Return of Owners of Land, 1873

Until 1867 only about one-eighth of the adult male population had the right to vote, but the Second Reform Bill extended the franchise – to about one third. A consequence was that, for the first time in British history, most of the electorate were not landowners. The newly enfranchised class swiftly elected the Liberal government of William Ewart Gladstone, belligerent to landowners and Conservatives. Radical politicians like Richard Cobden, John Bright and John Stuart Mill revived the arguments of the classical economists, such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo, that land value enhancement was unearned wealth that ought to be taxed. Mill wrote: The government was in agreement with the suggestion, and Lord Derby's question was a pre-arranged formality to begin the process. ==Publication==

Lord Halifax accepted the case for the production of a Return, it was prepared by the Local Government Board, and was presented to both Houses of Parliament. The Return covers England and Wales, except for London—nearly 15,000 parishes, whose records had about 5,000,000 assessments. Instructions were issued to relevant parish officials in September 1872, and the last return was received over two years later. The first examination of the returns disclosed nearly 250,000 discrepancies, which were resolved by correspondence and other means of inquiry. All statements and information in the Return, except for owner addresses, were derived from rating valuation lists for assessments under the Poor Law and were already held by each parish. Wealthy householders and landowners paid a tax (rates) to maintain the roads, other features and chiefly to support the poor. Sources Unlike the Domesday Book, the 1873 Return was not based on original research by surveyors but compiled existing parish data. The valuation lists of 1873 were prepared under the provisions of the Union Assessment Committee Act of 1862, which was introduced by Poor Law Board president Charles Pelham Villiers. The Poor Law Commissioners issued an order specifying the poor rate shortly before 1836, and the Parochial Assessment Act that contained the first statutory provision prescribing the rate. The 1862 act provided for the appointment of an assessment committee by the guardians of every union for investigating and supervising the valuation of taxable properties in each parish of a union for assessment purposes. The overseers of each parish were required to make out a list of all taxable properties and their annual value in the following format: occupant, owner, property description and name (or location, estimated area, gross estimated rental, and taxable value. Valuation lists existed for every parish in 1873, except for a few parishes under separate boards of guardians to which the Union Assessment Committee Act did not apply. Parish valuation lists were deposited with the clerks of the unions, and application was made to those officers to prepare and furnish particulars for the 1873 Return; similar applications were made to the guardians of parishes not under the Union Assessment Committee Act. ==Format==

The columns were headed from left to right: "Surname, Christian name, Acres, Rods, Perches, £s. Area is listed as A/R/P. A is acre (640 to the square mile). R is rood: a ploughing strip 220 yards long (one furlong) and wide (one rod, pole or perch). Four roods equal one acre. P is a square pole []; 40 square poles equal one rood. Rentals are in £ (pounds) and s (shillings); 20 shillings equal £1. The £s value relates to the land's gross estimated rental. Problems were encountered in defining the headings. ==England and Wales==

The Return was published in 1875 and sold for 10s 6d () each in two leather-bound volumes (edited by John Lambert) as ''England and Wales (Exclusive of the Metropolis): Return of Owners of Land, 1873; Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty; London, printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode. Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. For her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1875''. ==Scotland==

The Scottish Return was published in 1874 as "Scotland: Owners of Lands and Heritages 17 & 18 Vict., Cap. 91, 1872–3 Return: I: Of the name and address of every owner of one acre and upwards in extent (outside the municipal boundaries of boroughs containing more than 20,000 inhabitants) with the estimated acreage and the annual value of the land and heritages of individual owners. And of the number of owners of less than one acre with the estimated aggregate acreage and annual value of the lands and heritage of such owners in each county II: A similar return for municipal boroughs containing more than 20,000 inhabitants. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty; Edinburgh: Printed by Murray and Gibb, printers to Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1874". ==Ireland==

In 1873, the Local Government Board for Ireland began to ascertain the number and names of owners of land of one acre or more. Clerks of the Poor Law unions were ordered to draw up lists of such people from the property valuation and rate books in their custody. The lists were returned to the Local Government Board by the end of 1875, arranged into counties, alphabetised, and published in 1876 in a 200-page edition as Return of Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards, in the Several Counties, Counties of Cities, and Counties of Towns in Ireland. ==Popularity==

Although the Return was published for a political reason, it became sought-after reading amongst society in general (including the landed classes). John Bateman, in the preface to his 1883 work (see below), summarised the situation: ==Corrected and derivative editions==

John Bateman (1839–1910) published in 1876 The Acre-ocracy of England, based on the 1873 Return. He published a corrected and edited version of the 1873 Return, which differs significantly from the original, under the Harrison & Sons imprint in 1878. He listed the commonest sources of error in its preface. The fourth (and final) edition of his work (under the full title The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland: A list of all owners of three thousand acres and upwards, worth £3,000 a year; also, one thousand three hundred owners of two thousand acres and upwards, in England, Scotland, Ireland, & Wales, their acreage and income from Land, Culled from "The Modern Domesday Book") was published in 1883, also by Harrison. This was republished in 1971 by Leicester University Press, with the text of the fourth edition and an introduction by David Spring. ==See also==

• Explanatory Statement at start of 1873 Return