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Tracing our ancestors as far back as the mid 17th Century will soon be made much easier through an exciting new project to put ancient tax documents onto both microfilm and the internet. The returns from the 1662-1689 "Hearth Tax" are one of the great taxes that form the biggest records on population in England and Wales between the Domesday Book and the 1801 census. This particular one has never been analysed precisely because it is so big. But with the help of £85,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the history department at the University of Surrey Roehampton is doing just that. The documents, in the Public Record Office and many of them fragile, will be copied onto a master microfilm and then copied to all relevant local record offices across the country. This information will then be indexed and placed on the internet. |
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The Hearth Tax was the subject of the BBC2 history series Breaking the Seal explained by a Roehampton PhD student. The tax itself was abolished by King William III in 1689 due to its mass unpopularity, mirrored by hostility to the Poll Tax over three hundred years later. One of its problems was administration, made worse by the Great Fire of London, which destroyed the newly established Hearth Office. Genealogists can use the information to trace back family trees because the best Hearth Tax returns accounted for and named every householder in each county, whether they were liable or exempt from paying the tax. Of course tax evasion was as much of a problem in the 17th century as it is today! As the tax was based on the number of hearths per household it can be used not only to estimate population size but also distribution of wealth, social status and problems of poverty. |
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Professor Margaret Spufford, research professor in history at the University of Surrey Roehampton, saw the need to have this information made widely accessible and gained support from leading archivists and historians for the project. The project is underway and news of progress and recent and forthcoming events is published on the University's website. The British Record Society has joined with the Roehampton Hearth Tax Centre to produce a series of texts of the Hearth Taxes of the 1660s and 1670s. These are being published, county by county, generally in conjunction with the relevant local record society. There may well be some twenty volumes in the series. They will make available lists of inhabitants, and the size of houses they occupied, village by village across England. |
The volumes are provided with scholarly introductions complete with maps and tables so that the volumes can be of the greatest use to social and economic historians working on a national canvas as well as to the local historians of the counties concerned.
When the mapping and analysis is completed, it will provide a bird's-eye view of the distribution and density of taxable population in England and Wales in the 1660s and 1670s.
The introductions also stress that the Hearth Taxes throw light on the buildings about which they give such austere information. It is not useful to count hearths without some awareness of the houses that contained them. This series will therefore focus attention on housing as necessary evidence in interpreting the past.
They are also especially useful for locating lost ancestors, since they can pin down which parish registers are worth searching, whilst the house size gives some sort of indication of the status of the taxpayers themselves. In addition they are naturally ideal tools for local historians, and provide the opportunity of setting the community being studied in context.
The Roehampton Hearth Tax Centre has, with the assistance of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, had master microfilm made of the Hearth Tax listings in the Public Record Office, which, in turn, has made copies of the relevant portions available to every appropriate local record office in the country. The work of transcription of Hearth Tax records from microfilm is already progressing in a considerable number of counties.
The first volumes to be published are for Cambridgeshire Michaelmas 1664; Kent Lady Day 1664; Norwich, Thetford, Yarmouth and Lynn Exemption Certificates 1670-74; County Durham Lady Day 1666; Yorkshire West Riding Hearth Tax Assessment Lady Day 1672; and Westmorland Hearth Tax Michaelmas 1670 and surveys 1674-5:
- Evans, N., & S. Rose, eds., (2000), Cambridgeshire Hearth Tax Returns Michaelmas 1664, BRS Hearth Tax Series I
- Harrington, D., S. Pearson & S. Rose, eds., (2000), Kent Hearth Tax Assessment Lady Day 1664, BRS Hearth Tax Series II
- Seaman, P., J. Pound & R. Smith, eds., (2001), Norfolk Hearth Tax Exemption Certificates 1670-1674: Norwich, Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn and Thetford, BRS Hearth Tax Series III
- Green, A., E. Parkinson & M. Spufford, eds., (2006), County Durham Hearth Tax Assessment Lady Day 1666, BRS Hearth Tax Series IV
- Hey, D., C. Giles, M. Spufford & A. Wareham, eds., (2007) Yorkshire West Riding Hearth Tax Assessment Lady Day 1672, BRS Hearth Tax Series V
- Phillips, C., Ferguson, C. & Wareham, A., eds., (2008) Westmorland Hearth Tax Michaelmas 1670 and surveys 1674-5, BRS Hearth Tax Series VI
- Ferguson, C., French, H., Thornton, C.. & Wareham, A., eds (2011) Essex Hearth Tax Michaelmas 1670, BRS Hearth Tax Series VII (to be published in 2011)
These volumes are fully indexed both by surnames and by places and should be followed by Northumberland Lady Day 1666, Huntingdonshire Michaelmas 1664, Northamptonshire Lady Day 1674 and Essex Michaelmas 1666.
| Volume | Date | Ramsdale, Ramsdall & Ramsdal Entries |
| Cambridgeshire | Michaelmas 1664 | None |
| Kent | Lady Day 1664 | None |
| Norfolk | 1670-1674 | None |
| Durham | Lady Day 1666 | To be checked |
| Yorkshire West Riding | Lady Day 1672 | To be checked |
| Westmorland |
Michaelmas 1670 and surveys 1674-5 |
To be checked |
What was the Hearth Tax ?
The Hearth Tax was introduced in England and Wales by the government of Charles II in 1662 at a time of serious fiscal emergency. The original Act of Parliament was revised in 1663 and 1664, and collection continued until the tax was finally repealed by William and Mary in 1689. Under the terms of the grant, each liable householder was to pay one shilling for each hearth within their property for each collection of the tax. Payments were due twice annually, at Michaelmas (29 September) and Lady Day (25 March), starting at Michaelmas 1662.However, the administration of the tax was extremely complex, and assessment and collection methods changed radically over time. As a result, the majority of the surviving documents relate to the periods when the tax was administered directly by royal officials, who returned their records to the Exchequer, namely the periods 1662-1666 and 1669-1674. Outside these periods, the collection of the tax was 'farmed out' to private tax collectors, who paid a fixed sum to the government in return for the privilege of collecting the tax. These private tax collectors were not required to send their assessments into the Exchequer, although a few returns from these periods do survive.
What information do Hearth Tax returns give ?
No tax return can be used as a total census of the population - there were always exemptions and evasions. The most complete Hearth Tax records are those for 25 March 1664. Information supplied includes names of householders, sometimes their status, and the number of hearths for which they are chargeable. The number of hearths is a clue to wealth and status. Over seven hearths usually indicates gentry and above; between four and seven hearths, wealthy craftsmen and tradesmen, merchants and yeomen. Between two and three hearths suggests craftsmen, tradesmen, and yeomen; the labouring poor, husbandmen and poor craftsmen usually only had one hearth. There are many gaps in the records, partly because of the loss of documentation, but partly also because of widespread evasion of this most unpopular tax. Hearth Tax returns for particular areas have been published by many local record societies, and some records are to be found in county record offices, among the quarter session records.
The tax was collected using the administrative divisions of the time - counties, hundreds, boroughs, parishes, etc. - and researchers should be aware that these have often changed over time. Basic details can be found in the E 179 database, and more specific information is available in reference works such as volumes of the Victoria County History and publications of the English Place-Name Society.
Did everyone pay the Hearth Tax ?
By the terms of the 1662 Act, only people whose house was worth more than 20 shillings a year and who were local ratepayers of church and poor rates, were required to pay the Hearth Tax. This actually left out quite large numbers of people such as paupers who paid neither church nor poor rate and people inhabiting houses worth less than 20s a year who did not have any other property over that value, nor an income of over £100 a year. Also exempt from the tax were charitable institutions with an annual income of less than £100 and industrial hearths such as kilns and furnaces (but not smithies and bakeries). However, the tax-collectors were required to collect exemption certificates from those not eligible to pay, and you may need to check these as well.
Exemption Certificates
Most individuals who were not liable to pay the hearth tax for reasons of poverty were required to obtain a certificate of exemption from the parish clergyman, churchwardens and overseers of the poor, countersigned by two Justices of the Peace. After the revising Act of 1663, hearth tax officials were to include in their assessments lists of those chargeable and not chargeable (exempt). However, the methods of recording those not chargeable tended to vary, with some assessments containing the names of exempt individuals, and others simply a record of the total number. From 1670, printed exemption forms were introduced, replacing earlier manuscript certificates; these were filled in as necessary by the local officials to record the names and assessments of the exempt in a given area. This important source may be used to supplement those assessment rolls which only show numerical totals of individuals not chargeable.
Most of the surviving certificates of exemption may be found in series E 179, mainly in large collections arranged by county. However, since many are not yet listed in detail and may be fragile, readers should ensure that they preserve the current arrangement and take particular care when handling these documents.
How to find Hearth Tax records
The majority of the surviving hearth tax documents can be found amongst the records of medieval and early-modern taxation in series E 179 at The National Archives. The main means of access to these records is now the E 179 database also at the National Archives. This database will eventually contain details of all documents in series E 179 relating to lay and clerical taxation in England and Wales between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, providing accurate and up-to-date information on their nature and contents, and indexes of all place-names contained within them. The database is searchable by place, date, tax and document type, or any combination of these. Readers should be aware that names of individual taxpayers are not included in this database, but that they may use the database to search for documents containing such names, prior to examining the original document or, where available, a printed transcript. The database is also linked to both the on-line Catalogue and, for readers at Kew, to the document ordering service.
In addition to assessment documents, a large quantity of material relating to the accounting procedures of the hearth tax also survives, both in series E 179 and elsewhere, including the account rolls in series E 360. For financial details and specific references, see the work of C.A.F. Meekings in Analysis of Hearth Tax Accounts 1662-1665, List & Index Society, vol. 153 (1979) and Analysis of Hearth Tax Accounts 1666-1669, List & Index Society, vol. 163 (1980).