Death Duty Registers

Was your dead ancestor’s estate liable for tax? If so, consult the death duty registers. You will find the records for England and Wales at The National Archives (in their series of records filed at reference IR 26, and covering 1796-1903). For more information, read below. For Scotland, see The National Archives of Scotland.

What are death duties?

Death duties were taxes paid on death. They were introduced in 1796 in England and Wales for estates over a certain value. Initially, few people left enough to pay these taxes. However, the tax threshold was progressively lowered, so that more people had to pay. The information death duty registers contain varies, but they may still be worth consulting even if you have already found a will.

Leah Simblist's grave

My great grandparents, Isaac and Leah Simblist, moved to London, England, from Poland before the First World War. Isaac died first, in 1912. Did he leave enough to pay death duties? If he left everything to his wife, he would have been exempt from paying, whatever the value of his estate.

Types of death duty

Legacy duty – tax on property transferred by a will. This was introduced in 1796.
Succession duty – tax on the legal transfer of the dead person’s assets and rights to their heirs. Introduced in 1853.
Estate duty – tax on assets owned by a person at death. Introduced in 1894.

Capital transfer tax replaced all the duties in 1975.

How do I find the records?

Really, it's only worth searching the records for your richer relatives. Click here to consider whether your ancester paid death duties.

If you think he or she may have, you must first consult the indexes, held by The National Archives under file reference IR 27. They are also available elsewhere. The Family Records Centre in London has microfilmed copies of some of the indexes. See its leaflet on Death Duty Records to see how the indexes are split. The index will tell you where to find the actual register.

I will be including more information on where to find indexes shortly.

Tip
Some death duty registers for 1796-1811 are now available at Documents Online from The National Archives. Death duty registers are divided into those for the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) and the other courts (the “country courts”). It is these latter ones that are now available online.

More information on death duty registers is available from The National Archives.

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