This document is explicitly a schedule of 'desperate' or irrecoverable arrears for the West Riding of Yorkshire relating to the Hearth tax granted to Charles II in 1662. The heading of the piece states that it contains the sums outstanding on the account of Sir Thomas Gower, former sheriff and collector of the Hearth tax for the half-year ending at Lady Day 1663 (the second collection of this grant). The document then lists, by wapentake and settlement, the names of the various defaulters and the amount each owed, the vast majority owing 12d, the amount due for a single hearth for each collection.
The document is undated; however, it must have been compiled at some point after the Second Revising Act of 17 May 1664, which ordered the collection of such arrears.
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