The TIthe Applotment Books are a valuable resource to identify where in Ireland your ancestors lived, and who the head of the family was, in the decades prior to the Great Famine.
These books are one of the most important Irish census substitutes for the 19th century. However, like other records which stand in for the lost 19th century censuses, they were not designed to be used as such. They are, first and foremost, a record of various land tenancies compiled for the purpose of levying a tax for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland.
So, while the Tithe Applotment Books contain information on the majority of households in Ireland, they are far from a complete list. They do not include people who lived in urban areas. They omit landless rural dwellers and those who occupied less than an acre of land.
The books also only list the head of the household.
What are the Tithe Applotment Books?
Tithes were, historically, a payment made for the upkeep of the church. Farmers traditionally paid a tenth – or tithe – of their produce to the church in a system that pre-dates Christianity. Tithes were introduced in Ireland in the 12th century.
Under the Irish Reformation of the 1540s, Henry VIII established the Anglican Church of Ireland and obliged farmers – the majority of whom were Catholic – to pay tithes to the Established Church.
In simple terms, while the vast majority of Irish people were Catholic, the country was officially Protestant, and the Established Church of Ireland was the Anglican church. As a result of this change, Catholics were now legally required to pay tithes for the upkeep of the Anglican Church.
By the early 19th century, tithes were sometimes paid in cash, sometimes in produce, and sometimes not at all.
The Tithes Composition Act 1823 sought to regularise the tithes system. In effect, the Act enforced cash tithes on all landholders of an acre or more.
In order to administer the new cash system for tithes, a national survey was carried out to value tithable land. This survey was organised by civil parish and by townland, listing the occupier of each qualifying holding, the area and value of the land, rent paid, and tithes due on the holding.
All of this information was gathered in a series of books – the Tithe Applotment Books – between 1823 and 1838.
Where to find the Tithe Applotment Books
The Tithe Applotment Books are available to browse or search, free of charge, on the National Archives website.
A word of warning – the Tithe books were transcribed ‘as is’ and contain numerous errors. This can make searching the books difficult.
As an example, my 3x great grandfather John Culleton lived in the townland of St Iberius, Lady’s Island parish, Co Wexford, in the 1830s. I know where his house was, and is, so I should be able to locate him easily. And I can, but not by searching his name. John’s surname was misspelled in the original Tithe book, and misspelled again during transcription, so he is recorded on the National Archives website as John Cuttelhan.
The Tithe Applotment Books were originally microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and are also available, and searchable, on FamilySearch. However, because of the misspelling, my John Culleton is not among the results returned if I search for him by name.
Similarly, my 3x great grandfather William Sinnott, who lived in the neighbouring townland of Eardownes Great, does not turn up if I search for him by name, principally because he is listed as Wm Sinnott of Eardownes in the Tithe book.
Ancestry also provides a searchable index of the Tithe Applotment Books, but does not have images of the books themselves.
Townland and parish names can also be misspelled, For example, my William Sinnott is listed in Eardownes, St Mary’s parish, on Ancestry. Eardownes Great is in the civil parish of Lady’s Island, and is listed under Lady’s Island in the National Archives index, though it is spelled as one word – Ladysisland.
How to use the Tithe Applotment Books
For all these reasons, I recommend finding people by browsing the records by parish and townland on the National Archives site rather than relying on a text search on any of the big genealogy sites. This is when knowing where your ancestors lived in terms of various land divisions becomes really useful.
Browsing the books on the National Archives website reveals that 30 counties are listed in total. In fact, there are 29 counties as Laois and Queen’s County are both listed separately (Laois was known as Queen’s County from 1556 to 1922, and all Laois parishes except Ballinakill are listed under Queen’s County).
The website has all the available Tithe books for the 26 counties that comprise the Republic of Ireland, but just a selection of books for parishes in Armagh, Down, and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The full collection of Tithe books for the six counties of Northern Ireland is available on the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland website.
What you will find
The information contained in the Tithe Applotment Books is fairly basic. The books record the name of the tenant, the quality and area – in acres, roods and perches – of land they rented, rent paid on the land, and the tithes payable.
While there is no information on the family or their house, the information included does give some insight into how your ancestors lived. The area and quality of the land they rented was a good indicator of how affluent – or poor – they were.
In the absence of 19th century census records – and particularly in areas where no parish records are available for the 1820s and 1830s – this may be the only record you will find of your ancestors in this period.
The Tithe War
The issue of tithes due to the Church of Ireland was opposed by Catholics from their introduction. Catholic farmers were, effectively, legally bound to pay for the upkeep of Protestant churches, which they didn’t use, and morally bound to pay for the upkeep of Catholic churches, which they did use.
The Tithe War of the 1830s saw Catholic landowners oppose the tithes largely through civil disobedience – non-payment of tithes. There were also several outbreaks of violence, both against farmers resisting the payment of tithes, and on tithe collectors who tried to enforce payment by seizing livestock.
Significant violent clashes during the Tithe War included the massacres of civilians by police and yeomen at Newtownbarry in Co Wexford (1831) and Rathcormac in Co Cork (1834), while a process server and 12 policemen were killed in an ambush at Carrickshock, Co Kilkenny (1831).
The war ended with the Tithe Act 1838, which saw the responsibility for tithes transferred from tenant farmers to landowners, who were almost exclusively Anglican. The ultimate effect of this was that tenant farmers paid the landlords’ tithes in the form of higher rents.
Header image: Lithograph by Reverend Matthew Morgan depicting the massacre of tenant farmers at Gortroe/Rathmore, Co Cork in 1833 during the Tithe War.