Griffith's Valuation

Griffith's Valuation was a survey of Ireland completed in 1868. [1]

Contents

Griffith's background

Richard John Griffith started to value land in Scotland, where he spent two years in 1806-1807 valuing terrain through the examination of its soils. He used 'the Scotch system of valuation' and it was a modified version of this which he was to introduce into Ireland when he assumed the Office of Commissioner of Valuation.

Tasks in Ireland

In 1825 Griffith was appointed by the British Government to carry out a boundary survey of Ireland. He was to mark the boundaries of every county, barony, civil parish and townland in preparation for the first Ordnance Survey. He completed the boundary work in 1844.

He was also called upon to assist in the preparation of a parliamentary Bill to provide for the general valuation of Ireland. This Act was passed in 1826, and he was appointed Commissioner of Valuation in 1827, but did not start work until 1830 when the new 6" maps, became available from the Ordnance survey and which he was required to use as provided for by statute.

He served as Commissioner until 1868, when he was succeeded by Sir John Ball Greene CB, who then took charge of the ongoing revisions of the valuation on an annual basis. Griffith also served as Chairman of the Board of Works. He conducted two major valuation surveys. First, was the townland valuation, which was completed in the 1840s and which took the townland as the geographical unit of valuation. The second and more extensive, was the tenement survey which valued individual property separately for the first time and which also valued all buildings in the townland for the first time, whereas, heretofore only the larger houses, principally those of the gentry had been valued in the first valuation. The tenement valuations of County Dublin were the first to be published on 5 May 1853 and the last were the valuations of County Armagh on 1 June 1865.

Contemporary use of and dates of valuation

The valuation is a vital document in genealogical research, since in the absence of census records in Ireland before 1901 the valuation records in many ways can act as a substitute. It is helpful in this to know the precise dates when the individual county components of the survey were completed, as follows[2]:

   Counties        Date of completion of survey
    
   Carlow          28 June 1853
   Cork            20 July 1853
   Dublin          9 July 1853
   Kerry           19 July 1853
   Kilkenny        8 July 1853
   Kilkenny City   8 July 1853
   Limerick        29 June 1853
   Limerick City   29 June 1853
   Queen's County  28 June 1853
   Tipperary       29 June 1853
   Waterford       5 July 1863
   Waterford Borough 5 July 1863
   Dublin City     31 Oct 1854
   Kildare         18 July 1854
   Wexford	    7 July 1854
   Wicklow	    4 July 1854
   King's County   2 July 1855
   Longford	    6 July 1855
   Louth           5 July 1855
   Drogheda Borough 6 July 1855
   Meath           10 July 1855
   Westmeath       5 July 1855
   Clare           3 July 1856
   Galway Town     14 July 1856
   Cavan           25 June 1857
   Galway          29 June 1857
   Leitrim         6 July 1857
   Mayo            13 July 1857
   Donegal         6 July 1858
   Roscommon       1 July 1858
   Sligo           7 July 1858
   Londonderry     16 July 1859
   Tyrone          13 July 1860
   Monaghan        1 July 1861
   Antrim          10 July 1862
   Carrickfergus   10 July 1862
   Fermanagh       4 July 1864
   Down            12 July 1864
   Armagh          1 June 1865

References

  1. ^ "Griffith's Valuation. What It Is, and When and How It ... Made.". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 15, 1881. ""Griffith's Valuation" is a phrase no often heard (but not always understood) ... reference to Irish affairs--the tenant ... of the South and West of Ireland having ... most unanimously resolved not pay ... above the rate fixed by "Griffith's valuation." The origin of the term dates ... nearly fifty years." 
  2. ^ Fitz Gerald, James F. V., Esq. (1881). "XVI: Of the Ordnance or Griffith's Valuation". A Practical Guide to the Valuation of Rent in Ireland. Dublin: E. Ponsonby. p. 105. http://books.google.com/books?id=KaZAAAAAYAAJ&ots=dqJBNne8JL&dq=A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20the%20Valuation%20of%20Rent%20in%20Ireland&pg=PA105#v=onepage&q=19%20July%201853&f=false. Retrieved September 13, 2010. "List of Counties and Cities, showing the Dates at which the Valuation of each was completed." 

External links