Record Masterclass
Emma Jolly explains how to uncover your 19thcentury Welsh ancestors using historical maps that are available for free online
Locate your Welsh forebears with 19th-century tithe maps that are available on a fantastic free website
The National Library of Wales’ (NLW’s) website places.library.wales contains indexes and images of tithe maps for land in Wales. The website grew out of the Archives and Records Council Wales (ARCW) project ‘Cynefin: Mapping Wales’ Sense of Place’ that ran from 2014 to 2017, and involved repairing and digitising more than 1,100 tithe maps that are held at the library. Volunteers transcribed entries on accompanying
One-tenth of all agricultural produce was paid to support the local church and clergy
apportionment documents, linking them to the relevant field numbers on the tithe maps. Family historians can now search and browse the tithe maps and apportionments on the website for free.
A Tithe For The Church
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something. Tithing dates back to ancient times, being a custom based on a command in the Old Testament book of Leviticus 27:30 (King James Version): “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.” Over the centuries the Church adopted the practice, taking a tithe of one-tenth of all agricultural produce to be paid annually to support the local church and clergy. The produce included crops, wool, milk, bread and young stock, as well as personal tithes of profit from milling, for example.
Labourers’ Resentment
After the Reformation, as the land moved from the ownership of the Church to that of laypeople who inherited the tithe, resentment grew among the labourers. Tithe payment in kind, rather than money, no longer fitted well with modern ways. As the 19th century progressed, attitudes to tithing hardened further.
So, in 1836, the Tithe Commutation Act was brought about to reform the system, with tithes being converted to tithe rent-charge in the form of money rather than goods. In support of this Act, a tithe survey was established to find out which areas were subject to tithes, who owned them, and how much was payable and to whom. This survey led to the creation of the tithe maps, which were produced between 1838 and 1850.
These maps are some of the earliest, often pre-dating Ordnance Survey maps. For family historians, they can be the only way of picturing exactly where our Welsh ancestors lived during the middle of the 19th century.
Three copies of the tithe maps and apportionment documents were created. The main copies, originally held by the tithe commissioners, are now at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew; the local copies, which
were originally produced for the local church, are mostly found at local archives, although some are in the possession of parish churches; and the third copies, made for the diocesan registry, were transferred to the Welsh Church Commission when the Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920. They were then deposited at the NLW in 1944.
Missing Dioceses
The NLW’s collection is complete except for those border parishes that chose to join English dioceses at disestablishment, although note that the library does hold photographic copies.
Sadly, there are no tithe maps and apportionments for some areas in Wales. Find the missing sections by selecting the ‘Tithe Layer Sample’ in the search results map and identifying those in the gaps.
A total of 41 files do not have a corresponding tithe map.
Robert Davies’ book The Tithe Maps of Wales (NLW, 1999) provides a good overview of the maps and schedules that are held at the library, while TheGenealogist ( thegenealogist.co.uk) has digitised copies of the
Welsh tithe maps that are available at TNA.
Tithe maps provide us with unique details about the land where our Welsh rural ancestors lived and worked, and using the NLW website the original tithe map can be overlaid with an old OS map showing features of the surrounding landscape as well as a modern satellite map. Tithe maps consist mostly of numbered plots so it is the apportionment documents that family historians must search using farm names, parishes, landowners or occupiers.
Each piece of land liable to tithes was depicted and given a plot number, unique within that parish, by which it could be identified in the apportionment. The apportionment documents list the payable tithes, the names of the landowners and land occupiers, the land use, the field names (in 75 per cent of cases), and how much tithe rentcharge was due on each plot. Details vary.
Modern Place Names
You can also search the apportionment documents using a modern place name via the predefined list under the ‘Find a Modern Place’ option. Users can switch between the map and apportionment using the ‘View Map’ and ‘View Apportionment’ links at the bottom of each search result. On each map, coloured pins indicate individual results. By clicking on the pin on the map, you can see the details of the search result for the exact point displayed. This then allows you to consult the apportionment/map by clicking on the link at the bottom of the details box.
EMMA JOLLY is a genealogist and writer based in Edinburgh, and the author of five books about family history
These tithe maps provide us with unique details about the land where our Welsh rural ancestors lived