Tithe Applotment Records   

The tithe was a tax used for the maintenance of the Establish Church in Ireland and, as such, was extremely unpopular among Roman Catholics and Dissenters.   Very few of the eighteenth century title records have survived.  In 1823 the Tithe Applotment Act was passed, which stipulated that henceforth all tithes due to the Established church were to be paid in money rather than in kind, as they previously could have been.   Between 1823 and 1827 holdings in each civil parish were valued based on the average price of wheat and oats in the parish during the seven years preceding 1 November 1821.  This necessitated a complete valuation of all tithable land in Ireland, the results of which are contained in the manuscript tithe applotment books for each civil parish.

The tithe applotment books are unique records giving details of land occupation and valuations for individual holdings prior to the devastation brought about by the Great Famine and the resulting mass emigration.  They list the occupiers of tithable land and are not a list of householders, as is the case in a census.  Therefore, landless labourers and weavers were omitted, in addition to all purely urban dwellers. The NAI holds a manuscript book for almost every parish in the twenty-six counties of the Republic of Ireland, (more than 2,000 in total) giving the names of the occupiers, the amount of land held, and the sums to be paid in tithes.  They are also available on microfilm at the National Library and the Gilbert Library in Dublin.  More than 270 volumes were sent to PRONI for parishes in Counties Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone.