People, Place and Power – The Grand Jury System in Ireland

38 Fig. 14. Title pages for County Limerick’s presentment abstracts, spring 1810 and Tyrone’s, spring 1799. Printing the abstracts of presentments ensured that there was transparency in the taxation process, with the cess payers able to see the amounts being spent and how much the tax collector would charge. In rare cases, we know who received copies of the printed volumes. Tipperary’s spring 1817 volume, for example, lists the names of 239 inhabitants, all males, who received a copy, whilst an online copy of the spring 1815 presentments for Kilkenny city contains a handwritten list of recipients. 46