This tax list was submitted to the Washington County site on the NCGENWEB for publication. After over 3 months and several reminders it still has not been published there, so I am publishing it here on the Tyrrell County NCGENWEB site until the Washington County site publishes it.

The following pages have a transcription of the 1815 Washington County Tax List and an index of names on the list. The original document is preserved at the State of North Carolina Archives in Raleigh and is available online at digital.ncdcr.gov. One column of the tax list has been omitted in this transcription. Beside having a column for valuation in dollars there is also a column for cents. Since it was very seldom used, it is omitted here.

The handwriting in the tax list is very legible. Consequently, there were few problems encountered in transcribing the document. However, there is some doubt as to whether it is complete, since there is no recapitulation at the end and there are only six surnames beginning with the letter W. The 1810 census had four times that many.

Names are listed surname first and then given name when there is only one name on a line, but strangely if a middle initial was given, it precedes the given name. In cases where there are two names on a line, "Bateman Joshua for Nancy Davis" for example, the second name is written with the surname first and given name second. Dittos are used to represent the same name on a following line. There are two anomalies. One is the listing of "Ann Byrd" in the A surnames and the second is the listing of "Ezekiel Caleb" in the S surnames. "Ezekiel Caleb" is listed after "Stewart Thomas Heirs" and may be a continuation of that line, although it is not marked in the way other continued lines were.

Columns in the tax list are self explanatory. A white poll in 1815 included freemen and male servants 21 and upwards to age 50. In 1817 the upper age was changed to 45. A black poll included slaves male and female between the age of twelve and fifty years. There was a bit of fudging on these ages to avoid taxes. Town property was located in Plymouth, the only town in Washington County in 1815. Acreage on town property was probably not included because the valuation was derived primarily from buildings and not land.

Names on the tax list are grouped by the first letter of the first surname given. The index would not be necessary but for instances where there are two names on a line with different surnames. Clicking on a name in the index will take you to that name in the tax list except for names on page 16 where the window can't scroll down any more. Dittos or Dos were used throughout the tax list to indicate the same name as on the preceding line. When using the index it will sometimes take you to a listing "Ditto Ditto." Just scroll up to the preceding line(s) to see the name.

To return to the index or tax list, click on the "BACK" button of your browser. Full navigational capabilities are also provided at the bottom of each page.