The Poll Tax in Rochester, September 1660

􀀓 rrhreologht a (1911). I um greatly indebted to our Editor, the Rev. G. M. Livett, for all th􀂭 u.bovo reference􀂮 al).c). for m1,1.oh oth!lr v:.i,luab}e udvice and aid in preparing 􀂯\us Pnpor,. )) 2 4 THE POLL 'l'AX IN ROCHESTER. hereafter mentioned, shall for the purpose aforesaid contribute and pay the several sums of money hereaftier, in this Act, set down and appointied, that is to say, Every person of the degree of a Duke of England, Scotland, or Ireland, inhabiting and residing within this Kingdom shall pay the sum of One hundred pounds." Then follow, in similar form of words, the sums to be paid for other ranks of the nobility, e.g., a Marquis £80, an Ea1·l £60, a Viscount £50, a Baron £40, the eldest son of a Duke, inhabiting and residing within the Kingdom, being of the age of one and twenty years, £60, the eldest son of a Marquis £50, of an Earl £40, of a Viscount £35, of a Baron £30, every Baronet of any of the said three kingdoms, 01· of Nova Scotia, £30, every Knight of the Bath £30, every Knight Bachelor £20, every Serjeant-at-law, and every person of tbe degree of an Esquire,* or so reputed, inhabiting and residing within this Kingdom, and above the age of one and twenty years £10. A widow was to pay the third part of what her husband, in his lifetime, was subject to. Every Parson or Vicar, being possessed of a Parsonage or Vicarage or other estate of the clear 􀃤nnual value of one hundred pounds, the sum of £2. Every Doctor in the Civil or Canon Law, and every advocate, £5. Every Judge or Commissioner in the Court of AdmiraHy or of the Probatie of Wills £20. Every Proctor practising in those Courts £5, every Doctor of Physick £10. Then follows a clause for taxing the Lord Mayor (£40) and other officers of the Corporation of the City of London, and several pages of the Act follow, taxing alien housekeepers and traders, all the g:reat officers of Stare, naming each officer and order separately, and the ta:x: they were to pay, and among others every person "who is or hath been an alderman in any City within this Kingdom, if he be below the degree of a Knight or Esquire" (and it will be seen that several persons in Rochester were taxed under this head), "the sum of £5. Every attorney-at-law of any of the Courts of Westminster or of the Palatine Courts" (and * It will be seen that a further .Act was necessary to define more precisely )yho did, or c).id not, come ,yit!Jin 􀁒he degree of "Es9uire," 'l'B.E POLL· TAX IN ROC1iESTER. 5 under this too), "the sum of £3. Every person in any office or place under his Majesty (except his Majesty's Household servants in ordinary*) who receiveth the yea1·ly fee of Ten pounds, the suro. of £10." Then, lastly, follow the enactments that covered the great bulk of the population, as follows: "Every person that can dispend in land, leases, money, stock, or otherwise, of bis or her own proper estate, one hundred pounds per annum, the sum of forty shillings, and so, proportionably, for a greater or lesser estate, provided it extend not to persons under five pounds yearly. Every person, being a single person, and above the age of sixteen years, the sum of Twelve pence. And every other person, of what estate or degree soever he shall be, within his Majesty's Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, not rated before in this present A.et, not receiving alms, and being above sixteen years of age, shall pay Six pence."• Everybody was to pay their due within twelve days after the proclamation of the A.et, at the accustomed places in the several counties, and for the better assessing·, ordering and levying of the tax Commissioners were appointed for the several counties, whose names were set out in Schedules to the A.et, and powers were given to them to appoint bailiffs and others to make the assessments and collect the money, and, for that purpose, to divide and s􀃏ver their jurisdictions among the hundreds, rapes, wapentakes, wa1·ds, or other places within their limits. About fifty Commissioners were appointed for Kent, the first name on the list being Philip, Lord Strang£ord, and the last being the Mayor of the City of Rochester. After his name occur the officials for certain special jurisdictions within the county, the Cinque Ports, Romney Marsh, etc. No doubt the Commissioners so appointed made due proclamation of the Act on Penenden Heath, and proceeded to g·et the tax collected. * And the Act referred to in the preceding note also had to define more ol􀀿arly what this exemption meant Ol' did not mea.n, or how it was dispensed ,nth altogether. 6 ''.rRE POLL '.i'A.X I'N 'R.OCHES1'ER. But it seems that it became necessary to pass a supplemental Act, the 12 Charles II., cap. x, the title of which is: "A.n act for supplying and explaining certain defaults in the principal act," and by this it was enacted that " every householder, being master or mistress of a family, shall within two days after demand made by any assessor, or other officer, thereto appointed, deliver unto such assesso1· or officer of any parish, town, or pla.ce wherein such householder being such master or mistress shall dwell, a true and perfect list of all persons above the age of 16 years as shall be inhabiting· or residing in the respective families, together with the names, surnames, degrees and qualities of such persons ;" and this under the penalty of £5 in case of default. This A.et a]so provided that the Commissioners were to make return of al1 sums of money rated, taxed, and assessed by virtue of the Act, before the 20th day of October next, to the Court of Exchequer, and pay over the money to the Treasurers appointed by the Act. It also granted a commission of one penny in the pound to the Co1lectors, and also provided that a pe1'son taxed in one place should be exempted from paying in another place where he might also have property or be liable to be taxed; also it gave powers of distress against defaulters. But even this did not suffice, and before the end of the Session another A.et had to be passed, 12 Charles II., cap. xxviii, entitled : "An act for further supplying and explaining certain defects in an act intitled An act £or the speedy disbanding and paying off the forces of the Kingdom both by sea and land." This third Act recites in its preamble '' that through some doubts arising upon, or from negligence in, the execution of the Act of this Parliament" ( quoting the title of chapter ix), "and also of one other act" (quoting the title of chapter x) " the same acts do not answer the ends aforesaid, in such manner as was expected, without some further explanation of the sence (sic) thereof, and a review of the several assessments made thereby, so that some persons may not escape without payment at all, or go away at "/ery small proportions, whilst others pay their just and ''l.'HE POLL 'l'A'x. lN '.itOCHES'i.'EJ.t full due." It was therefore enacted "that all and every persons of the several ranks, degrees and qualifications in the said act or acts mentioned shall contribute and pay the several and respective sums of money there appointed to be paid, any pretenee of exemption as being His Majesty's ordinary servants notwithstanding." Having thus disposed of that exemption, or saving clause, in the first Act, no doubt to the great chagrin of many of the grandees and officials of the Court, it was further enacted that all bodies, corpor11.te, ecclesiastical, or civil, as well as individuals, should be taxed at the rate of forty shillings for every £100 of income; next the Act dealt with those who were taxed as Esquires, but who had tried to escape on the ground that such an honourable title was above their degree -the clause runs: "Every barrester-at-law, and every other person that hath subscribed to any deed or writing wherein he, or they, have been written or entituled Esquire, or that hath acted by virtue of any commission, or Act, wherein he, at any time before the sitting· of this Parliament, was written, or entitled, Esquire, shall pay as reputed Esquire within the said Act." Further powers were given to enforce payment of the tax by distress, and by imprisonment until payment, if there were no sufficient distress. Additional commissioners were appointed for some of the c01111ties, and a committee of the House of Lords was set up to deal with those peers who did not pay their quotas. Returning now to the assessment for Rochester, it will be seen that each sheet contains, besides the margin on the lef-t­ hand side (in which sometimes notes were made*), five columns, (1) the names of the persons assessed; (2) the "free estate and stock;" (3) "rent of houses not yet assessed;" (4,) a column headed "H. and E.," which I take to mean "House and Estate," and in this column the amount of the tax which each person taxed had to pay is set forth; and finally, there is a column .(5) which on the first of the fifteen sheets, but in that sheet only, has the heading £ s. d. · * In the printed oopv ,yhioh follow􀀻, these notes are plnoed in the first column either after or under the names to whioh they refer.-ED. 8 'l'HE l?OLL TAX IN' ROCHESTER. a,t the top, but no :figures are set out in this column in the tirst or any other sheet, only a few notes at rare intervals. '.rhe "free estate and stock" in the second column seems to 􀃇inswer that clause in the .Act which imposed the tax of forty shillings upon " every person that can dispend in land leases money or stock or otherwise of his or her own proper estate £100 per annum, and so proportionably for a greater or less estate." The next column, "rent of houses not yet assessed," seems unnecessary for the assessing or levying of this tax, and, I think, must have been inserted for some extraneous purpose, possibly connected with other taxes and levies which were granted to the King during the same Session of Parliament. It is clear from the analysis which has been made that the amount of the tax was reached directly from column 2, and that the sums shewn in column 3 do not affect it in any way. Column 4, headed '•H. and E." on the first sheet of the assessment, was discontinued, and does not appear on the subsequent sheets at all; it may be that when the assessors began their work they meant to add columns 2 and 3 together (or the sums in them), and to put the totals under column 4, "H. and E.," and then to insert the amount of the taxes, in the aggregate, in column 5, which, as I have said, was headed " £ s. d." on the first sheet only; but that, immediately recognizing that it would make no difference to the amount of the tax in any case, they put that amount under the column 4 (the" H. and E." column), and did not trouble to alte1· the titles on the first- sheet, 01· to iusert corresponding· titles in the subsequent sheets. Here is the analysis* referred to above, shewing :- Number of Assessments nt. £5 or ove1·. 2 1 1 1 . ·-.. . --i Assessment of 'l'he Free Estate and Stook. £ 300 260 100 Normal Tax. £ s. d. 6 0 0 5 0 0 2 0 0 Variations from the normal. s. cl. * I have also to th:i.uk t.he Rev. G. :\'f. Livett for this analy:;is, which he was good enough to draw up in order to demonstrate the b􀂐is on whioh the assess• meuts were mm.le. THE POLL 'l'AX :t:N ltOOJiES'l'El1. 9 Number of I .As.􀁕essmen t of l Variation􀁖 from Assei15meuts i 'l'he Freo Estate Normal 'l'u.x. I tho uorruul. at £5 or over. I a.nu Stook. I I £ £ G. d. G. d. 2 60 1 4 0 5 50 1 0 0 2 40 16 0 6 30 12 0 6 ' 25 10 0 13 20 8 0 1 18 8 0 5 I 15 6 0 l I 13 6 0 8 I 12 6 0 One 5 6 25 10 4. 0 One 5 0 l I 9 4 0 8 I 8 3 6 2 ' 7 3 0 24 I 6 3 0 One 3 6 10 5 2 0 - - -121 l The collectors did not descend to minute fractions or con􀂹ider anything below 6d., and in all cases the normal tax does not include "his wife," for whom an additional 6d. is imposed. Nor does this analysis include the Mayor and Aldermen, on each of whom the tax is a-ssessed at l00s., or with wife 100s. 6d., nor the tax: of £10 on Doctors of Physic, nor the £5 on Barristers and Esquires, nor the £3 on Attorneys, with the additional 6d. if they were married. The assessment shews that no part of Strood or Frindsbury was included in it, and that the portion that was included, that is to say, all that lay on the Rochester side of the Medway, was divided, for the purpose of the collection, into seven wards or boroughs, which are designated respectively Middleborough, Bully Hill, The College (i.e., the Cathedral Precincts), Southborough, St. Clement's or Clements- borough, Eastborough, and Eastgate-borough. I find that the assessment contains the names of, or 1·eferences to, 1113 persons, presumably all adults over 16. This includes the wives, who are not generally mentioned by their Christian names, but only as "wife," and also includes the husbands who we1·e absent from their homes on the day 10 THE POLL TAX IN ROCHESTER. of the assessment, but who paid the tax through their wives; their husbands' Christian names generally are stated. There isonlyoneinstanceo:fa person beingexcused from the payment on the ground that he had been assessed elsewhere.* The total of the assessment is stated at the foot of column 3 of the last sheet of the MS. to be £186 18s. Od., but on carefully adding up the .figures I make the total £,188 7s. 6d., and as the difference is so slight (anil is probably attributable to some of the figures being very difficult to read) I have adopted the latter figure in the following table, which shews approximately the whole number of adults taxed, and the amount collected in each of the seven boroughs or divisions. The MS. assessment was also so framed as to shew the number of houses, or families, as well as of the persons taxed; the name of the master or mistress of each family or house comes first, then the names of the other inmates are stated, but in an inner margin, so as to distinguish them; and thus we are enabled to get roughly at the number of the inhabited houses in each of the divisions, but only on the assumption that each family had a separate dwelling. They are set out in this table :- pNeros.o onfs Number o! the :issessed. oirn hofa bthitee dfa hmoiulsieess. I Amount of tax paid. I Middleb orough Bully Hill . In the College Southborough . St. Clements Borough Eastborough . Eastgate Borough Tota.I : I . I : I .-1 I ··-􀀆 ----·------- 79 27 39 16 61 27 156 67 185 88 267 115 326 147 lll3t 487 £ $, d. 25 2 0 18 9 0 1252 10 0 23 ,5J, 6 47 9 0 36 7 6 188 7 6 • '.\fr. 'l'borua8 Bellowne of Eastgate Borough (folio 14 of assessment), foxed at 8 shillings, is stated in the marginal note to have "paid at London by a certificate.' latiotn S oofm et haitst epmarptt mofa yR boech mesatdeer toat a stcheert atiinm, ef roofm tthhee seR fiegstuorreast,i tohne. toTtahl ep olpauteMr. Scot,t-Robertson, our former Editor, in a. public lecture whioh he delivered at Strood in 1877, while den.ling with the population of that town from the ".l'HE POLL TA.X. IN ROCH.ES1'ER. 11 The highest individual assessment (of which there are three) was £10 Os. 6cl. Francis Barrell, Esq.,* a Barrister, the Recorder of Rochester, who lived in the College, or, as we 110w call it, the Cathedral Precincts, is assessed (as a Barrister) at that sum. His wife is also assessed at 6d., so he was then married, but her name is struck through in the assessment. He had four inmates of bis house liable to the tax, John Mapilzden, who was perhaps his clerk, Thomas Bundock (which sounds like a butler's name), and two females, probably domestic servants. His house was, I thillk, part of what had been the .Bishop's Pa1ace, and ,vhich then, a,s now, may have been divided into two or three separate residences. Augustine Cresar, Doctor of Physic,t and his wife are also taxed at the same figure, he of course as such doctor. They lived in Eastborough and had one female inmate only in their abode. The third person who was so taxed was Richard Allen, Esq.,t with his wife. They also lived in Eastborough, and their esta.blishmeDt comprised four data affoi·ded by the returM of the poll tax in 1877, stn,tod thttt the nulllber of ohildren under 14 (the 11ge fixed by the poll tax or Edward III.) is generally found to be just half that of persons above 14; us the number of adults over 16, in the􀋓e pa.rts of Rochester in 1660, was, or ma.y be taken to be, about 1113, if we add to that half the same number for the younger children under 16, less sa.y one-eighth, in respect of the difference between the ages of 14 a.nd 16, we · should get at a 1:-0tal population at that time of about 1600; but tltl11, I imagine, is an under-estimate. By the Oensus (1911) the number of the vopulation for somewhat the same area. as is included in the assessment of 1660 is ns follows:- Population. St. Margaret's (including Bo1'Stal and Troy Town but excluding Chatham intra) . . . 15,258 St. Nioholas, Rochester 1948 'fhe Cathedral Precincts . . . . . 105 but a.s to St. Margaret's no trustworthy comparison can be made, since Troy 'l'own, St. Margaret's Banks, and :Borstal wei·e almost unbuilt upon in' 1660, but are now very populous. * Franois Barrell, Serjeu.nt-at-Law, succeeded Anthony Welldon, who wus dismissed from the office at the Restoration, u.s Recorder of the Oity. He was all!o afterwards elect-ed M.P. for it, but so short u time befor ffranois Iles & his wife (for y• marsh*) Richard Waites & his wife Richard Stevens Thomas Chambers & his wife BRaorbneertt A'.l'attawaynner & & h hisi sw wifief e John Gilrae. WJohilnli aPmu cKkelee && hhiiss wwiiffee Richard Green, A.Id", & his wife .A.one Bunn Christopher Wade, Aid", & his wife l The Cree l 'Estate and I [ Stock. I 80 10 * Attached to figure 8 in column s. 10 6 3 8 2 2 2 5 ll. s. d. 1 0 I 2 0 1 I o 1 i 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 12 6 2 0 4 6 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 I 0 5 0 I 6 1 ' (I 5 0; 6 THE POLL TA.X IN ROCHESTER. CLEMENTS BURROUGH. 'Sl'ahroamh aSs tWarlieant & his wife JJo ohhon SKceoetn & & h ihsi sw wifief e . MElaizrayb Getrhi flfelrna,d wleiyd,d .w i