The Registry of Deeds - History & Future
Preface to Volume 1 (c) FamilySearch
What is this archive and why does it exist?
The acquisition of land, both via legal transactions and, sadly, via more nefarious manoeuvres of the ruling state, has always been an important catalyst in Irish society and the economy. As you can imagine this process generated paperwork by the yard and no doubt associated squabbles and disputes by equal measure. By the beginning of the 18th century it was decided to create a Registry of Deeds by a formal Act of Parliament whereby people could establish their legal tenure. This was done in Dublin whereby a copy of your deed, termed a memorial, was lodged by sworn testimony in front of witnesses at the Registry.
The very first deed was registered on the 29th March 1708 and there is an interesting blog piece on Memorial No.1. Crucially, given the catastrophic conflagration of 1922 at the Four Courts, you will be pleased to learn that both these precious original documents and the various transcripts and finding aids that were created around them have all survived down through the centuries and await your keen genealogical interest. They are a fabulous resource for learning more about family relationships and can involve the same tracts of land being passed down through multiple generations in related families, maintaining a long connection to a place.
The acquisition of land, both via legal transactions and, sadly, via more nefarious manoeuvres of the ruling state, has always been an important catalyst in Irish society and the economy. As you can imagine this process generated paperwork by the yard and no doubt associated squabbles and disputes by equal measure. By the beginning of the 18th century it was decided to create a Registry of Deeds by a formal Act of Parliament whereby people could establish their legal tenure. This was done in Dublin whereby a copy of your deed, termed a memorial, was lodged by sworn testimony in front of witnesses at the Registry.
The very first deed was registered on the 29th March 1708 and there is an interesting blog piece on Memorial No.1. Crucially, given the catastrophic conflagration of 1922 at the Four Courts, you will be pleased to learn that both these precious original documents and the various transcripts and finding aids that were created around them have all survived down through the centuries and await your keen genealogical interest. They are a fabulous resource for learning more about family relationships and can involve the same tracts of land being passed down through multiple generations in related families, maintaining a long connection to a place.
Stamp Duty Paid. Photo Wikimedia Commons (British Government)
Who registered deeds?
There seem to be different schools of thought on who actually made most use of this route to legal land title. The Penal Laws were designed to oppress the Irish Catholic and dissenting Protestant population by making it difficult for them to enjoy the same rights to property as the Protestant supporters of the established Church of Ireland. Indeed the discovery process allowed Protestants to denounce law-breaking land-owners and be duly rewarded with title to the lands in question. Although you could imagine this would lead to enormous bad feeling and possibly settling of old scores in some areas, there were also stories of altruism whereby sympathetic Protestants "discovered" lands belonging to Catholic friends and presumably reversed the situation when the laws were later changed.
From this you might surmise that it was mostly the minority Protestant land owning / leasing classes who registered deeds. However, others have posited that you are as likely to find deeds registered by people of considerably lesser means or perhaps of other faiths because it was important for them to establish their rights within the bounds of the law. Deeds registered at the Registry outranked all other claims to the lands. My Methodist ancestors made liberal use of the Registry of Deeds but the oldest deed I have found is currently dated 1769.
Remember too that registration was never compulsory - many deeds went unregistered and may still exist in family papers today. The Wicklow Papers deposited in the National Library of Ireland are a good example of this practice - as far as I can tell from trying to research some of these deeds remotely, I don't think they were all registered and if I want to see the detail, I'm going to have to take a trip to the library in Dublin to view their manuscript collection.
By the 19th century, registration had become much more prevalent as the deeds themselves became important financial assets that helped to fuel the exchange of capital and grow the economy. OK, it's true that only a relatively small proportion of the financially equipped population of the time might have indulged in these transactions, but if you do find relations here, you might just hit some genealogical pay dirt!
There seem to be different schools of thought on who actually made most use of this route to legal land title. The Penal Laws were designed to oppress the Irish Catholic and dissenting Protestant population by making it difficult for them to enjoy the same rights to property as the Protestant supporters of the established Church of Ireland. Indeed the discovery process allowed Protestants to denounce law-breaking land-owners and be duly rewarded with title to the lands in question. Although you could imagine this would lead to enormous bad feeling and possibly settling of old scores in some areas, there were also stories of altruism whereby sympathetic Protestants "discovered" lands belonging to Catholic friends and presumably reversed the situation when the laws were later changed.
From this you might surmise that it was mostly the minority Protestant land owning / leasing classes who registered deeds. However, others have posited that you are as likely to find deeds registered by people of considerably lesser means or perhaps of other faiths because it was important for them to establish their rights within the bounds of the law. Deeds registered at the Registry outranked all other claims to the lands. My Methodist ancestors made liberal use of the Registry of Deeds but the oldest deed I have found is currently dated 1769.
Remember too that registration was never compulsory - many deeds went unregistered and may still exist in family papers today. The Wicklow Papers deposited in the National Library of Ireland are a good example of this practice - as far as I can tell from trying to research some of these deeds remotely, I don't think they were all registered and if I want to see the detail, I'm going to have to take a trip to the library in Dublin to view their manuscript collection.
By the 19th century, registration had become much more prevalent as the deeds themselves became important financial assets that helped to fuel the exchange of capital and grow the economy. OK, it's true that only a relatively small proportion of the financially equipped population of the time might have indulged in these transactions, but if you do find relations here, you might just hit some genealogical pay dirt!
What types of documents were registered?
Many different types of legal documents, termed memorials, were registered but they all related in some way to physical tracts of land. These mainly included various different types of conveyancing documents e.g. sales, leases and mortgages. These deeds will contain important genealogical details and will crucially help you understand how your ancestors may have been associated with particular places for many years. There are also 2 other types of documents that registered that are very genealogically interesting;
Many different types of legal documents, termed memorials, were registered but they all related in some way to physical tracts of land. These mainly included various different types of conveyancing documents e.g. sales, leases and mortgages. These deeds will contain important genealogical details and will crucially help you understand how your ancestors may have been associated with particular places for many years. There are also 2 other types of documents that registered that are very genealogically interesting;
- Marriage settlements or articles - these were essentially the pre-nuptial agreements of their day, designed to provide for the bride should she be widowed. Trustees would be nominated to hold the interest in specific lands in order to be able to provide an income for the widow. These were most often male relatives of the bride and groom. The land in question might actually have been part of the bride's marriage portion from her father and this can help you to reach further back on her side of the family.
- Wills - a significant number of these were registered, presumably when they too involved transferring lands to beneficiaries or probably because they were likely to prove contentious!
Click on image for Amazon link
How can you learn more about the institution and the records?
"A Guide to the 18th Century Land Records in the Registry of Deeds" (2012-13) by Brian Nugent, is a promising title to answer this question. I can't find the book in either the National Library of Ireland or the British Library main catalogues unfortunately and I'm not sure if it is the sort of book you are likely to find in your local library, but you never know, so I've included it on this web page for reference.
I have found it for sale online (click the book cover for details) but in the meantime, you can read a good few selected pages via Google books to give you an idea of the content and style. It is a hefty 530+ pages, with about half of these given over to appendices, but the advice pages featured suggest that Brian has taken the time to study many deeds to attempt to fathom a pattern to their various meanings.
*** STOP PRESS *** Brian has been kind enough to share a copy with me and I will update this page further when I have finished reading it.
Much has also been written elsewhere online that you can peruse to learn more - here are a couple of recommendations;
I have also enjoyed several online talks;
"A Guide to the 18th Century Land Records in the Registry of Deeds" (2012-13) by Brian Nugent, is a promising title to answer this question. I can't find the book in either the National Library of Ireland or the British Library main catalogues unfortunately and I'm not sure if it is the sort of book you are likely to find in your local library, but you never know, so I've included it on this web page for reference.
I have found it for sale online (click the book cover for details) but in the meantime, you can read a good few selected pages via Google books to give you an idea of the content and style. It is a hefty 530+ pages, with about half of these given over to appendices, but the advice pages featured suggest that Brian has taken the time to study many deeds to attempt to fathom a pattern to their various meanings.
*** STOP PRESS *** Brian has been kind enough to share a copy with me and I will update this page further when I have finished reading it.
Much has also been written elsewhere online that you can peruse to learn more - here are a couple of recommendations;
- John Grenham's Registry of Deeds information pages on his website go into some more detail on the history and format of the resource (Click on the link to the opening page above and be sure to read the ones which follow too.)
- Sean Murphy also wrote a piece for History Ireland back in 2009 entitled "A most valuable storehouse of history" which highlights the importance of the records, the discovery process and poses questions for the future.
- The Registry of Deeds Heritage Events page has some interesting blog posts that pick out various stories from the archives.
- Dr. Patrick Walsh (see talk below) has also written up his academic findings in a short free booklet entitled "Introduction to the Memorials and Transcription Books at the Registry of Deeds".
I have also enjoyed several online talks;
- Roz McCutcheon of the Irish Genealogical Research Society has a huge wealth of experience with these records and has posted a very informative talk, "The Registry of Deeds", which she gave at a conference hosted by the Cork Genealogical Society.
- Some of the videos on the Property Registration Authority of Ireland (PRAI) YouTube channel have also added to my knowledge on the history of the Registry and how the deeds are a fascinating source for understanding the social and economic history of Ireland;
- Dr. Brendan Twomey - "Follow the Money: Lending and Borrowing in a World Without Banks. The Evidence from the Registry of Deeds." Highly entertaining talk about mortgages illustrating how these deeds became a way of moving capital around securely. The early part is also a great introduction to the institution.
- Dr. John Bergin - "The Operation of Ireland's Popery Laws: Evidence for the Discovery Procedure in the Registry of Deeds". Pretty academic in tone but obviously the product of huge amounts of detailed research.
- Dr. Patrick Walsh (TCD) and Dr. Andrew MacKillop (Univ. of Glasgow) recently gave a great talk on "Reading the Deeds and Sasines: Irish and Scottish Land Records". This was a fascinating update on how this joint project is applying clever technology to the problem of transcribing and classifying deeds. This PRAI blog on Handwriting tells you a bit more about the TRANSKRIBUS technology being used.
What plans for the future?
The PRAI website documents an inaugural meeting in 2019 of their Digitisation Strategy Steering Group which included a very broad range of interested parties, including several prominent genealogists. However, whilst the many photographs attest to the large number of attendees, the blog is very light on any details and really just reiterates how important the project will be. I haven't been able to find out any more about any plans that may have been made or indeed any actions taken. Yes, the last few years have been strange and bewildering times that have disrupted so many projects but it would be good to know what is actually happening. In particular I would really love to see some news about plans to digitise the Abstract Books which I wrote about in this blog piece.
The PRAI website documents an inaugural meeting in 2019 of their Digitisation Strategy Steering Group which included a very broad range of interested parties, including several prominent genealogists. However, whilst the many photographs attest to the large number of attendees, the blog is very light on any details and really just reiterates how important the project will be. I haven't been able to find out any more about any plans that may have been made or indeed any actions taken. Yes, the last few years have been strange and bewildering times that have disrupted so many projects but it would be good to know what is actually happening. In particular I would really love to see some news about plans to digitise the Abstract Books which I wrote about in this blog piece.
Read On ... The Registry of Deeds - Visiting the Archive
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2022
