HEARTH TAXES

Hearth Taxes

A bill for imposing a tax on chimney hearths was first passed by parliament in 1662. The reason was, of course, to try to provide a regular source of income for the king. In this it was not successful, as in the early stages there were difficulties over hearth registration and collection of the dues. Later the collection was ‘farmed’, i.e. put out to contractors who hoped to collect more than they had offered for the privilege. This was not particularly successful either, especially given the prevalence of plague in the 1660s. The last collection was made in 1689.

1665 Hearth Tax

Thanks to the efforts of John Hornden in transcribing them from a film in Herefordshire archives, we are able to present records of the 1665 Hearth Tax together with a copy of his personal names index. Copies are also held in the Herefordshire Archives, the National Archives, and at the Society of Genealogists. The names index is available as a single file which can be downloaded. 

Images for each hundred can be browsed and a search for individual pages made using the website's Search mechanism on the Home Page. Some work still has to be done linking individual page images to a total list of the individual pages but this is not essential to the searcher.  

1671 Hearth Tax for Wormelow

This was transcribed for Matthews' continuation volume of Duncumb's history of Herefordshire. It was published in 1912.