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Boston Tax Records: 1780-1821

Further Reading

The books, chapters, and articles listed below are all available through the BPL and provide background information about the history of tax collection in 18th- and 19th-century Boston. 

  • Knights, Peter R. Yankee Destinies: The Lives of Ordinary Bostonians. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1991. The three-page summary of the tax collection process found on pages 184-186 focuses on the creation and use of the kinds of tax records found in this collection and is therefore an excellent source for understanding how the records work. Available in print or as an ebook through the BPL.
  • Menand, Catherine S. "The Things that were Caesar's: Tax Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Boston." Massachusetts Historical Review 1 (1999): 49-77. A detailed survey of the history of systems of tax collection in Boston. Does not cover the 19th century, but lays a solid foundation for understanding why and how taxes were collected. The footnotes are particularly helpful for those interested in further reading. This article can be accessed online through JSTOR with a valid BPL card.
  • Registry Department of the City of Boston. A Volume of Records Relating to the Early History of Boston, Containing Boston Town Records, 1796-1813. Boston: Municipal Printing Office, 1905. The minutes of the town selectmen of Boston. Pages 121-123 detail the new laws for tax assessment and collection that were set forth in 1802.
  • Rohrbach, Lewis B. Boston Taxpayers in 1821. Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1988. A reprint of the original tax list as published in 1822, with an informative introduction that discusses the calculations used to determine taxes due. A copy is available at the BPL Social Sciences Department in Bates Hall, call number REF F73.25 .B767 1988.

Useful Resources