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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. The guide below explains more about death duties, and how to search the registers available online. Use the links below to jump to the topics you are interested in. Many of the terms used may be unfamilar, so please refer to the Glossary.

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:

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:

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:

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:

For more general help on searching, please see the search tips.

What could Death Duty registers help me to discover?

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Some of the terms and abbreviations used might be unfamiliar at first. Please use the Glossary or refer to the table of abbreviations below.

In this collection the pre-printed columns 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:

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:

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:

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". As you get used to reading the registers they will make more sense. Here are a few common abbreviations:

To see more abbreviations please see the research guide How to Interpret Death Duty Registers.

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:

Research Guides on Death Duty records

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The registers in this collection (1796 - 1811) are reasonably simple and they are easier to use than those from later periods. There are research guides available in the Catalogue that provide general information on Death Duty registers.

You can also browse the full A to Z index of research guides.

Further information and research

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The collection available on DocumentsOnline 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 and they are indexed up until they ended. 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 and you can see original documents at The National Archives. They include death duty accounts for famous people such as Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli and Florence Nightingale. These accounts range from 1805 to 1993. The modern records contain personal details and they are subject to Data Protection (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.

Use the National Archives online currency converter to get an idea of what the amounts might be worth in today's money.

The National Archives has one of the world's richest holdings of historical mapping. You can find out more by going to our Maps pages.

These books are available from The National Archives bookshop:

The Federation of Family History Societies has produced a useful booklet: An Introduction to Wills, Probate and Death Duty Records: Affection Defying the Power of Death by Jane Cox.

And there are helpful articles in these back issues of Ancestors magazine:

The Secret Lives of the Death Duty registers, Ancestors Issue 20

Pay as you go, Ancestors Issue 25

Friends of The National Archives

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DocumentsOnline would like to thank the Friends of The National Archives (FTNA) for their contribution in transcribing details from IR 26/400 - 437. You can read more about the FTNA in the Friends of The National Archives webpages and download an application form if you would like to become a member.