Maryland Tax Records
This entry was originally written by Roger D. Joslyn, CG, FUGA, FGBS, FASG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Available at the Maryland State Archives with index is a Maryland tax assessment of 1783, which is 'more complete' than the 1776 or 1778 'censuses' (see Census Records for Maryland). Robert W. Barnes and Bettie Stirling Carothers abstracted the 1783 Tax List of Baltimore County, Maryland (Lutherville, Md.: Bettie Stirling Carothers, 1978), but while it has some omissions, it serves as an index to photocopies of the originals published as Maryland Tax List, 1783: Baltimore County from the collection of the Maryland Historical Society (Philadelphia: Historic Publications, 1970). The counties of Calvert, Cecil, Harford, and Talbot are covered by Bettie Carothers, comp., 1783 Tax List of Maryland, Part I (Lutherville, Md.: the compiler, 1977). Furthermore, there is a two-part index to the 1783 list, one by names of property owners, the other by names of the tracts, online at the state archives' website.
The earliest tax records are to be found among the proprietary papers, dating from the 1630s. Some early tax records have been published, such as Raymond B. Clark, Jr., and Sara Seth Clark, comps., Baltimore County, Maryland Tax Lists, 1699'1706 (Washington, D.C.: Raymond B. Clark, Jr., 1964). At the Maryland State Archives is a tax list for St. Anne's Parish, Anne Arundel County (1764'66). Also here are the surviving 1798 U.S. direct tax records for Anne Arundel County (indexed), Baltimore County and City, and the counties of Caroline, Charles, Harford, Prince George's, Queen Anne's, Saint Mary's, Somerset, and Talbot. Separate volumes of the 1798 U.S. Direct Tax lists have been published for Baltimore, Carroll, and Somerset counties. Richard J. Cox edited A Name Index to the Baltimore City Tax Records, 1798'1808, of the Baltimore City Archives (Baltimore: Baltimore City Archives and Records Management Office, 1981).
