About

The E 179 database has been developed since 1995 by the University of Cambridge (Department of Geography and Faculty of History) and the National Archives, with more recent input from the University of Wales: Bangor (Department of History and Welsh History) and the University of York. This has been achieved with the help of generous funding for the detailed research on the documents from six different bodies:

• The Leverhulme Trust
• The Arts and Humanities Research Board
• The Economic and Social Research Council (award nos: R000237034, R000238047, RES-000-23-0200 and RES-000-22-1189)
• The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne
• The Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society
• The Friends of The National Archives

The database now forms the primary means of searching the series of records known as 'King's Remembrancer, particulars of account and other records relating to lay and clerical taxation', or, more conveniently, by the series letter code, E 179. Details of all records in this series relating to lay taxation in England and Wales have now been entered into this database, and the first stage of work on the records of clerical taxation within the series has also now begun. Further or revised information will be added as it becomes available.

Users can search the database by places occurring in the document, the grant of taxation to which it relates, the date of the document or the type of document concerned. Each piece or item within the E 179 series has a database record which not only gives a description of the physical appearance of the document, but also explains the administrative purpose for which the document was created, the date on which it was produced, the tax or taxes to which it relates and a list of the place-name headings contained within it. The names of any individual taxpayers contained within the document are not recorded, although the existence of such names is highlighted.

The database provides a major step forward in searching and using this important and diverse series of records, for historians and genealogists alike.