Often referred to as the ‘Modern Domesday’, the Return of Owners of Land of 1873 – which can be accessed at The Genealogist website, www.thegenealogist.co.uk – provides family historians and genealogists with a unique snapshot of the distribution of landed property in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, the first of its kind since 1086’s more famous survey.

In the later 1800s, popular clamour against what was viewed as monopoly of landed wealth grew, partly influenced by the writings of Karl Marx. The German publication of Das Kapital in 1867 led to the text’s translation into many other languages, and although the first English-language version was not available until 1887, Marx’s work was hugely influential in the way it affected European and wider political thought, particularly about the unfairness of the distribution of money. Not surprisingly, the establishment was keen to refute what most landowners saw as exaggerated if not wildly inaccurate claims about how much land the gentry – particularly those who sat in the House of Lords – owned. While the Lords cited census returns as showing that there were around 30,000 landowners in Britain, the actual figure was nearer 10 times that.

When the public’s suspicions began to be reflected in the press of the time, a proposal for a land survey to dispel ‘errors of fact’ that could lead to public unrest was presented to the Lords in 1872 by Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby. It was hoped that any sparks of Marxist revolution in Britain were snuffed out by Local Government Boards’ collating lists of landowners (excluding London) who had holdings larger than an acre. England and Wales were tackled first, followed by Scotland in 1874 and Ireland in 1876.

The resulting returns, which were compiled from rates records, provide an index to all individuals (male and female) who owned one or more acre of land at the time. The landowner’s name and the name of the town or village where he or she lived, as well as and his or her holding in acres, rods and poles and its estimated yearly rental valuation, are given. Surnames of landowners are listed alphabetically by county. Be aware, though, that the exact location of the land is not given, and that larger areas of land could cross boundaries and therefore be listed in different sections of the returns. London is also excluded, but not Surrey and Middlesex.

Although they are now a valuable resource for those engaged in surname study, originally the returns were used to assess rates for the Poor Law Board as well as having the serious political purpose of quelling disquiet among the populace. They were also an unexpected bestseller of their day. The English and Welsh returns were officially published in 1875 in two leather-bound volumes costing 10s 6d. According to John Bateman, who went on to compile revised editions of the records, they became much-sought-after reading material, particularly among the landowning classes, who pored over them. In his own words, “[that] the affairs of one’s neighbours are of no little interest to men of every class of life has perhaps never been more strongly proved than by the production of and great demand for ‘The Modern Domesday Book’”.

Timeline of landowner returns: