onwards, Land Tax Assessments contain incomplete lists of owners and occupiers, as those redeeming the land tax with a lump sum no longer had to be included on the lists, after the 1832 Reform Act changed the qualification for voting rights.

The assessors and collectors were usually parish officers, such as the Overseers of the Poor, who would already be collecting the Poor Rates for the area.

West Riding of Yorkshire - Township of Calton
An Assessment made in Pursuance of an Act of Parliament passed
in the 38th Year of His Majesty's Reign, for granting an Aid to His Majesty
by a Land Tax to be raised in Great Britain, for the Service of the Year 1798

Land Tax Assessment 1798

Names of Proprietors	Names of Occupiers	Sums Assessed			Date of Contract
Names of Proprietors	Names of Occupiers	£	s	d	Date of Contract
Gamaliel Loyd Esquire	Messrs Pullens	3	2	4 ¾
	John Brown	1	7	10
	Richard Shackleton		1	6
Richard Nelson	Thomas Procter			5
William Alcock Esquire	Anthony Taylor	1	17	9	6 Jul 1799
John Brown	Himself		16	10	4 Jun 1799
Sir Nelson Rycroft	Thomas Spencer		14		23 Mar 1799
John Nelson Esquire	Richard Nelson		9	10
Richard Nelson	John Shackleton		12	11 ¼
Sir Nelson Rycroft	Anthony Taylor		6	5	23 Mar 1799
John Smith	Thomas Preston		9	8
Richard Nelson	John Shackleton		3	11
Trustees of Alice Alliss	Richard Shackleton		3	8
William Alcock Esquire	Anthony Taylor		3	10
John Williams	John Hartley		5	3
Sir Nelson Rycroft	Thomas Spencer			5	23 Mar 1799
John Brown	Himself		2	10	4 June 1799
Thomas Mason	Himself		1		23 Mar 1799
Owners of Tythe	John Taylor		11	9
	Total	£11	12s	2d
Assessors - John Brown & John Shackleton
Collectors - John Shackleton & John Brown

The addition is incorrect and the Total should read £11 12s 3d

Transcribed by Diana Mallinson

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