Cess Rolls

Cess Rolls were compiled by the Commissioners of Supply in order to identify the land-owners responsible for paying the land tax and the basis for the amount due.

The word ‘cess’ is a shortened and corrupted form of ‘assess’, and when used as a verb means to impose a tax or assess the value of property for taxation. In Scotland the term was used as a noun to mean a tax, in particular the land tax, which was a permanent tax levied from land rent from the 17th century onwards.

Cess rolls for the land tax were compiled irregularly, as and when required. Most earlier rolls have little information, often only giving the name of the landholding without even the name of the landowner. By the mid-18th century, the cess roll for each parish contains a list of landowners with a valuation of the land. By the early-19th century cess rolls sometimes have the names of tenants. It has been estimated that cess rolls contain the names of only about 3% of the population.

Surviving cess rolls for each county can be found among Exchequer records in the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and/or with the records of the Commissioners of Supply. Records of commissioners of supply are mainly held by local authority archives services but for some counties are held by NRS. Rolls for each county for the year 1771 (or the year of the nearest surviving roll to 1771) have been transcribed, indexed and published in Lorretta R Timperley, A Directory of Land Ownership in Scotland, c.1770 (Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society, 1976). Further information on land tax rolls and other tax records can be found at the NRS website. <https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/taxation-records > [accessed 26 April 2024]