Richard Griffith's Valuation – a study of a sample page

As you can see from the image* below, this sample page of Richard Griffith's Valuation relates to the Poor Law Union (PLU) of Castlerea in co. Roscommon. It is the first page of Griffith's Valuation for the parish of Ballintober and is arranged in alphabetical order of townland.

From this one page, you can see that the Sandford family are the biggest land owners in the three townlands of Ardnamullagh, Ballintober and Ballyfinegan.

The townland of Ardnamullagh

The first two names, Michael Carty and James McLoughlin, are referenced with individual numbers (1 and 2 respectively). These are the plot numbers which are marked on the Valuation maps. The small letters (a, b etc) in this column refer to houses which are also marked on the maps.

In the cases of Carty and McLoughlin, the numbers 1 and 2 indicate that their landholdings were identifyably separate. They may, or may not, have been adjacent to one another. The Immediate Lessors column showS that each of these occupiers is renting their property and land from Wm Sandford and, as such, each would pay their agreed rent to him.

The size of Carty's and McLoughlin's holdings suggest they were financially independent large farmers, with high social status. On the next downward rung of the ladder were small farmers who typically had between 5 and 30 acres of land. Cottiers or labourers usually rented less than 5 acres.

James McLoughlin, who seems to lease several plots of land locally and would not, therefore, fall into the small farmer category, rents a second area of land in Ardnamullagh from Wm Sandford. These 8+ acres have been divided into two distinct soils qualities (see the capital letters A and B in the Map Reference column) and this is reflected in the two rateable values for these acreas.

Scroll down for the townlands of Ballintober and Ballyfinegan.

The townland of Ballintober

Entries for the townland of Ballintober show a variety of descriptions of tenement. Richard Griffith's manual of instruction, which was used by all his Valuers, defined two classes of building. As you might expect, the term 'house' meant a building used as a permanent dwelling place. That's fairly straightforward, but the properties which the Valuers were assessing were not always what we, today, would classify as a house. Within Richard Griffith's definition fell 'houses' as different as many-roomed stone-built mansions and single-roomed mud walled cabins. Such fundamental differences were not noted in the Valuation; they are all recorded as houses, but the size and quality differences were reflected in the rateable values.

The other defined building type was the 'office'. This term was used for farm outbuildings such as stables, cow barn, piggery etc, or even factories, mills and shops. A forge (or smithy) was usually noted separately, as were all public buildings such as churches (see no. 4), schools and courthouses.

The townland of Ballyfinegan

The first entry (1a) shows Patrick Tighe renting an enormous estate of 160 acres of land, complete with his house, outbuildings and a herdsmen's house (probably little more than a shed or hut and a potato patch). At 1b is Thomas Reddy, probably a labourer, renting a small dwelling and vegetable patch within Tighe's estate. The land area of 1a and 1b are separate for valuation purposes, but clearly within the same plot on the Valuation maps.

At no 2 there are two households (a and b) on a 12-acre plot. Patrick and Micheal Kilbride reside in separate dwellings but they hold the land 'in common', as denoted by the brackets. Under this 'in common' system, each occupier works his own part of the land but each tenant is financially responsible, along with all other tenants, for the full rent. In this case, if Patrick Kilbridge fell ill and couldn't pay his share of the rent, Michael would have to pay both shares of the rent.

Once again, James McLoughlin is listed in this townland, renting more than 20 acres of land which (again) has been assessed with two soil types (A and B).

He also rents out three small houses and gardens to Patrick Hanlon, Michael Grogan and Mary Cunniff. Note than Hanlon and Cunniff have a 'garden' on which they have to pay rates. Grogan's small 'garden' is probably little more than a few rows of potato and cabbage plantings while Mary Cunniff's garden was a little over one-eighth of an acre. The three households pay their rent to McLoughlin who probably does not own this land. In all likelihood he is renting it himself, and very possibly from our old friend William Sandford. Only the immediate lessor is noted in Richard Griffith's Valuation, though.

• Find out more about Richard Griffith's Valuation and its value to genealogists

• Return to the main Land and Property page.

• Go to Irish Genealogy Toolkit's Home page.

---

*Reproduced with the kind permission of the National Archives of Ireland