Tithe maps of Wales

The tithe maps

The accuracy of the maps depended on the skill of the local surveyors employed on the task. More than 200 different surveyors worked in Wales.

The first specification (British Parliamentary Papers, Session 1837, Vol. XLI 405) for the mapping proved to be over-ambitious. This was drawn up by one of the Assistant Commissioners, Lieutenant R K Dawson of the Ordnance Survey, and was intended to be at the scale of 3 chains to the inch (1:2,376) with a standardised set of symbols. 

Unfortunately, this was not adopted, because the landowners had to pay the costs of the survey and many were unwilling, especially if they already had estate plans that could do the job.

Amending legislation had to be passed in 1837 permitting the presentation of less accurate maps, often on a smaller scale. Many of these maps were compiled from existing estate maps and involved very little new surveying.

Those maps that met the standard were called first-class plans and received a seal from the Tithe Commissioners. The Tithe Commissioners refused their seal to inferior plans.

In Wales only 50 of 1,091 were sealed as first-class maps, mostly for Districts in Monmouthshire or Breconshire. The remainder were simply certified as being the documents on which the tithe rent-charge apportionment was based.

These second-class maps vary in scale and quality; there are some at the prescribed scale of 3 chains to the inch which for some reason were not sealed as first-class maps; while others are little more than topographical sketches and of no value for information about property boundaries, e.g. Llangeitho, Cardiganshire (1:7,920) and Nantglyn, Denbighshire (1:21,120). Some maps were simply enlargements of the Ordnance Survey One-inch maps.

The apportionment schedules

The tithe apportionment schedules follow a more rigid formula and are usually set out on standard forms containing columns for the -

• names of the landowners and occupiers
• plot numbers
• acreage
• name or description
• state of cultivation of each tithe area
• amount of tithe rent-charge payable
• names of the tithe owners

Not all schedules are uniformly detailed. All give details of landowners and occupiers but some give details for holdings only, and not for individual fields. A little over half of the Welsh schedules give details of tithe rent-charge on each field/enclosure. Likewise not all maps give details of land use or record the names of individual fields.

Surveyors and valuers were instructed by the landowners to apportion by holding rather than by individual field in order to keep costs down. Field-names and land use are most often recorded where the tithe documents are prepared from existing surveys. Users should be cautious when details of field-names and land use are studied; because they could be repeating information about an older landscape that had already changed by the time the Tithe Map was being prepared.

Valuers and surveyors

The landowners appointed the valuers and surveyors usually after placing advertisements in the local press. 305 valuers and surveyors worked in Wales. While most of them had a very local sphere of activity, others worked over several counties. One of the most notable was the firm of H P Goode and Philpott of Haverfordwest who worked in Pembrokeshire, Glamorganshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire on a total of 126 apportionments. By contrast 135 valuers and surveyors are associated with only a single apportionment.

Using the mapping

No map should be used in isolation, other documentary sources are needed to determine the accuracy of maps, their purpose, the methods by which they were made, and to establish how much of the cartographer's information is new or unique and how much is merely a repetition of what has gone before. Tithe maps are no exception.

A number of Welsh tithe maps were compiled from old surveys. The researcher should seek to ascertain, therefore, how the maps were made. How much of the data was gathered from genuine fieldwork and how much was derived from other sources. While the maps often carry a wide range of information, certain aspects, such as rights of way, were of no interest to the Commissioners. On tithe maps, therefore, such information is often missing or inaccurate

Tithe commutation was the process by which the payment in kind was substituted for a cash payment. The Tithe Commutation Act was designed to ensure that this was achieved quickly throughout the country.

Tithes were still payable in almost all Welsh parishes (and in a majority of English parishes too) in 1836. The early 19th century had been an age of much political, social and economic reform. There had been an increasing demand for the Commutation of Tithe (some reformers campaigned for the abolition of tithe) and in 1836 the government of the day successfully steered the Tithe Commutation Bill through Parliament. The Act received the Royal Assent on 13 August 1836.

The Process of Commutation

The 1836 Act set up the Tithe Commission headed by 3 Commissioners sitting in London:

• William Balmire
• Thomas Wentworth Buller
• Rev. Richard Jones

William Balmire was the chairman. A Cumberland farmer, he had to resign as MP on his appointment to the Commission. The Rev. Richard Jones was the Archbishop of Canterbury's nomination.

Establishing tithe districts

The first tasks of the Commissioners were to find out where commutation had already taken place, and also to establish the boundaries of every unit in which tithes were paid separately. This unit was known as a tithe district to distinguish it from a parish or township. Enquiries were directed to every parish or township listed in the census returns. The results of these enquiries are found in the Tithe Files (Held in Class IR18 at The National Archives).

There are 1,132 Tithe Files for Wales and they include all districts in Wales, not only those places where tithe was still paid in 1836. Tithe districts are usually parishes, but a minority are townships, and some are chapelries, hamlets, or extra-parochial places, many of which enjoyed separate status solely for tithe commutation purposes.

Cases where no Apportionment was made

In Wales only 41 files do not have a corresponding tithe map. Of these, 5 refer to duplicate files under alternative names for the same district; 9 refer to districts already included in other tithe districts. 14 of the 41 files, therefore, do not refer to defined tithe districts.

Of the remaining 27 tithe districts for which no map was prepared we find that in Ifton (Monmouthshire) the tithe had been commuted in the enclosure of 1776. In another 11 districts all the tithe rent-charge was merged before apportionment and the remaining 15 relate to districts where no tithe was paid in 1836, and probably had always been free of tithe. Of these, 9 were very small extra-parochial districts and 6 were former monastic lands. Declarations of merger were prepared for these districts also to regularise the position.

The contents of these files have been described in detail in Kain (1986).

Apportionment

There were 2 distinct stages to the commutation process, first, the fixing of a global assessment for the tithe district and second, the apportioning of the tithe rent-charge on the individual properties.

The apportionment was recorded on a map and in a written schedule. These maps and schedules together constitute what is usually termed by historians ‘the parish tithe survey’. The essential purpose of a survey was to provide an accurate measurement of the acreage of each parcel of land, or tithe area, and record its observed state of cultivation.

The Tithe Act provided for the making of an original and 2 copies of every confirmed instrument of apportionment; all were sealed and signed by the Commissioners. The originals were retained in the custody of the Commissioners and are now in The National Archives. The set is complete.

The copies were deposited with:

• The Diocesan Registrar: These copies were transferred to the Welsh Church Commission when the Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and in 1944 they were deposited at The National Library of Wales. The set is complete except for those border parishes that opted to join English dioceses at disestablishment. For these tithe districts photographic copies are held at the Library.
• The incumbent and churchwardens of the parish: Some of these copies remain in the parish churches but many are now deposited in the local record offices. Most record offices also have photocopies of the maps and schedules for their district.