Deeds

Land deeds are the written statements of legal agreements made in relation to land ownership. They generally refer to leases of land but may also concern mortgages, conveyances, rights of way, wills, marriage settlements or other arrangements. Although the collection of registered deeds at Land Registers (Northern Ireland) is complete, relatively few deeds were ever formally registered as it was not compulsory.

The register is indexed both by the name of the grantor (i.e. the person granting the land) and also by the name of the townland(s) within each county and, in some cases, barony. Many deeds contain valuable genealogical information, particularly leases made for the term of the life of specified persons. The witnesses to deeds were commonly relatives of the parties concerned and this relationship is often stated on the deed.

Valuation Records

The levying of ‘rates’, to raise money to meet the costs of public works such as roads and bridges, dates from 1635 in Ireland. However, following the Valuation Act of 1824 a more equitable method was introduced which resulted in the valuation of land and property across all of the island of Ireland. The valuation is, in theory, the amount that the owner would receive if the property was rented out for a year and it is used in assessing the rates to be paid.

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland holds the valuation records relating to Northern Ireland from the 1830s to 1975. Valuations were carried out in the 1830s, the 1860s, 1864-1929, 1935, 1956 and 1975. The valuation books are lists of people occupying lands and houses and in order to search the records it is necessary to know the Poor Law Union, parish and townland in which the ancestor lived. Details of the valuations are available here.

Tithe Applotment Books

Introduced during the reign of Henry II, the tithe system designated one-tenth of the produce of the land for the upkeep of the clergy of the Established Church and the Tithe Applotment Act of 1823 specified that the tithes should be paid in cash. A valuation of the country, parish by parish, was carried out in order to determine how much would be payable by each landowner.

The Tithe Applotment Books are a unique record of land occupation prior to the devastation brought about by the Great Famine and the resulting mass emigration. They are not a list of all householders - for example, labourers and weavers were omitted as were all urban dwellers.  Information recorded was as follows:

• name of the occupier
• name of the townland
• acreage
• classification of land (4 classes)
• amount of the tithe
• areas not subject to the tithe
• landlords’ names

Indexes to townlands and personal names in the Tithe Applotment Books are available on microfilm in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (MIC/15K).

Householders’ Index

This is a surname-only index to both the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith’s Valuation. The index shows the distribution of surnames, by barony and civil parish, using G to denote if the surname is found in Griffith’s Valuation and T if it is found in the Tithe Applotment Books.

Landed Estate Records

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the majority of the population lived on large estates and almost all local government was in the hands of the landlords. The administration of these estates produced a large quantity of records including rent rolls and rent ledgers, maps, leases and wages and account books. They can include details of local towns as they were often under the jurisdiction of the local landlord. Examples are Belfast (the Donegall estate), Ballymena (the Adair estate), Hillsborough (the Downshire estate), Downpatrick (the Southwell estate), Cookstown (the Stewart estate) and Strabane (the Abercorn estate). The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has a substantial collection of estate papers.

The Encumbered Estates Acts of 1848 and 1849 facilitated the sale of Irish estates whose owners, because of the Great Famine, were unable to meet their obligations. An Encumbered Estates Court was set up with authority to sell estates on the application of the owner or the encumbrancer (person who had a claim on the estate). After the sale, the court distributed the money among the creditors and granted clear title to the new owners. The existing tenants were unprotected by the legislation. The records are held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (D/1201) and  are divided into counties, townlands or houses and tenements, and give the names of the parties involved and the date. They also include rentals, maps of the estate giving tenants’ names and, on occasion, surveys of the estate.