Search Ireland, Land Commission Advances, 1891-1920

Land ownership is one of the most enduring flash points in Irish history, from the widespread confiscations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through to the evictions on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These records are a transformative moment in that history and document the moment that landlordism came to end in the Irish countryside.

As a consequence of the Land War from 1879 the British government established the Land Commission initially with the intention of fixing rents via the Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881. It became quickly clear that this wouldn’t be enough and so the government began a scheme to allow tenants to buy out their farms from landlords with financial assistance from the government. Under the terms of these acts around 13.5 million acres, the vast majority of the farm land of Ireland, was acquired by occupying tenants prior to Independence.

The information contained includes:

• Purchaser’s name
• Seller’s name
• Townland
• County
• Acreage: in acres “a”, roods “r” and perches “p”
• Rental valuation: in pounds “£”, shillings “s”, and pence “p”
• Tenement valuation: in pounds “£”, shillings “s”, and pence “p”

In 1885 via the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 (otherwise known as the Ashbourne Act) the government hoped to deal with the Land War by instituting fairer rents. While popular, it did not address the issue of ownership, and also required landlord’s to accept to its terms, which most refused to do. The Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 (also known as the Wyndham Act) loaned money to tenants to be repaid over 68 years making it economically advantageous for them to buy their land where they could. Furthermore, the Irish Land Act 1909 allowed the government to buy out freeholds from landlords on a compulsory basis. 13,500,000 acres were transferred from landlords to tenants in these years up to Irish independence. Thereafter nearly 1 million additional acres were broken up and sold as well.

The records published here are of the transfers that took place before independence and are an essential resource to use in conjunction with the Griffith Valuation (1847-64). Both assess lands using the measurement of acres, roods and perches, and the value based on pounds, shillings and pence.

The records of this process and the estates taken over by the government are today held either in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland or in a purpose built archive in the Republic of Ireland at Portlaoise, details of which can be found in Fiona Fitzsimon’s article in History Ireland here.