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Taxation information for Berkshire and places above it in the hierarchy

Berkshire

  • General information about taxation records in England and UK & Ireland.
  • Death Duty records kept by TNA have useful genealogical information, often including: the name of the deceased, with address and last occupation, the date of the will, the place and date of probate, and the names, addresses and occupations of the executors, the date of death, and information about the beneficiaries.  See article in Berkshire Family Historian, Dec 2009, Vol 33, page 19.
  • The E179 database by TNA is a searchable index to the "King's Remembrancer, particulars of account and other records relating to lay and clerical taxation", containing detailed information about over 26,000 documents relating to the taxation of lay people in England and Wales between c.1200 and c.1700, which are likely to contain many names. Click here for Berkshire documents.
  • The Hearth Tax was levied between 1662 and 1689 on each householder according to the number of hearths in their dwelling.  
  • Protestations Returns 1641-42:  On the eve of the English Civil War, Parliament ordered that a protestation be made as an oath of allegiance to the King, to Parliament and to the established church. Signed initially by members of Parliament in 1641, the order to take the protestation was later extended to all males in England and Wales over the age of eighteen. The officials of the parish were required to make the oath in front of the Justices of the Peace of the hundred, and then in turn the parish officials administered the oath of loyalty for their parishioners. The returns usually take the form of a list of the names of all of the men in the parish over the age of eighteen who took the protestation. Very occasionally, children and servants are listed, as in the case of Sutton Courtenay; or women took the protestation, as in the case of West Shefford. Those who refused to take the oath also had their names listed. The returns were later used to identify Roman Catholics by their refusal, who were then subject to increased taxation. 
    • RBA has a copy of the Protestation Returns for Berkshire (reference T/A 40) for consultation; the originals are held at the Parliamentary Archives. The returns that survive for Berkshire offer partial but substantial coverage, with most of central Berkshire extant.  
    • See article in Berkshire Family Historian, Sep 2009, Vol 33, page 15.  
    • See article in Vol 31, 2005 of the Berkshire Echo.  
  • Rates (local property tax):  An article in Vol 63, 2013 of the Berkshire Echo explains their history.  The RBA publish this Guide to Rate Books and Valuation Lists (excluding church rates) held by them.  Entries typically include owner’s name, address and type of property, rateable value and amount levied and sometimes the occupier.  Used with other sources, rate books can be useful for: studying all kinds of property, residential, commercial and industrial; filling gaps between the publication of trade directories and censuses; tracing owners and occupiers before 1918 who do not appear in electoral registers;  finding the rough age of a property, its relative value and size, changes to street names and numbering, and the number of occupied houses and tenements in a locality. 

England

UK and Ireland

Gibson, Jeremy, Mervyn Medlycott and Dennis Mills. Land and Window Tax Assessments. Federation of Family History Societies (1998) 72pp. [ISBN-13: 978-1860060540]

Gibson, Jeremy. The Hearth Tax and other later Stuart Tax Lists and the Association Rolls.  Federation of Family History Societies (1996) 80pp. [ISBN-13: 978-1860060182] [The Hearth Tax was levied between 1662 and 1689 on each householder according to the number of hearths in their dwelling.]