The second parliament of Charles II opened on 8 May 1661, and on 8 July 1661 royal assent was given to the 'act for a free and voluntary present to his Majesty'. This tax was granted by parliament to aid the king in 'this suddain exigencie as a testimony of theire affections...and in ease of the poorer sort of [the king's] subjects'. Commissions were to be issued under the Great Seal to appropriate persons in the counties, cities and towns who were 'fit for the receiving of such subscriptions as [the king's] subjects shall voluntary offer'. The commissioners were directed to organise themselves into hundreds, rapes, wards, etc. and hold meetings which were to be publicised. They were to appoint receivers who would collect and receive the tax, and give acquittances free of charge. The subscriptions were only to be returned to the Exchequer with the payment. No commoner was to contribute more than £200, and no peer more than £400. The tax was payable upon the issue of the commissions, which were to be in effect only until 24 June 1662. All process issuing from the Exchequer against defaulting subscribers had to take place within two years of passage of the act.
p> Commissions appear to have been issued throughout August 1661, with separate commissions appointed to take subscriptions from the laity and clergy. The commission for Surrey was issued on 8 August, while those for Radnorshire and Northumberland were dated 16 August, and commissioners for Carmarthenshire, Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire were appointed on 19 August 1661 (E 179/263/43; E 179/321/72; E 179/265/18). The original commission issued on that same day for Pembrokeshire and Haverfordwest survives in Pembrokeshire Record Office (HDX//33/1).
p> Commissions to take subscriptions from the clergy seem to have been issued at the same time; that issued to the bishop of Durham and other members of the Durham clergy is dated 16 August 1661 (E 179/277/13). However, the commissions for the dioceses of Oxford and Bangor are dated 27 August and 5 September 1661 respectively.
p> The returns for Surrey are instructive as to how the tax was levied locally. Meetings of the commissioners were held in the substantial towns of the hundreds throughout the months of September and October, and less frequently in November and December 1661 (although the commissioners in Cardiganshire sat in February 1662), at which all liable contributors appeared before the commissioners and either 'presented and paid' their contributions on the spot, or 'subscribed' to pay specified contributions by certain dates, normally within six to eight weeks. After all the monies promised were paid, the subscription lists were annotated as paid, often with the date of payment, and returned to the Exchequer (E 179/258/28).
p> In addition to the many returned lists of subscribers in the E 179 class, schedules of subscriptions of the clergy of the diocese of Winchester are at E 178/6447, the diocese of London at E 178/6664, the diocese of Chichester at E 178/6665 and the diocese of St Asaph at E 178/6666, while schedules of the laity in the county and city of Kingston upon Hull are at E 178/6583 and in the city of Chester at E 178/6145. A paper book listing the subscriptions taken by the commissioners in the hundred of Blackbourne in Suffolk at a meeting at Ixworth on 17 October 1661 is now BL, Add MS 21,036.
p> BL, Lansdowne MS 805, fos. 68-74, contains the account of John Clutterbooke, esq., commissioner for collection of this tax from members of the nobility. The account lists the contributions of the peers, in hierarchical order, and gives the dates of payment, ranging from 13 July to 7 August 1662. A second list in the same account gives details of those members of the nobility who had not paid their subscriptions. His certificate as collector, containing a list of subscribers and non-subscribers, is at TNA, PRO 30/24/34/21.
p> Other accounts rendered by collectors, as well as schedules of arrears and defaulters from various counties and dioceses, often giving reasons for non-payment, survive throughout the E 179 series.
p> The tax produced a net yield of about £229,000.
p> (|Stat. Realm|, V, pp 304, 307; Chandaman, |English Public Revenue|, pp 157, 176-177) p>
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