Tithes (meaning a tenth) are levies collected in support of a church, which could be a single church or all churches of one faith. In Ireland from the 1500s to the 1800s, tithes were taxes on the agricultural system to support the Church of Ireland. Tithes made everyone cross, for many reasons. Those who were Catholic or Presbyterian resented the contribution to the established church. Land proprietors resented the impact of tithes on rents.

Tithes existed in Ireland as long ago as the 1100s, giving support to monasteries. The system that came to be resented so much was formalized in law in 1541. In 1736 legislation exempted pasture from the calculation so the burden fell upon farmers who cultivated the soil. Not all tithes went to the Church of Ireland; in 1832 a little over 15% went to “lay” (non-religious) tithe owners who acquired the right to collect tithes at the dissolution of the monasteries.

By the early 1800s resentment had become very serious. Tithes had been part of the cause of rural unrest in the late 1700s; in the 1830s, the disruptions came to be called the Tithe War. The campaign against tithes began in County Kilkenny and spread quickly to other counties. By 1833, more than half the tithes due in 22 counties had not been paid. Many landowners supported non-payment because legislation of 1823 restored pastureland to the calculation. The resistance became violent, and some deaths occurred among protestors and police.

Faced with an impossible situation, the authorities stopped trying to enforce payment and clergymen without income could apply for relief. In 1838 the tithe ceased to be paid by occupiers and landlords were levied a “rent charge.” The problem completely disappeared at the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland (1869).

Records
The Tithe Composition Act, passed in 1823, set out the process by which the tithe was converted to a monetary payment due twice a year. Property value was assessed, meetings were held in parishes, and records made of all those who were to make the payments. These are the Tithe Applotment Books.

At the time of the Tithe War any clergyman applying for relief was required to report on the situation in his parish including the names of all those who had failed to pay--the tithe defaulters. Lists of roughly 30,000 defaulters survive.

The Tithe Applotment Books are available in Dublin and Belfast (for the six counties), and on microfilm in the Family History Library (FHL) or on loan through any of the Family History Centers. If using the FHL resources, you need to be aware that the collections for the 26 counties of Ireland and the 6 counties of Northern Ireland are listed separately in the catalog. A national index to surnames (combined with an index to surnames in Griffith's Primary Valuation) known as the Householders Index is also available. More on using this index is among the resources in the Research Helps area of FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org--look for the title Ireland Householders Index).

The 1831 Tithe Defaulters have been combined recently on a CD-ROM compiled by Stephen McCormac and published by Eneclann, who have issued several data CDs for Irish family historians (www.eneclann.ie). Names are from 13 counties, with the best represented being Kilkenny and Tipperary (around 10,000 names each), then Waterford, Wexford, and Cork (about 2000 each). The information names all defaulters in a parish, gives their location and adds the details of the local situation as explained by the Church of Ireland minister. It is an easy-to-use resource and particularly interesting beyond the names it provides for it includes the words of people on the scene. There were 136 defaulters in Knocknagaul, County Limerick, and here is part of what the applicant had to say:

“Your Memorialist from time to time applied for these Arrears and was invariably refused payment, the Parishioners having in a body attended the several anti-Tithe Meetings which have been held & are still holding in the Neighbourhood & throughout the entire County. ... This feeling Memorialist has no doubt is much increased by the sanction which some Magistrates & other Gentlemen gave by their attendance at these Meetings so that the only alternative left to Memorialist endeavouring to recover his rights was a dangerous excitement of the people ending it might be in bloodshed--Memorialist is assured that His Excellency will give him credit for prefering to relinquish his rights altogether to having to recourse to legal steps which must be necessarily unproductive of good & might probably lead to loss of lives--”

Conclusion
Tithe records never receive the same attention as that other mid-1800s land resource, Griffith's Valuation. True, they are not as comprehensive (no mention of town dwellers, for example), but they are worthwhile. They present evidence of location at a particular date, useful facts for sorting out people in church records or for searches in other records, and information about land quality, agriculture, and local history.

Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing in English and Scottish family history. She is the author of Your English Ancestry (2nd ed, 1998) and Your Scottish Ancestry (1997) and she is a regular contributor to several journals including Genealogical Computing. Since 1996, she has been a study tour leader, course coordinator, and instructor for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University. She teaches online for the family history program of Vermont College and has lectured at conferences in Canada, the United States, and Australia. She is past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists.