England Taxation Tenths and Fifteenths 1334 to 1623 (National Institute)

Tenths and Fifteenths 1334-1623
This was a lay subsidy standardized at one tenth of the value of moveable, personal goods of lay persons for cities, boroughs and royal ancient demesne lands and one fifteenth for rural inhabitants. It was actually assessed on townships and to spare the cost of new assessments the quota remained fixed or fossilized at this amount for nearly two centuries. The quotas thus progressively ceased to match the distribution of wealth, although some exemptions were made at the time of disasters such as the Black Death (1347-1350).

The Exchequer only kept records of the total amounts collected from each area, not individual contributions, so most of the large numbers of post-1332 tenths and fifteenths records are not useful to family historians. However there are a few exceptions including large numbers of certificates of exemption for individuals from Kent and Sussex prior to 1400, (details in Jurkowski et al. Lay Taxes in England and Wales 1188-1688, 1998). Local town archives may have contributors’ lists, for example Nottingham, Southampton and Winchester; others such as Colchester are in the British Library, and occasionally an assessment may have been printed (Hoyle). Jurkowski et al. illustrate an original 1587 assessment of fifteenths and tenths for places in Surrey and a transcript for a 1357 one is given here.

Chart: Tenth and Fifteenth 1357 Newport, Isle of Wight, Hampshire TNA reference E 179 173/34 This example illustrates the confused state of the records as the film title has Poll Tax, the item is labelled Lay Subsidy, and Jurkowski’s definitive text refers to it as a Tenth and Fifteenth! It seems that tradesmen paid 6d and servants or women 4d each.

Villata de Neuport in Insula Vecta

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