VII DECLINE OF SMALL LANDOWNER 131 



are given. Sometimes apparently an idle assessor would 

 only assess holdings sufficient to provide for the quota. 

 Moreover, as we know, the tax varied between 1*. and 

 4*. in the < until the year 1 798, when William Pitt made 

 it perpetual at 4*., allowing landowners henceforth to 

 redeem the tax at fifteen years' purchase, and from that 

 date sometimes the lands exonerated are omitted from the 

 returns. There are therefore numerous traps spread for 

 the unwary or careless statistician. 



Nevertheless, of the importance of these assessments there 

 can be no question, not only as evidence on the question 

 before us but on many questions dealing with land. They 

 give us the surnames and Christian names of every one 

 owning or occupying land and even cottages, and the 

 amount of each person's assessments or of the annual value 

 of his holding. We can therefore by their help trace the 

 continuous life of a parish up to this very year of grace. 

 We can learn from them whether farms were being con- 

 solidated or whether they were being broken up into smaller 

 ones, whether the numbers of owners wax or wane. We can 

 trace the building up of large estates and their dispersion. 

 Even the family historian can obtain great assistance. We 

 can see how long the same family continued either as land- 

 owners or as farmers, and whether they shifted from the 

 position of owner to that of tenant, and vice versa. Nay, we 

 can often fix the date of a man's death and whether he left 

 a widow or children in possession, or whether his lands fell 

 into the hands of trustees. 



I have said enough I trust to draw attention to the value 

 t>f these documents, and I intend to urge local authorities 

 Jto jealously preserve them in the future, and all antiquarian 

 and historical societies to have them published if possible. 

 Here at least is a new field for the future researcher which 

 is, as far as I know, quite untrodden ground. 



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