Richard Griffith and the General Valuation of Ireland

He left an indelible mark on 19th Century Ireland, his work is well known to family and local historians, but the wider public perhaps the story of Richard Griffith is not well known. Was there another person more associated with every townland in Ireland at this time? Here the Clare Champion in 1985 provided an overview of his life’s work:

Richard Griffith the distinguished engineer and geologist was born in Dublin in 1784 the son of a well-off landowner from Co. Kildare. He commenced engineering studies in London and when qualified he returned home to undertake a survey of the coal fields in Leinster on behalf of the Royal Dublin Society. Next he was invited to chair a commission to study the resources of our bogs and later submitted a report to the government on the vast quantity of peat available and of its great potential. Geology and the study of rock formations had always been of great interest to him and his acquired knowledge of this subject was seen to be put to good effect in the coming years, while many of his observations have stood the best of time. In 1827 Griffith was appointed Commissioner of Valuation after the passing of the Valuation Act and as a result his place in the history of local government administration is assured for all time. He devised a system of land valuation based on an examination of the content and activity in the soil, its immediate location, while taking into account the strata of the underlying rock; a form of assessment which to this day is known as the Griffith Valuation which has remained as the basis for our county rates.

There was much conjecture on this form of assessment and which appeared to be of poor quality and unproductive as is evident in North Clare was often more highly rated than fields apparently supporting good pastures in other parts of the county, and of course, there were many appeals lodged in this regard Regularly, accounts of his work came to light, some being of a favourable nature. The following is an extract from the diary of John Singleton of Quinville Abbey, Quin who was an active public representative and a member of the Grand Jury, who was responsible for the siting of the Ennis Courthouse in its present location and for laying out the road between Quin and Ennis. On the 14th Sept., 1847 "he attended at Spancilhill as one of the Committee of Appeal for the valuation of the upper half of the Barony of Bunratty, Mr. Griffith was in attendance when all went off satisfactory, no appeal being entered against tin" valuation".

Of Griffith's more personal achievements and in which he took some pride was the production of a superb hand coloured map of Ireland on a scale of 4 inches to 1 mile showing the distribution of the various rock formations, which was exhibited at the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853 in Dublin where it received wide attention. Richard Griffith was a man of remarkable talents earning distinction as well in other spheres of activity mainly connected with public works. He built bridges and roads in many parts of Munster including the well known scenic route between Kenmare and Glengarriff and he worked also to improve the navigational system on the Shannon and the Fergus. The Griffith Valuation extended to all houses, shops, offices etc. in every town and village in the county and the tabulated returns which remain from 1850 give us the name of the occupant of each of these buildings contained in several volumes which are still regularly consulted. 

For more information on Griffith search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )