Taxation Records Before 1689

Domestic Records Information 10

1. Introduction

The records of medieval and early-modern taxation have long formed one of the most popular and informative sources for academic, local and family historians alike. These records, part of the vast archive of the Exchequer, include material relating to the assessment, collection, accounting and auditing of central government taxation from the thirteenth century onwards, and contain not only details of the administration of taxation, but also a vast wealth of information about local communities and the people who actually paid these taxes. Although documents relating to taxation can be found in a number of series, by far the most informative documents are those in series E 179 , which contains the majority of the records relating to the assessment and collection of taxes in England and Wales from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In particular, these include the hundreds of assessment documents giving extensive lists of the names and contributions of individual taxpayers. Of course, it must always be remembered that these records were created for a particular purpose, and according to the criteria of each particular tax grant, and so will provide neither a complete list of the population of a particular place at a given time, nor necessarily an accurate reflection of wealth or status. However, they remain a remarkable source of information on the population of medieval and early-modern England and Wales.

2. Using the E 179 database to search the records

The main means of access to these records is now the E 179 database, available via the National Archives' website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e179/. This database has now superseded the old printed lists, and will eventually contain details of all documents in series E 179 , providing accurate and up-to-date information on their nature and contents, and lists of all place-names contained within them. The database is searchable by place, date, tax and document type, or any combination of these, and although users should be aware that names of individual taxpayers are not included in this database, it can be used to identify 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.

Taxes were collected using the administrative divisions of the time (counties, hundreds, parishes, etc. for lay taxes, and dioceses, archdeaconries, deaneries, etc. for clerical grants), 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.

For a general overview of medieval and early-modern taxation, together with details of the terms of individual taxes, see M Jurkowski, C Smith and D Crook, Lay Taxes in England and Wales, 1188-1688 (Public Record Office, 1998). This book has been produced as part of the project which led to the creation of the E 179 database, and details of individual taxes are also available in the database, which includes the most up-to-date information gathered during the course of the project.

3. Reading the documents

Many of the original records, particularly those from the medieval period, are in Latin, but a great number of those from the early-modern period are in English. The handwriting can sometimes be difficult to understand, whether through poor handwriting or damage to the document, but many documents tend to be relatively formulaic, and illegible or missing sections can often be deduced. Roman numerals are also used and help with these can be found in our Research Guide How to read Roman Numerals. Also, many documents have been transcribed and published, and copies of most of these are held in the Resource Centre and Library at TNA. For ease of reference, readers are advised to consult these in the first instance. Details of publications are usually given in the database, while for further lists see also ELC Mullins, Texts and calendars: an analytical guide to serial publications (Royal Historical Society, 1958; reprinted 1978), and Texts and calendars II: an analytical guide to serial publications, 1957-1982 (Royal Historical Society, 1983), also updated since 1982 on-line.

4. Lay Taxation to 1689

Medieval and early-modern taxation on individuals was technically an extraordinary event, with each tax being levied separately to provide income over and above revenue from crown lands, customs duties and other sources. These were generally granted by Parliament following a request by the monarch, and usually, at least theoretically, to 'subsidise' extraordinary expenditure, such as a military campaign (hence the term 'subsidy'). However, other taxes could be imposed directly by the monarch, such as feudal and prerogative levies, while others, such as forced loans and 'benevolences', were little more than official extortion. Each grant or levy would specify the details of the individual tax, such as the income threshold below which individuals would not have to pay the tax, any exemptions, the rates of tax payable, the number of instalments in which the tax was to be paid (known as 'collections'), and the dates on which they were to be collected.

Methods of central government taxation in this period underwent many changes, and hence the types of documents produced could vary greatly. The earliest taxes for which records survive date from the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries, and in general the amount of surviving material increases steadily over time. With a few notable exceptions, surviving medieval taxation records relate entirely to England, since it was only with the Act of Union of 1536 that Wales was brought into the taxation system. Also, until the mid-seventeenth century, members of the clergy were taxed entirely separately from the rest of the population, their taxes being granted by the convocations of Canterbury and York rather than Parliament, and hence separate series of documents exist for both lay and clerical taxes. The style of documents produced differed greatly, depending on the tax grant concerned, the standards of the time, or even the whim of the officials. Only certain taxes demanded the production and submission of detailed lists of individual taxpayers, and although these undoubtedly provide the most fruitful sources of information on people in the localities, equally useful details can often be found from the more unusual sources within these records.

4.1 Taxation before 1332

Taxation before 1332 took a number of different forms, although in general only limited numbers of documents survive for any particular tax, and very few before c.1290. The earliest taxes were mainly carucages and tallages, taxes upon land and individuals, as well as feudal levies such as aids and scutages. Many of these early taxes were discontinued, but feudal levies continued to be raised intermittently as late as 1612, and many documents relating to medieval feudal taxes are printed in Feudal Aids, 6 vols (HMSO, 1899-1920). The early-thirteenth century saw the introduction of fractional taxes, where the tax was assessed at a given fraction of the value of an individual's movable property, and assessed anew for each tax. From around 1290, with the increase in military activity in Wales, Scotland and France, this form of taxation became more frequent, and a number of assessment rolls survive from this period, many of which include details of the actual goods being assessed. For a more detailed discussion of the different types of tax levied in this period, see the Introduction to Jurkowski, Smith and Crook, Lay Taxes in England and Wales.

4.2 Fifteenths and Tenths, 1334 to 1624

In 1332, a fractional tax was levied at the rate of a fifteenth and tenth (a tenth in the cities, boroughs and royal ancient demesne lands, a fifteenth elsewhere). In 1334, another tax was levied at the same rate, and instead of making new assessments of individuals, the collectors were simply to demand from each taxation unit (village, town, etc) a sum equal to or greater than that collected in 1332. The amounts collected in 1334 became the basis of all such taxes for the next three centuries, and a system of fixed quotas on individual townships was introduced, the same amount being due every time a tax was granted. Some of these quotas were reduced by statute in 1433 and 1446, and some were altered depending on local circumstances (natural disasters, population changes, etc.), but the system remained in place for all grants of fifteenths and tenths until the last such grant in 1624. As a result, assessments containing the names of taxpayers were no longer submitted to the Exchequer, and instead the Exchequer only drew up lists of the amounts collected from each place, simply giving the names of the townships and the sums paid. The amounts due in 1334 are listed in R E Glasscock (ed.), The Lay Subsidy of 1334 (British Academy Records of Social and Economic History, new series, II, 1975), which gives the taxation lists for each county, together with modern Ordnance Survey grid references for the places taxed.

4.3 Poll Taxes

Poll taxes were essentially taxes levied on individuals rather than property or wealth, with everyone over a certain age, and not otherwise exempt, being liable to pay a given amount. As a result, the surviving records of such taxes generally include a rather higher proportion of the population, and surviving documents record the names of many individuals. The most famous such taxes were undoubtedly those granted in 1377, 1379 and 1380, the last of these being a major factor in the outbreak of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. All known surviving receipts and assessments from these fourteenth-century taxes have been transcribed or calendared by Carolyn Fenwick in The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381 (3 vols, British Academy Records of Social and Economic History, new series, 1998-2004), and many have also been published elsewhere. Such large-scale poll taxes were then abandoned for many years, although poll taxes on foreigners were regularly employed in the mid-fifteenth century. However, later tax grants often included a poll tax element, with certain sections of the population being expected to pay a poll tax if they met certain conditions or did not meet the criteria for assessment by other methods. For example, many Tudor and Stuart subsidies included a poll tax upon foreigners or religious dissenters. Poll taxes were again granted in the seventeenth century (eg in 1667 and 1678), but were often graduated according to status, and attracted little resistance.

4.4 Tudor and Stuart Subsidies

With the fossilization of fractional taxes, successive governments looked for different methods of raising additional revenue. Although some experimental subsidies on land and wealth were granted in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it was the early Tudors who introduced the next major revolution in taxation. The Tudor subsidy was a tax levied at a given rate (specified in the statute) on the value of an individual's movable goods or their income from land (whichever was the greater). Although begun under Henry VII, it was under Henry VIII that these taxes became the general form of taxation, and from 1523, local commissioners were again required to submit to the Exchequer assessments listing the names and contributions of individual taxpayers. Early subsidies were granted at different rates, and often with different thresholds (the income at which a person became liable to taxation), and hence the yield of these taxes, and the records they created, varied greatly. The subsidies granted in 1523 and 1543 had the lowest taxation thresholds, and hence led to the production of particularly detailed and full lists of taxpayers, large numbers of which survive in series E 179. These and other subsidies are discussed in R W Hoyle, Tudor Taxation Records (PRO, 1994), which also gives a list of documents in print. Further details on individual taxes are also available in the E 179 database.

Subsidies continued to be granted throughout the rest of the Tudor and Stuart period, the last such grant being that of 1663. However, the thresholds of assessment became fixed at a relatively high figure from 1563, and hence only wealthier individuals were liable to contribute. As a result the surviving assessments are not as extensive as those for the earlier subsidies, but they do nevertheless remain a useful source for tracing the fortunes of the wealthier members of society.

4.5 Charles I, the Civil War and Commonwealth, and the Restoration

Although subsidies continued to be granted in the Stuart period, the poor relationship between Charles I and Parliament, coupled with the large amounts of money demanded by the King, led Charles to search for other sources of income. The forced loan levied in 1626 was nothing new, but the imposition of the ship money from 1635 was greatly resented, and became one of the elements in the outbreak of the Civil War. Few records of the ship money survive, those at TNA consisting almost entirely of schedules of arrears, but some subsidies from this time, such as the grant of £400,000 in 1642, produced extensive and useful lists of taxpayers. During the Civil War and Commonwealth periods, another change in taxation methods occurred, the usual form of taxation being the monthly or weekly assessment, whereby a sum agreed in advance was divided among the different counties. Assessments created under this system generally comprise lists of communities, showing the amount payable by each out of the lump sum allocated to the county in question.

Such assessments continued after the restoration of Charles II in 1660, in parallel with various other different taxes. However, another innovative tax, a levy on hearths, was introduced in 1662 as a permanent source of revenue for the Restoration government. This tax remained in force until was repealed by William and Mary in 1689 and replaced by further new forms of taxation. The Hearth Tax records have provided a wealth of information for historians and geneaologists, and given that many records also include lists of those exempt, they tend to include a relatively high proportion of the population. Many different types of document relating to this tax survive in large numbers, and further details of these, and the tax itself, may be found in the Research Guide The Hearth Tax 1662-1689.

After 1689, records of taxation are to be found in various other series in The National Archives, as well as in local county record offices, and a survey of assessments of the most widespread of these can be found in J Gibson, M Medlycott and D Mills, Land and Window Tax Assessments, 2nd edition (FFHS, 1998).

5. Clerical Taxation

For many centuries the clergy of England and Wales were taxed separately from the rest of the population, and as a result an entirely separate series of records of clerical taxation exist alongside those for the laity. Taxation of the clergy developed from taxes imposed by the pope during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but gradually the proceeds of these taxes were shared with the monarch, and after 1340 such taxes were paid solely to the Crown. As with the laity, clerical tax grants were extraordinary events, granted to the monarch on request. Although the clergy tended to follow the lead taken by Parliament, the clergy would meet separately in their provincial convocations and would grant fractional taxes on their income from benefices (rectories and vicarages) and other ecclesiastical offices. By the mid-thirteenth century, the tenth had become the standard fractional levy, and from 1291 the assessment made in that year for the tenth collected for Pope Nicholas IV (generally known as the Taxatio) became the basis of all clerical taxation until the Reformation. Many annotated copies of this assessment, used by the collectors gathering later taxes, survive in series E 179 . Taxes were collected by diocese, with each bishop appointing his own collectors (usually the heads of religious houses) to gather the tax and account for the proceeds at the Exchequer.

In addition to copies of the 1291 assessment, a variety of other subsidiary documents also survive in series E 179 , as well as assessment documents for other types of taxes. For instance, the clergy paid poll taxes in 1377, 1379, 1380 and 1381, for which many assessments listing the names of individual clergymen survive, and in the early fifteenth century a number of experimental taxes were levied in the province of Canterbury, designed to tax those clergymen who had hitherto escaped taxation (such as unbeneficed clergy, and those who held benefices established after the 1291 assessment). Grants of subsidies were always requested from both provinces of the clergy, and separate taxes, although generally concurrent, would be granted from both Canterbury and York. However, the northern clergy, which suffered from frequent warfare with the Scots and economic depression, were usually less generous.

At the Reformation, the system of clerical taxation was overhauled completely, and in 1534, a new assessment of clerical income was made under the Act of First Fruits and Tenths, which became known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus. Under this act, a permanent tenth was collected from the clergy, payable annually at Christmas, and although repealed by Mary in 1555, this was quickly re-instated by Elizabeth I and remained in effect until the Victorian era. These tenths were administered by the Office of First Fruits and Tenths, and documents for them can be found among its records (E 331 - E 344 , E 347 ). From 1540 the clergy also resumed their grants of subsidies to the monarch, levied on the basis of the 1534 assessment, and although these taxes continued to be granted by the two convocations, they now had to be ratified in Parliament. Most of the post-Reformation documents in series E 179 comprise certificates listing the names of stipendiary clergy who were required to pay a graduated poll tax (under the terms of these subsidy acts), or identifying exempt benefices. In 1641, the convocations were suspended by Parliament, and the clergy were taxed with the laity until the Restoration, but although the clergy's right to be taxed separately was briefly re-instated by Charles II, in 1664 they gave up this privilege and agreed to be included in all future grants of taxation made by Parliament.

6. Other sources in TNA

The records of the Exchequer at TNA include a number of other series containing documents relating to the assessment, collection and accounting of central government taxation. The account rolls in E 359 and E 360 contain details of the overall sums collected for a particular tax, and although they rarely include the names of any individual taxpayers, they do give details of the final amounts raised from particular counties, cities, boroughs and other taxation areas. Since taxpayers were to be assessed at their normal place of residence on all their lands and goods throughout the country, double-charging was a constant problem, and to remedy this, certificates of residence were drawn up to prevent this. Most of these certificates are in series E 115 , although a large number can also be found in E 179 . These certificates date mainly from between 1558 and 1625, and are indexed alphabetically by personal name. When ordering, do not use the 'pouch' number given in the list, eg Department code E, Series 115, Piece Number 245/11.

(ri2117) Last updated: 19 August 2004 | © Crown Copyright 2004