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Ancestry Daily News
2/11/2003 - Archive
What Are Subsidies?
Subsidies are taxes, and they will emerge as likely resources if you are engaged
in researching English ancestors during Tudor and Stuart times. Content is not
uniform and they cannot be regarded as census-type inhabitants lists because
of those left out; even so, they may be useful, particularly if no early parish
registers survive. In order to judge the relevance of subsidies to your own
research, you must know something about them - dates, content, survival and
access.
About the Tax
The subsidy was a tax first levied at the end of the 1200s; it was collected
off and on until the 1600s. There was a separate tax collection on the clergy,
hence the two types, clerical subsidy and lay subsidy. An Act of Parliament
gave the monarch the right to collect a subsidy. The act would specify the reason
for the tax (usually war), when it was to be collected, what was subject to
taxation, the rate, and who was liable to pay the levy. The very young or the
poor were generally exempt.
The administration and collection of the subsidies was under the direction of
commissioners in each county. These were the more important or wealthier people.
There was below them a network of assessors and collectors arranged by subdivisions
of the county, the hundreds and the parishes and townships. Collections were
generally taken after the harvest in September, October, and November. If the
subsidy was levied on more than one type of asset then each person was taxed
only on the basis of one value (land, or movables or wages) whichever category
gave the best return to the Crown. Historians have found that there was a lot
of under-assessment, so that more people were exempt than would have been if
assessors and collectors had been strictly adhering to the rules.
The Records
The early records are very good but no nominal records survive from 1334 until
the reign of Henry VIII. In 1523, the king was granted four subsidies; two were
levied on land and houses, goods and wages according to certain values, with
some exemptions. The third was collected from those whose land was worth more
than 50 pounds and the fourth from those possessing goods above the same limit,
50 pounds. In Henry's reign, this subsidy, 1524-27, and the one collected 1542-45
are the most informative. The levy of 1542-45 lists all people over sixteen
who had income from land or with taxable goods worth 2 pounds per annum, or
those with annual wages of one pound or more. This is a fairly low threshold
so this subsidy is of greater interest.
For more information about the taxes, the assessments and rates read the Public
Record Office Information Leaflet Taxation Records Before 1660. A very
informative article on early taxation records by Sean Cunningham of the PRO
staff, 'Tax Trails,' appeared in the April/May 2002 issue of
Ancestors Magazine.
Finding and Accessing Records
The records are in the Public Record Office in class E179. Some of the subsidies
have been published by county record societies or by individual local historians.
Six steps should give you the necessary information about survival and access
to subsidy records that fit your search criteria.
1. Public Record Office
Within the PRO catalogues is a finding aid to the tax records in class E179;
you select at least two criteria (e.g., dates and place) and the result is a
full list of all the taxes with direct links to more detailed information.
2. Genuki
Look for the topic 'taxation' at the county level to look for mention of publications
and websites.
3. Family History Library Catalog
Using a place search for the county and parish names, look under the topic 'taxation'
(or on the CD version use the keyword search - 'England subsidy' produces 95
listings)
4. Catalogs of other reference/university libraries:
If you have access to a good library you may find it holds journals, books,
even microfiche collections of publications containing early tax lists; watch
in particular for volumes published by county record societies.
5. Gibson Guides:
The finding aids edited by J.S.W. Gibson and published by the English Federation
of Family History Societies
include two titles that list early tax records: Protestation Returns 1641-42
and Other Contemporary Listings; and The Hearth Tax, Other Later Stuart Tax
Lists and the Association Oath Rolls.
6. Check the Ancestry.com UK and Ireland Records Collection
and the English Parish Records
CD series because there are a few subsidy lists among them.
Those of you that find your ancestor's name in a subsidy roll should follow
up with some historical research. Sometimes tax collection so angered the population
that they rebelled; the subsidy voted in 1534 was one of the causes of the 1536
uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. There was no income tax in the 1500s
and the 1600s but the subsidy, based as it was, on assets or wages, was pretty
much the same thing. Our ancestors were no more in favor of giving money up
to government with no guarantee of wise expenditure than we are today.
Sherry Irvine, CGRSsm, FSA(Scot) is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing
in English and Scottish family history. She is the author of Your English
Ancestry (2nd ed, 1998) and Your Scottish Ancestry (1997) and a regular
contributor to several journals including Genealogical Computing. Since
1996 she has been a study tour leader, course coordinator, and instructor for
the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, Samford University. She teaches
online for the family history program of Vermont College and has lectured at conferences
in Canada, the United States, and Australia. She is president of the Association
of Professional Genealogists.
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