Extract from a hearth tax record with front cover. It includes Pudding Lane, listing Thomas Farriner, baker, August 1666. Catalogue ref: E 179/252/32 pt4 p6.
This is a tax record for August 1666 and shows who lived in Pudding Lane in London. The numbers show the number of hearths (fireplaces) in each house.
People who owned a house had to pay a hearth tax to the king. They paid 1 shilling (5p) for each hearth. The tax was collected twice a year. Some people blocked up their fireplaces for part of the year, so they did not have to pay the tax twice.
- Can you find the name of the king’s baker, Thomas Farriner?
- How many fireplaces and ovens did he have?
- What types of jobs can you find on the list?
- How many women had houses on the list?
Note:
Lady Day is commemorated every 25 March in the Christian calendar as the occasion when the archangel Gabriel announced that Mary would give birth to Christ.
These parishes are found in the area known as the City of London. Today, this is the location for the Monument to the Great Fire of London seen at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street. See a photograph of monument in this document collection.
Transcript
A Return of the halfe yeares duty due at Ladyday 1666
In the Severall parishes of
- Magnus
- St Margaretts new Fish Street
- Leonards Eastcheape
By the view of John Webb Collect. E. 1666
…
Stop up: blocked fireplace not in use.
| Mary Whittacre widow | 2 |
| George Porter plasterer | 3 |
| Widow Gander | 1 |
| Benjamin Burstow | 1 |
| John Bibie turner [person who works with a turning lathe, a tool for shaping and cutting wood, important in making barrels] | 3 |
| Thomas Farriner baker
1 oven |
5
1 |
| William Ludford plasterer
1 stop up |
3
1 |
| Jones | 2 |
| Susanna Noest | 3 |
| Empty | 3 |
| Lamb Yard | |
|
William Burgis, hook & eye maker [maker of fasteners for clothing]
|
3 |
| Joshua Sands plate worker [maker of plates, wooden or ceramic?] | 2 |
| Empty | 3 |
| Nicholas Carter hook & eye maker | 5 |
| Widow Grimes
|
1 |
| John Wardley clothmaker | 4 |
| William Walter smyth
[blacksmith who worked with metal and made horseshoes]
|
3 |
| John Wells [porter- carried items for a fee] | 2 |
| John Hasleby [porter]
|
2 |
| Widow Pawley
|
2 |
| William Green [turner]
|
2 |
| 68 |