What was the Hearth Tax? ( extract from Domestic Records Information 32 of the Public Record Office)
The hearth tax consisted of a half yearly payment of one shilling for each hearth in the occupation of each person whose house was worth more than 20 shillings (£1) a year, and who was a local ratepayer of church and poor rates. It was introduced at a time of serious fiscal emergency by Charles II. The surviving hearth tax returns and assessments of 1662-1674 relate to the levy of two shillings on every hearth; as such, they are one of the obvious sources for family, local and social history. The hearth tax actually continued until 1688, but only the assessments for 1662-1666 and 1669-1674 were delivered into the Exchequer. Outside these periods, the collection of tax was "farmed out" to private tax collectors who paid a fixed sum to the government in return for the privilege of collecting the tax. They were not required to send their assessments into the Exchequer.
Liberty of Frampton
(f.11d) Burton 65 Modo 66
Nicha's Ridgway ix ; Mr. Abraham Briant v ; Symon Ridgway for ye Farme vj ; Symon Ridgway for himselfe j voyd ; Henry Loudbe Clerke iij ; Dorothy Bowring iiij ; William Beere v 2 stopt ; Tho' Barrett iij ; John Beere j ; Tho' Poulding ij ; Tho' Thurman ij ; Ann Pawing wid' j ; Robte' Miller j ; Christian Batten wid' j ; John Croome iiij 1 dec'd [f12]; Tho' Sandiford ij ; William Derby j ; Nichas' Gill ij ; Edw' Foster j ; Margarett Rowland j ; Giles Lawrence Sen'r j ; John Fuszard ij ; Elizabeth Basing j ; Giles Lawrence jnr' j ; George England iij voyd.