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William and James Hartwright
The Taxman Cometh!

Hearth Tax 1662 to 1689.  The records give an indirect indication of the size of the houses liable for payment of Hearth Tax. One chimney equals two rooms. The Hearth Tax records can be found as films at the Worcestershire Record Office (WRO) in Worcester under 900.41 BA 7449 1662 to 1678. They are not easy reading.


Land Tax - I found this more interesting. It can be a means of tracing an elusive ancestor. A help when there are two families whose heads of household have the same first name, who moved in or out of the same parish.

Here are some examples from 1782:-

  Proprietor    Occupier  Tax
Hallow    Wm Giles Mr Wm Hartwright 2 shillings
Battenhall Mr Benbow Mr Wm Hartwright for his farm £3 17s  4d
  Rev Dr Nash  Mr Moses Goodyer £4   9s  4d
  Mr Ingram Mr James Hurdman & Wm Hartwright forTythe £5 11s  8d
  Robert Berkeley Esq Mr John Groves for his farm  £3 10s  0d
  Mr Wm Hartwright Mr Hartwright for late Moors 5s  4d
Claines (Milham sic and Hawford) Mr Hartwright Mrs Smith 4s  0d

 

Other taxes – Window Tax (paid by number of windows); clocks and watches, dog, horse, house, silver plate, gun, hair powder duty, Female servant Tax, Income Tax.

Income Tax
1799 saw the introduction of income tax to finance the war against the French.  The rate was 2s. in the £1.  It was abolished in 1802 but restored in 1803!

James Hartwright, Eldersfield, Worcs.

The WRO holds a Collector’s duplicate of the

“First Assessment for Tax for Eldersfield in the district of Upton in the County of Worcester”  for 20th July 1833.  

Tax was assessed on inhabited houses, male servants, four-wheel and two-wheel carriages, horses and mules, greyhound dogs, packs of hounds and other types of dogs.  There were duties to pay for horse-dealing, hair-powder and Armorial Bearing.  James Hartwright was assessed for:-

Nine windows  £1 1s (£1.05p)

One horse exceeding 13 hands £1 8s 9d (£1.44p)

One house dog 8s. (40p.)

 

The total bill for the parish was  £59 19s (£59.95p) for the twenty-five assessable people. (List held) William Hall and Charles Stock collected £59 19s 0d and delivered the sum on 26th July 1833.

 

The Collectors duplicate of supplementary assessment for 1834 is at the WRO. Ref. BA 8557 b850 parcel 21

 

In the Land Tax assessment for 1832 James was a tenant of Mrs Barnes for which £2 1s. 0d. (£2.05p) was payable and also of the Earl of Coventry for which £20 4s. (£20.20p) was due. Unfortunately the Land Tax does not state the name of the property. Usually it would be possible to trace where the properties were through the Tithe Commutations Apportionment but Eldersfield’s dates from 1841 just a few years after James’s death in 1834. However the information is included in:-

Extract from Eldersfield Land Tax Assessment 1833

Assessors Wm Hatton and Barthw. Halsey

Collectors William Hall and Chas Stock

 

PROPRIETOR   OCCUPIER ESTATE PROPERTY LAND TAX
Mrs Barnes James Hartwright Nash End £2  1s   10d
Earl of Coventry  James Hartwright Hardwick Court £20  4s     0d

                                                                                   

 

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