Home Page

1832 Burrishoole Parish Tithe - County Mayo, Ireland

web statistics

Name Index Townland Index


Burrishoole Parish is found in the County of Mayo, Province of Connaught, Barony of Burrishoole, Union of Newport.  It is located along the north shore of Clew Bay and stretches from a point four miles east of the town of Newport to about ten miles west of Newport.  The northern boundary of the parish extends into the Nephin Beg mountain range.

Baronies of Mayo Map            


The Tithe Composition Acts of 1823 levied a tax on each land tenant to be used for the support of clergyman associated with the Established Church (Episcopalian) of Ireland. 

In the tithe, the townland and the tax can be found for each individual.  The tithe contains the names of land tenants as well as landlords.  The same individual may have multiple pieces of property, but you would need to do further research to verify they are the same.  Towns were not a part of the tithe, therefore, Newport is not listed, however, there are townlands so close to Newport that they are probably part of the present day Newport.  Townland spellings vary to a great extent depending on the source and the time period.  The townland names used here are as stated in the tithe.  Where possible, Griffiths version of the name is listed next to the tithe townland name.

1855 Griffiths Townland Names: Page 1  Page 2

The commissioners classified the land into four classes and used the following table to determine the individual tenant's tax:

        1st Class    186 3/4 acres at 2 shillings per acre
        2nd Class    2069 acres at 1 shilling 6 pence per acre
        3rd Class    2030 acres at 1 shilling per acre
        4th Class    2884 1/2 acres at 6 pence per acre

Total Acreage 7271

An ancester found in the Tithe Books would most probably have been born during 1780 to 1800.  It is possible that a person that you come across could be the father of a person listed in Griffiths Primary Valuation, given the laspe of a generation.

The Tithe is a duly certified recording of the occupation and usage of the land for the two decades immediately proceeding the upheaval wrought by the Famine of 1847.  After the Famine, people dispersed themselves throughout the townlands rather than living in clusters, and many dispersed themselves further by emigrating.


Original Cover Page  and summation of the Burrishoole Parish Tithe:

   We the commissioners for the Parish of Burrishoole do hereby make and confirm this applotment of the sum of three hundred and fifty pounds sterling tithe Composition charged on the said Parish according to the Certificate Composition signed by us and agreed to by the Parishoners in Vestry assembled - of which sum of three hundred and fifty pounds sterling the sum of three hundred and eight pounds sterling is due and payable to the Reverend William Baker Stoney as a Composition for The Tithes receivable by him as Rector and Vicar of the said Parish.

   The sum of thirty one pounds ten shillings sterling is due and payable to the Honorable and Venerable Carles LePoer Trench Doctor in Divinity as a Composition for the part or proportion of said tithes claimable by him as Prebendary of Faldown.

   And the sum of ten pounds ten shillings is due and payable to the reverend James Dunn as a Composition for the part or porportion of said tithes claimable by him as Prebendary of Killabegs -

   Said sums to be paid to the persons entitled to them according to their several proportions by the occupiers or owners of the lands in each district or Denomination of said Parish according to this applotment Book.

    (signed)
                                A. Clendinning) Tithe Commissioners
Robert McIlrea)


Acknowledgement:
The tithe web pages were created from a book titled:
            Burrishoole Parish, County Mayo, Ireland. 
            1832 Tithe Applotment Book. 
            Transcription and Index.
by William G. Masterson, Indianapolis, Indiana.  

To order this book or others by Masterson, click here.


Tithe Applotment Books and Primary Valuation

While no complete set of census returns survives for the period before 1901, there are two record classes which provide partial substitutes:

The Tithe Applotment books were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland (the main Protestant church, and the church established by the state until its dis-establishment in 1871). There is a manuscript book for almost every parish, giving the names of occupiers, the amount of land held, and the sums to be paid in tithes. The books for Northern Ireland are in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (P.R.O.N.I.), Belfast, but there are copies in the National Archives.

The Primary Valuation (also known as Griffith's Valuation) was carried out between 1847 and 1864. There is a printed valuation book for each barony or poor law union, showing the names of occupiers of land and buildings, the names of persons from whom these were leased, and the amount and value of the property held.


 

1823 Tithe Composition Act

Introduced as a conciliatory measure, this did away with the contentious annual valuation of crops by permitting clergymen and parishoners to negotiate a fixed twice-yearly payment. This charge was apportioned among the landholders of the parish, a process recorded in the Tithe Applotment Books (National Archives, Dublin), a major source for pre-famine landholding patterns as well as for family history. By including pasture as well as cultivated land, the act reversed an exemption established in 1735. An act of 1832 made composition compulsory.

1824-1838 Tithe applotments (or tax lists) are compiled

1830-1833 Tithe War: a widespread campaign against tithes to the Church of Ireland began in October 1830 at Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny. Against the background of agricultural depression and raised Catholic expectations following the Catholic emancipation campaign, the movement spread through Cos. Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, and Queen's, and subsequently into other parts of Leinster and Munster. By 1833 there were 22 counties in which half or more of the tithes owed were unpaid. The campaign differed from contemporary agrarian protest in having the active support of large farmers, who had been particularly affected by the return of tithes on pasture land under the Tithe Composition Act of 1823. It was openly supported by Archbishop MacHale, Bishop Doyle, and many of the Catholic parish clergy, as well as by local O'Connellite activists, although O'Connell himself kept his distance. The movement began as one of passive resistance, but the use of police and yeoman to seize livestock and other goods for non-payment of the tithe led to several violent incidents, noteably at Newtownbarry, Co. Wexford (June 18, 1831), where yeoman were reported to have killed up to fourteen persons, and at Carrickshock, Co. Kilkenny on Decembr 14, where protesters killed a process server and twelve accompanying policemen. From June, 1833 government abandoned the use of soldiers and police to enforce tithe payment. Clergy in distress from non-payment received loans (eventually written off) from public funds, while the Tithe Rentcharge Act of 1838 mitigated popular hostility to the system.

Top of Page