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Death Duty Registers (1796 - 1811)

Death Duty Registers hold details of wills and bequests for estates liable to death duties. The Death Duty Registers on DocumentsOnline cover the 'country court' death duty registers (in other words, from Courts other than the Prerogative Court of Canterbury or PCC) for the period 1796 to 1811. So you can search on over 66,000 names. Use the links below to jump to the topics you are interested in.

Introduction Go

Searching the registers Go

What could Death Duty registers help me to discover? Go

A word of caution Go

How to interpret Death Duty entries Go

Why can't I find an entry? Go

Further research Go

Introduction

The registers of the Estate Duty Office (grouped in the series IR 26) run from 1796 to 1903 and relate to the payment of three different taxes:

  • legacy duty - tax on property transferred by a will
  • succession duty - tax on legal transfer of the deceased's assets and rights to their heirs (from 1853)
  • estate duty - tax on assets owned by an individual at death (from 1894)

These "death duties" were payable on many estates over a given value in England and Wales. Before 1853 death duties relate to personal estate only and exclude freehold property.

Before 1805 the registers contain references to around 25% of the grants of probate and administration. The reason for this low figure is that between 1796 and 1805 duty was payable:

  • only on personal estate and not on leases, freeholds or real estate
  • only on legacies and residues over £20
  • only when the beneficiaries were not spouses, children, parents or grandparents of the deceased

The registers between 1805 and 1815 contain references to around 75% of all the grants of probate and administration. They are a fuller record because:

  • everyone except the spouse and parents of the deceased paid the duty on legacies and residues worth over £20
  • if the will directed the sale of real estate to raise such legacies or residues, the amount raised was now included as well

From 1796 to 1811 Death Duty registers consist of individual pre-printed sheets. The pages contain summaries of wills and accounts of administrations and an entry can run either to a few lines or a few pages.

The church court submitted the details, recording bequests and other matters chargeable with legacy duty. The sheets were then delivered to the office of the Board of Stamps in London, where they were bound into registers.

Two main classes of registers were compiled for

Searching the registers

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You can search the Death Duty registers (1796 - 1811) on any or all of the following in DocumentsOnline:

  • Name of deceased
  • Occupation or status of deceased (for example, surgeon, spinster, and so on)
  • Parish and county where the deceased lived
  • Date of probate (which might be as much as three or more years after the date of death)

page from a 1796 death duty register (Catalogue reference IR 26)

  

page from a 1796 death duty register (Catalogue reference IR 26)

page from a 1796 death duty register (Catalogue reference IR 26)

 

page from an 1811 death duty register (Catalogue reference IR 26)

What could Death Duty registers help me to discover?

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In this collection the pre-printed column headings are: date of probate and the sum sworn; name and "description" of the testator or testatrix; name and place of abode of executor or executrix; name of the legatees, distinguishing the residuary legatee; degree of relationship; account of the several legacies and annuities, the form of the bequests particularly of the residue; report of the duty.

More simply this means you will see:

  • the date and place of the testator's death
  • details about the deceased including what their personal estate was worth
  • details of those named to carry out the instructions
  • details of those named to inherit something and how they were related to the deceased
  • any special arrangements
  • the amount of tax that was paid

Many claims for death duty arose long after the death of the testator, for example when a life tenant of the estate died. All the registers are regarded as "still in the making" for 50 years from the date of opening. This means that further comments could be added to the registers many years after the first entry and so they can include additional information such as:

  • dates of death of spouse
  • dates of death or marriage of beneficiaries
  • births of posthumous children and grandchildren
  • change of address
  • references to law suits
  • cross-references to other entries

A word of caution

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There are a few things to bear in mind when using death duties as a means of valuing an estate:

  • The collection in DocumentsOnline dates from the period where death duties relate to personal estate only and exclude freehold property.
  • The death duties do not deduct debts and expenses.
  • It may not be an accurate reflection of personal estate; the valuation figure only provides a record of the bequests described in the will.
  • The value may not even be accurate.
  • Valuations were expressed in the form of a "tax band" which changed under legislation periodically.

How to interpret Death Duty entries

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You might see abbreviations in the registers. Some are clear to see in context, such as "est" for "estate". Here are a few common abbreviations:

amg
 among
anny annuity (an investment paying out on a regular basis over a given period of time)
anor and another
ch'd charged
de bonis non
 (appearing before a date) the date of a later grant of administration
exors executors (those carrying out the will)
ors and others
R and P est
or
RE and PE 		real and personal estate
Resy Legatee residuary legatee (someone who receives what is left after other claims are satisfied)
SP of the same place
Str
or
Stra
or
Strag 		stranger (the term for someone who was not part of the immediate family or was an illegitimate child of the deceased)
Stra (sent) servant of the deceased

Why can't I find an entry?

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Firstly, remember that the collection available on DocumentsOnline only covers non-PCC wills and Letters of Administration for the period 1796 - 1811. There are various reasons why a search might be unsuccessful:

  • If the grant of representation was allowed by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC).
  • If the entry appears in a later register (1812 onwards).
  • Death duties were not required of those who lived abroad or who died in the service of their country.
  • Until 1894 no death duties were payable on overseas property belonging to people resident in Britain.
  • Unless the assets were valued at £1,500 or more, the taxes were often not collected. If the taxes were not collected then the register entry was not filled in with all the details
  • English spelling had not yet been standardised in this period and sometimes personal and place names are not spelt as you might expect. Please see the search tips for help in looking for spelling variants.

Further research

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This collection covers non-PCC wills for the period 1796 - 1811, however the original death duty registers for wills and administrations in England and Wales go up to 1903. From 1904 the registers were replaced by a system of individual files, which were kept for 30 years after the file was closed. After this time the file was destroyed. You can see the registers for 1796 - 1903 at The National Archives.

There are other types of death duty records. They include death duty accounts for famous people such as Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli and Florence Nightingale. These accounts range from 1805 to 1993. See the Catalogue for more on these records, held in IR 19 and IR 59.

If you are researching death duties in Scotland please see the website of The National Archives of Scotland. To search Scottish Wills and Testaments please go to the ScotlandsPeople website.

If you are researching death duties in Ireland please note that nearly all original Prerogative wills and administrations were destroyed in 1922, but indexes survived. Transcripts of wills and administrations after 1858 were kept in the District Registries, so surviving Grant Books are now divided between The National Archives of Ireland in Dublin and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast.

Although the death duty registers are written in English, you might be unused to some older forms of handwriting. If so, you might find our free online palaeography tutorial helpful.

Research Guides

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