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Under the tithe system, all owners and occupiers of land were required to give one-tenth, or a \u2018tithe\u2019, of their produce to the Church of England.\u00a0In 1836 the Tithe Commutation Act was passed to reform it, substituting an annual monetary payment based on the value of land. Of course, the land first had to be valued so that these payments could be assessed. The tithe commissioners oversaw a massive exercise in surveying, valuing and recording landownership in the great majority of places in England and Wales. This produced the tithe maps \u2013 old maps<\/a> usually at a scale of 26 inches to the mile and plotting every parcel of land subject to tithes, which in most cases meant the entire parish or township.<\/p>\n The tithe maps cross-referenced with tithe apportionments: large parchment sheets on which was listed, for every parcel, the name of the landowner; the name of the occupier (the person actually \u2018using\u2019 the land); a reference number, also shown on the map; the name of each field; its land use and acreage; and details of the valuation and the payable charges.<\/p>\n The process of surveying and recording tithe maps continued for over 15 years. The earliest tithe maps and apportionments date from 1837, the peak years were 1839\u20131843, and the last few were finished in the early 1850s. There are roughly 11,000 separate sets of tithe maps from England and Wales<\/a>. Note that the exercise did not involve Scotland<\/a>, where tithes had been reformed in the 1630s. Ireland<\/a>, meanwhile, had a separate system of tithe applotment books<\/a>.<\/p>\n Only a minority of the population is listed in tithe maps, so many of our ancestors won\u2019t appear. The primary purpose was recording land, not people, but if your family owned any property in the 1840s, or were tenant farmers, they will almost certainly be included (unless they lived in a place not surveyed). The number of landowners varies dramatically \u2013 sometimes there were dozens in one parish, in other cases only one. Much more numerous were the occupiers who might also be owners (hence the term \u2018owner occupier\u2019), but were mostly the main tenants who worked the land or rented housing from the landowner.<\/p>\n If you do find a forebear, you\u2019ve hit gold. The schedule cross-references with the tithe map to reveal exactly which property was owned or tenanted by your family 180 years ago. Plot the holdings on a modern map and see the extent of their farm, and the location of their cottage. Learn how they fitted into local society \u2013 were they \u2018top people\u2019, or one of many small owners or occupiers? Family history comes alive; you might even be able to visit their fields.<\/p>\n Three copies of the tithe maps were made for each parish (or township in the northern counties). One was deposited with the other parish records; the second was sent to the relevant Church of England diocesan offices; and the third was included with the records of the tithe commissioners. Parish and diocesan copies are usually in county record offices, although quite a few have been lost or damaged thanks to the vagaries of history (damp, fire, mould, vermin and neglect). The third set, covering the entire country, is now held by The National Archives<\/a> (TNA); it is almost complete, and for the most part in excellent condition.<\/p>\n The subscription website TheGenealogist<\/a>, in conjunction with TNA, has now put this complete collection of tithe maps and apportionments online, fully indexed and searchable, making it the only national collection.<\/p>\n The National Library of Wales<\/a> has covered the whole principality with interactive links between the maps, apportionments and transcribed data; modern and historic map overlays; and location pins.<\/p>\n Staffordshire Record Office has digitised its collection which can be viewed for free at Staffordshire Past Track<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the historic counties of Somerset, Devon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, Know Your Place West of England<\/a> has the maps but unfortunately not the apportionments; the website is also quite complicated to navigate.<\/p>\n For East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, The Keep<\/a> has transcribed details from the apportionment and zoomable map images. However, the map is shown in a small, square pane, so it is difficult to see a wide area \u2013 the site encourages you to buy it on CD. In addition, a warning says that \u201cthe tithe maps search function will not pull up every personal name. For a full name search, please use our online catalogue, which includes all the names recorded in the tithe apportionments.\u201d<\/p>\n Cheshire Archives and Local Studies<\/a> also has tithe maps online. Finally, West Yorkshire Tithe Maps are available online via the West Yorkshire Archive Service<\/a>.<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Rosemary Collins Published: Wednesday, 02 February 2022 at 12:00 am Under the tithe system, all owners and occupiers of land were required to give one-tenth, or a \u2018tithe\u2019, of their produce to the Church of England.\u00a0In 1836 the Tithe Commutation Act was passed to reform it, substituting an annual monetary payment based on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11019,"template":"","categories":[1,19],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/02\/what-are-tithe-maps.jpg",2032,2560,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/02\/what-are-tithe-maps-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/02\/what-are-tithe-maps-238x300.jpg",238,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/02\/what-are-tithe-maps-768x968.jpg",768,968,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/02\/what-are-tithe-maps-813x1024.jpg",800,1008,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/02\/what-are-tithe-maps-1219x1536.jpg",1219,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/02\/what-are-tithe-maps-1626x2048.jpg",1626,2048,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Rosemary Collins Published: Wednesday, 02 February 2022 at 12:00 am Under the tithe system, all owners and occupiers of land were required to give one-tenth, or a \u2018tithe\u2019, of their produce to the Church of England.\u00a0In 1836 the Tithe Commutation Act was passed to reform it, substituting an annual monetary payment based on the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to use tithe maps in family history<\/h2>\n
Where can you find tithe maps online?<\/h2>\n
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