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Delves into the online resources for researchers travelling back to the 1700s
Jonathan Scott shares his pick of 18th-century sources
The 18th century was bookended by taxation. The window tax was first introduced at the very end of the 1600s, essentially an income tax in disguise that consisted of a flatrate house tax of 2s per house, and a variable tax imposed on dwellings with 10 or more windows. The century drew to a close with the first proper income tax, introduced by William Pitt the Younger and beginning with a charge of 2d per £1 on incomes over £60.
Records of taxation represent a sliver of the wide variety of resources out there for family historians who have worked back to the 18th century. There are all kinds of local-level census substitutes, from parish chest records and muster lists, to documents generated by the electoral system and local courts. Remember that you may need to familiarise yourself with some of the tricky abbreviated Latin terms that were in use, and it’s a good idea to read online guides to deciphering old handwriting – such as TNA’s at nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/ reading-old-documents.
SCOTLANDSPLACES
w scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/records
ScotlandsPlaces represents a gateway to the 1700s north of the border. You’ll find house plans held by the National Records of Scotland, town and county maps from the National Library of Scotland, and a collection of drawings held by Historic Environment Scotland. Perhaps the most useful of the various tax records here are the land tax rolls spanning 1645–1831. Also called cess or valuation rolls, these were compiled for each county, listing landowners and assessing the rental values. Other tax rolls include the carriage tax (1785–1798), clock and watch (1797–1798), female servant (1785–1792), male servant (1777–1798), window (1748–1798) and dog (1797–1798). You can explore the records by place name, map or postcode.
w londonlives.org
London Lives brings together 15 datasets formed from all kinds of documents housed in eight London archives. Click the ‘Lives’ page to explore case studies of ordinary, poverty-stricken or pauper Londoners whose lives have been reconstructed, such as Charlotte Dionis (born 1761), a disabled foundling named after the parish in which she was abandoned. The searchable records include parish-level and Poor Law material, alongside records of hospitals and guilds, plus various court and coroners’ records for the City of London, Middlesex and Westminster. Even if you can’t find your ancestor, the site provides insight into life in Western Europe’s first million-person city.