Income Tax Payments, 1799-1802 (ITP)
James Gilray, "The Friend of the people", & his petty-new-tax-gatherer, paying John Bull a visit, 1806. British Museum Satires 1057.A. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Introduction
The Income Tax was first introduced in England in 1799. This dataset was created by T. V. Jackson in 1997 as part of a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust to investigate the extent of surviving documentation concerning early individual payments of income tax. The full dataset and project description are available through the UK Data Archive:
Only the data relating to the counties of Middlesex and Surrey have been included in London Lives; the City of London is not included. Evidence is available only for those men, women, children and corporate bodies whose taxable income (gross income, less allowable deductions) was sixty pounds or more. The period covered is from 5 April 1799 to 4 April 1802. The original data comes from certificates issued by the Bank of England and kept with the Exchequer records in the National Archives.
The Database
The database has 6,897 entries. Each entry concerns a single individual or entity and is divided into the following fields:
- Unique Project ID: Unique name identification number.
- Reference Number: Number in original dataset table
- Surname
- Forename
- Title: Personal title (e.g. Mrs or Lord), where provided.
- Address: In the form of street name and number, at a named person's house, or simply the parish or area in which the tax was collected. Many address names are abbreviated: see the list of abbreviations below.
- County: County or district. Possibilities are: Middlesex and Westminster [essentially urban Middlesex, not including Westminster], Westminster [except Whitehall], Whitehall, Middlesex Hundreds [essentially rural Middlesex, though includes some suburban locations], and Surrey.
- Tax Year: Year of tax return: 1799-1800, 1800-1801, or 1801-1802.
- Amount Paid, £s: Amount paid in pounds.
- Amount Paid, Shillings: Amount paid in shillings.
- Amount Paid, Pence: Amount paid in pence.
- Paid By: Name of payee if other than the tax payer, sometimes with their relationship to the tax payer or other incidental information.
- TNA Reference: Document reference number at the National Archives.
A typical entry (with blank fields suppressed) looks like:
- Unique Project ID: 4599
- Reference Number: 676
- Surname: Brooks
- Forename: S
- Title: Mr
- Address: St Lukes
- County: Middlesex and Westminster
- Tax Year: 1801/02
- Amount Paid, £s: 60
- Amount Paid, Shillings: 0
- Amount Paid, Pence: 0
- TNA Reference: E128/633
Back to Top | Introductory Reading
Using this Dataset in London Lives
Because this dataset only includes taxpayers whose annual taxable income was sixty pounds or more, the names included are unlikely to be found among the recipients of poor relief, or those charged with crime. These taxpayers may, however, appear as victims of crime or jurors in the Old Bailey Proceedings (OBP), as jurors on Coroners' Inquests (IC), and possibly as parish officers in the records of St Clement Danes and the Middlesex part of St Botolph Aldgate. The City of London is not included in this database. Some taxpayers may have served as governors of St Thomas's Hospital, and if they attended the meetings they will be listed in the Minutes of the Court of Governors (MG).
Names of those paying income tax will also appear in several other additional datasets included in London Lives, including the rate books and voting records in the Westminster Historical Database (WHD) (which includes all the voters in the elections of 1796 and 1802); the Fire Insurance Policy Registers, 1777-1786 (FIR); the salary records of 'Clerks' of the East India Company, 1760-1820 (EIC) (bearing in mind that these include senior executives); and the abstracts of Wills Proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC). Although there is a significant date difference, some of the major householders listed in the London and Westminster Directory, 1774 (DIR) may still have been earning substantial income twenty-five years later.
Abbreviations used for Place Names
- Beth G: Bethnal Green
- BethGrn: Bethnal Green
- BethnalG: Bethnal Green
- BG: Bethnal Green
- Blm: Bloomsbury
- Blm Sq: Bloomsbury Square
- Blms: Bloomsbury
- Blms Sq: Bloomsbury Square
- Bloom: Bloomsbury
- Blooms: Bloomsbury
- CHCH: Christ church
- Chel: Chelsea
- Christ Ch: Christ church
- Clerk: Clerkenwell
- Con Grd: Covent Garden
- Edm: Edmonton
- Enf: Enfield
- Gros Plce: Grosvenor Place
- Gros Sq: Grosvenor Square
- GrSQ: Grosvenor Square
- GtOSt: Great Ormond St
- Hack: Hackney
- Hamm: Hammersmith
- Han Sq: Hanover Square
- Hol: Holborn
- Isl: Islington
- Kens: Kensington
- Lib of Rolls: Liberty of Rolls
- LibRolls: Liberty of Rolls
- Mlb: Marylebone
- Old AG: Old Artillery Ground
- Old Art Grd: Old Artillery Ground
- Old Art Plce: Old Artillery Ground
- Old Artillery Grd: Old Artillery Ground
- St AHol: St Andrews Holborn
- St Cath: St Catherines
- St CD: St Clement Danes
- St ClemD: St Clement Danes
- St ClemDane: St Clement Danes
- St ClementD: St Clement Danes
- St ClementsD: St Clement Danes
- St G: St Georges
- St G/M: St George the Martyr
- St Geo: St Georges
- St Geo East: St Georges in the East
- St GH: St George Hanover Square
- St gi/field: St Giles in the Fields
- St Giles Clerk: St Giles Clerkenwell
- St Ja Clerk: St James Clerkenwell
- St JohnWap: St John Wapping
- St L Shoreditch: St Luke Shoreditch
- St M Stratfford Bow: St Mary Stratford Bow
- St Mfields: St Martin in the Fields
- St Sep: St Sepulchre
- StA: St Andrew Holborn
- StA/Hol: St Andrew Holborn
- StAH: St Andrew Holborn
- StAHol: St Andrews Holborn
- StAndHol: St Andrew Holborn
- StBot Aldersgate: St Botolph Aldersgate
- StCath: St Catherine
- StCd: St Clement Danes
- StG: St George
- StGBl: St George Bloomsbury
- StGBlm: St George Bloomsbury
- StGBloom: St George Bloomsbury
- StGBlooms: St George Bloomsbury
- StGBloomsbury: St George Bloomsbury
- StGEast: St George in the East
- StGeo: St George
- StGeoB: St George Bloomsbury
- StGF: St Giles in the Fields
- StGfield: St Giles in the Fields
- StGGrosSq: St George Grosvenor Square
- StGH: St George Hanover Square
- StGHan: St George Hanover Square
- StGi/field: St Giles in the Fields
- StGiE: St Giles in the East
- StGiF: St Giles in the Fields
- StGinE: St Giles in the East
- StGinF: St Giles in the Fields
- StGM: St George the Martyr
- StGMidd: St George Middlesex
- StJCl: St James Clerkenwell
- StJClerk: St James Clerkenwell
- StJH: St John Hampstead
- StJWapp: St John Wapping
- StLChel: St Luke Chelsea
- StLMdx: St Luke Middlesex
- StLShoreditch: St Luke Shoreditch
- StM Le Strand: St Mary Le Strand
- StM Whitechapel: St Mary Whitechapel
- StMF: St Martins in the Fields
- StMfields: St Martin in the Fields
- StMiF: St Martin in the Fields
- StMinF: St Martin in the Fields
- StMle Strand: St Mary Le Strand
- Stoke New: Stoke Newington
- StP: St Pancras
- StPConvent Grd: St Paul Covent Garden
- StSep: St Sepulchre
- Twick: Twickenham
- Wapp: Wapping
- Back to Top
- Introductory Reading
Original Sources
The information in this dataset comes from following the Exchequer records, kept at the National Archives:
- Listings: E182/630/part 1; E182/631/part 2; E182/633/parts 1-3; E182/1002/parts 1-2; E182/1003/part 1
- Bank Certificates: E128/630, parts 1-2; E128/632, part 1; E128/633, parts 2- 3; E182/630/parts 2-3; E182/631/part 2; E182/633/part 1; E182/1081/part 1
Introductory Reading
- Daunton, Martin. What is Income? In Studies in the History of Tax Law, ed. John Tiley. Oxford, 2004, pp. 3-14.
- Emory, Meade. The Early English Income Tax: A Heritage for the Contemporary. American Journal of Legal History, 9 (1965), pp. 286-319.
- Harris, Peter. Income Tax in Common Law Jurisdictions: From the Origins to 1820. Cambridge, 2006.
Online Sources
For further reading on this subject see the London Lives Bibliography.