Richard Griffith and His Valuations of Ireland: With, An Inventory of the Books of the General Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland, Conducted ...Richard Griffith (b. Dublin 1784) had already established himself as a distinguished geologist and inspector of Irish mines when, in 1825, he was chosen to be Ireland's Boundary Surveyor. Griffith's appointment coincided with the government's determination to achieve a uniform system of land measuring and valuing for the purpose of eliminating various inequities in levying the two main forms of local taxation in Ireland, the tithe and the county cess, at the townland level. As the head of the Boundary Department of Ireland, Griffith would spend the next forty years supervising land valuation in Ireland and, in particular, the great Ordnance Survey of Irish townlands which fixed local boundaries throughout the nation. The Ordnance Survey documents, comprising over 3,000 maps and 2,300 registers, and Griffith's valuations of 1826, 1846, and 1852, were the surviving products of Griffith's efforts, and they constitute perhaps the greatest sources in all of Irish genealogy. The content has been divided into two parts. The first half of the volume treats the history and method used by Griffith and his colleagues in producing the valuations. Here Reilly explains how the surveys were conducted, how standard Irish forms of townland names were assigned, how the descriptive Ordnance Survey Memoirs were compiled, and what one can expect to find within their rich contents. In separate chapters devoted to the three valuations, Reilly describes, among other things, how the valuators assigned a value to property, how the information was publicized, and the relationship of the valuations to the new Irish Poor Laws. Facsimile illustrations of maps, memoirs and other documents from the valuations abound here as they do in the second half of the work, a discussion of Griffith's genealogical importance. |
Contents
1 | |
THE TOWNLAND VALUATION ACT OF 1826 | 12 |
THE TENEMENT VALUATION ACT OF 1846 | 28 |
THE TENEMENT VALUATION ACT OF 1852 | 40 |
A SOURCE OF GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION | 48 |
APPENDICES | 67 |
Common terms and phrases
1-Valuation Office 2-Irish 2-Irish Microforms 3-Family 3-Family History Library 8-PRONI CL-County Library Abbeyleix acres Act Remarks Film[Item agnomen April Ballyboghil Balrothery Board of Guardians BOOKS OF SIR boundaries Carrick-on-Suir Cavan Celbridge civil parish Cork county cess County Library County Poor Law Date Act Remarks Donegal Electoral Division field book Figure Galway George Woods Gilbert Library 8-PRONI GRIFFITH'S GENERAL VALUATION Griffith's Valuation History Library 4-National holding House and land house books House,offices Immediate Lessor IRELAND County Poor Irish James John John La Touche July Kildare Kilkenny Kilmallock landlord lease Library 4-National Library Library of Ireland Limerick Londonderry manuscript maps Microforms 3-Family History Mountmellick National Archives Office 2-Irish Microforms Ordnance Survey Patrick Perambulation Book Poor Law Union poor rate primary valuation Printing Date Act PROPERTY IN IRELAND RATEABLE PROPERTY rent Repository Volume revision Roscommon SIR RICHARD GRIFFITH'S tenants Thomas Byrne Tipperary townland Townland Valuation VALUATION OF RATEABLE Valuation Office Waterford