Analysis of Cambridgeshire hearth tax assessments: Chesterton, Northstowe and Papworth hundreds, 1662, 1666, 1674

Analysis of Cambridgeshire hearth tax assessments, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth hundreds, 1662, 1666, 1674

Introductory Note

THE following analyses have been prepared from the Cambridgeshire Hearth Tax Assessments in the Public Record Office for 1662 Michaelmas [E 179/84/36], 1666 Lady Day [E 179/244/22], and 1674 Lady Day [E 179/244/23]. The assessments have been fully described, and the nature of the tax and value of its records have been briefly discussed, in V.C.H. Cambs. iii. 500 and iv. 272. The lists for 1662 were prepared by petty constables in June and early July 1662 and were designed to be simply lists of taxpayers, though during the next 18 months many persons in the lists secured exemption. The lists for 1666 were made out in the summer of 1666, after collection had taken place, by the officers of George Wilmot, the subfarmer, and are drawn up under the headings of 'Paid' and 'Unpaid'; many of the persons with one or two hearths included under 'Unpaid' may have been entitled to exemption, but the lists do not indicate them since they were included as taxpayers in default. The lists for 1674 were made out by the subcollectors of Edward Miller, the receiver, with the assistance of parish officials, during the spring and summer of 1674, after collection had been made. They are divided into taxpayers and those legally exempt by certificate. Among the taxpayers the owners of empty or recently destroyed houses or hearths and the occupiers of houses recently built or with new hearths in them are distinguished. The exempt may include paupers, even though they did not need to be certified. The exemption certificates, made out during the winter of 1673-4, survive incompletely and are heavily damaged [P.R.O., E 179/326/10].

The three documents have been analysed on the same principle. Against each place is given, in separate columns, the total of entries recording persons as occupiers of from one to ten hearths and a further column gives the occupiers of houses with 11 hearths or more: two final columns give the total number of entries and of hearths in each place. For 1662 only one line is needed for each place. For 1666 three lines are needed, for the 'Paid', for the 'Unpaid', and for the total of the two. For 1674 up to four lines may be needed, for the taxpayers, for those among the taxpayers who owned empty houses etc., for the exempt, and for the total of the three categories. Out of 26 places in the three hundreds no exempt are recorded for Westwick in Chesterton hundred or for four places in Papworth hundred, because there were no exempt or because those certified as exempt in neighbouring parishes were included in a single certificate or because the certificate reached the clerk of the peace too late for enrolment. Exemption certificates which were made out in 1672 for the collections Lady Day 1672 to Lady Day 1673 [P.R.O., E 179/84/440] also survive, and the numbers of persons which they give are included below in footnotes to each hundred in the table for 1674. The number is sometimes less than the number of names originally entered on the certificate because a few names were cancelled before, or when, the justices of the peace countersigned the certificates. The footnotes also mention a few special entries, chiefly of almshouses or town houses, and differences, resulting from faulty addition, between the total number of hearths in the recorded entries and the total given in the documents.

Childerley appears to have been depopulated except for Childerley Hall, which is listed separately in 1662 and under Dry Drayton in 1666 and 1674. Westwick is not listed in 1662 or 1666, and in 1664 is part of Cottenham.

A word may be said about the relative comprehensiveness of the assessments. It may be understood that in all lists a person may occur more than once when as landlord he or she is entered for the hearths in a tenant's house, but in general the number of entries represents households. There is not much difference between the totals of entries in 1666 and 1674. The difference is one of 5 or less, either way, for two of the four places in Chesterton hundred, for all but three places in Northstowe hundred, and for all but two places in Papworth hundred (the total number of entries for Over in 1666 being unknown). Where the difference is more than 5 it is in favour of 1674. Since the 1662 lists were intended to include only taxpayers the number of entries there is naturally the lowest of the three assessments, but since far more details of the 1662 assessments than of any other date survive for the country as a whole, those lists are the most useful for comparative studies of England and Wales generally.

1662 Michaelmas

1666 Lady Day

1674 Lady Day