The following excerpt is from an article posted in the June 28, 2012 edition of scotsman.com.
Millions of historic tax records are published online for the first time today, including famous names such as King George III, naval hero Horatio Nelson and Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle.
Family history website Ancestry.co.uk said more than 12 million tax returns are in the collection of land tax records from 1692 to 1932.
Land tax existed from the 17th to the 20th century, before being abolished in 1968, and the collections list the owners and occupiers of properties subject to the tax in England and Wales.
Note that these are London tax records 1692-1932.
I did a search for tax records for anyone by the surname of Canfield living in London. I located 57 records. The earliest record was for that of tenent Nath Canfield; First Year of Section: 1692; Civil Parish or Ward:Bishopsgate Without; Borough or County: City of London; Call Number: MS 11316/Vol.1
The following is from the Ancestry website:
Original data: London Land Tax Records. London, England: London Metropolitan Archives.
About London, England, Land Tax Records, 1692-1932
This database contains land tax records for various areas in London from the years 1692 through 1932.
What’s in the Records
The land tax was introduced in England in 1692 as a means for raising government revenue and was not done away with until 1963. Land tax records are of value to genealogists because they often list both property owners (proprietors) and tenants, placing them in both a parish and a year.
Records in this database may list the following details:
- county
- parish
- year
- proprietor
- tenant
