Source Information

Ancestry.com. Tax Lists of Wilson County, Tennessee, 1803-1807 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
Original data: Partlow, Thomas E. Tax Lists of Wilson County, Tennessee, 1803-1807 with Names in Court Records, 1802-1822. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1981.

About Tax Lists of Wilson County, Tennessee, 1803-1807

The constitution of 1834 established the civil district as the basic unit of county government in Tennessee. Prior to that time the captain's company served as the basic unit. These companies also served as taxing units and were responsible for compiling county tax lists. Since there is no Tennessee census available prior to 1820, with the single exceptin of the 1810 census for Rutherford County, these early Tennessee tax lists serve as substitute census records. This present work is a transcription of the Wilson County tax lists for the years 1803-1807 inclusive.

As they idetnify only property owners, however, tax lists do not constitute a comprehensive record of inhabitants. In order to provide a more complete record of Wilson Countians, therefore, [the compiler] included in this publication a list of individual involved in court cases between the years 1802 and 1822.

The original tax lists and court records are available at the Wilson County Courthouse in Lebanon. They are among the earliest records to be found at the courthouse. The tax lists appear in the Minutes of the Quarterly Court of Wilson County, 1803-1807. This book, located in the County Court Clerk's Office, is a valuable source for anyone interested in early Wilson County. The court records are found in a small, untitled volume lying on the basement floor of the courthouse. These records merely identify the various court cases by name and do not give any detail as to the nature or outcome of the cases.