Records generated by the seventeenth-century Hearth Tax are particularly useful for tracing householders' names and the size of their properties. The hearth tax records are mostly held here, in Class E179. A two-year project to microfilm hearth tax returns and copy them to local record offices has recently been undertaken by the University of Surrey Roehampton. Copies of the microfilms can be consulted in our map and large documents reading room. The British Records Society and the University of Surrey Roehampton are also running a project to provide a printed edition of at least one hearth tax return for each county (and ideally one from the 1660s and one from the 1670s). Copies of these volumes are, when published, acquired for our library.

Before visiting us to look at hearth tax returns, it is worth consulting Jeremy Gibson's 'The Hearth Tax and other later Stuart Tax Lists', published by the Federation of Family History Societies to see what records might be available for your area or which returns are available in published editions. The Federation of Family History Societies has also published an informative guide, edited by Jeremy Gibson, Mervyn Medlycott and Dennis Mills, to surviving Land and Window Tax assessments, which are also useful for tracing the owners or occupiers of older houses.

You should also read our research guide on The Hearth Tax 1662-1688.