In 1692, during the reign of William III, a Land Tax was introduced by Parliament. It was the first, and for a long time, the only form of direct taxation in Great Britain (it was eventually abolished in 1963). The tax was levied on land and property, including personal property and salaries from public offices, and was collected from individuals, including wealthy landowners, tradesman and shopkeepers. In the 1690s the tax raised around £2 million which equated to around 35% of the national revenue.
The 1798 Land Tax Register drawn up during lists owners of land and/or occupiers by parish and the amount of tax owed. Owners of land valued under 20s were exonerated from the tax so do not appear in the register. The tax was calculated on a quota allocated to each parish which varied across the country. Additionally, land of the same acreage was not necessarily valued and taxed at the same amount with more productive land often assessed for more tax. The tax was set at 4s in the pound and in 1798 became a perpetual charge which could be redeemed by the landowner by payment of a lump sum equalling 15 years of tax.
The 1798 Register is most useful for identifying landownership and the register for the parish of Broadway1 in Worcestershire included the following landowners and their tenants:
Thomas Andrews
Isaac Averill2
Richard Averill – land occupied by Mr Moseley
Reverend Mr Baker – land occupied by Mr Dobbins
Mr Balinger
Francis Brooks
Richard Brown
Mr Bucknell – land occupied by Giles Stephens
Major Cotterill – land occupied by Mr Russell
Edward Cotterill – land occupied by Mr Lamley
Thomas Cotterill – land occupied by Richard Brown
The Right Hon. Earl of Coventry – land occupied by Mr Osborn
Mr Cowley – land occupied by Christopher Holmes
Reverend Mr Crawley – land occupied by Mr Holmes
Reverend Mr Davis
Ann Dunn
Mr Fisher – land occupied by Thomas Rastal
Thomas Fisher
Mr Gibbs
Mr Gould – land occupied by John Adkins
Mr J.H. Griffiths – land occupied by Isaac Averill
John Grinnell
Mr Grove – land occupied by John Newman
Mr Harris
Christopher Holmes
Mr Newman
Mr Perrin – land occupied by John Adkins
Mrs Perrin – Mr Brown
Thomas Phillipps3 – lands occupied by Thomas Smith, Robert Careless and John Grinnell
Mr Richardson
Michael Russell
Richard Russell
Bonner Shakle
Benjamin Smith
Executors of Thomas Smith – land occupied by Mr White
Mr Staite
Mrs Stephens – land occupied by Mr Collett
Mrs Ward – land occupied by Richard Davis
Stephen White
John Williams
Sir Edward Winnington4 – land occupied by Mr Brown
Reverend Mr Wyniatt5 – land occupied by Thomas Stowe
Debbie Williamson
Broadway History Society
1. Source: The National Archives
2. Isaac Averill (1749-1826)
3. Sir Edward Winnington, 1st Baronet (1728-1791)
4. Thomas Phillipps, father of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872)
5. Reverend Reginald Wyniatt (d.1819)