Chapter 10

TAXATION

Benjamin Franklin once famously observed that there is nothing certain in life except for ‘death and taxes’. This is just as well for family historians, and this chapter will concentrate on taxes, the less well-known genealogical source. Governments at both local and national level always need sources of revenue in order to pay for their policies and, in the process of their administration, records of taxpayers are made and often retained to be used by researchers. Yet in the Middle Ages only a small proportion of royal revenue came from taxation (15% in the twelfth century, for instance). This chapter looks at financial levies imposed by national and local government since the seventeenth century. It was in this century that taxation became permanent; hitherto, the monarchs only asked money from their subjects when they needed to go to war. How accurate the records are is another question, for it was in the taxpayers’ interests to try to reduce their liability by evasion or avoidance. There are a number of different types of tax; those on property, those on wealth, those on income and those on expenditure. The last type (indirect taxes, such as customs and excise) can be disregarded because they are not taxes on individuals, but on spending and therefore lead to no records of individuals. Most of the tax records will list the taxpayer and the amount they paid or/and were assessed at, and most are organized by county then manor/parish, and there should be a date of assessment.

Readers should recall that in the currency of England from Saxon times until decimalization of 1971 twelve pence equalled one shilling and that twenty shillings made one pound.

Poll Tax

Although there were no regularly imposed taxes or rates in the Middle Ages, monarchs did need their subjects’ money from time to time, especially to fight wars against the French and Scots. Occasional taxes, or subsidies or levies, were imposed from the thirteenth century onwards. The most well-known were the poll taxes of the early years of the reign of Richard II (1377–81) which helped lead to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. These were taxes, usually set at a flat rate, on all adult men, with a few exceptions, such as servants. Women did not pay. There was no variation for income or wealth. Apart from creating outrage amongst many, they also resulted in lists of most of England’s male population being created, organized by county. Relationships in families and occupations are sometimes given. What is even better is that these lists have been transcribed and published in three volumes (by Dr Carolyn Fenwick) so should be available at the British Library and Guildhall Library, inter alia. The originals are at TNA, while some county record offices, such as Essex, have microfilm copies. We should note that returns do not exist for every village, but when they do, they list men, their wives and children aged above 14.