" Tax
records pre-date the Revolution and may be found at the town clerk's
office, Rhode Island State Archives, or the Rhode Island Historical
Society. The clerk's office usually has an inventory of tax list
holdings. No other attempt has been made to catalog or inventory
tax records, though when they exist on a year-by-year basis, they
provide good evidence for the social status of a family and its
presence in a town when no land is owned."