Agricultural Statistics 120 



this period seems to have been 2^ millions or more, Poll T..X 

 and the following figures taken from the detailed f/ 

 returns of Claro Wapentake (Yorks) in 1379 '379- 

 suggest omissions : 



Per 1,000 of Popu- 1 9th cent. Model 



lation, Claro, 1379. 1,000 England. 



358 ... ... Men wed ... ... 273-3 



358 ... ... Women wed ... ... 273*3 



284 ... ... Over 1 6, unwed ... 45 3 '4 



1,000 1,000 



the inference being that many over 16 years of 

 age were not taxed as they should have been ; and 

 further, so far as the imperfect returns at the 

 Record Office (of 1377 f r Claro) allow com- 

 parison, there were in 1379 found to be actually 

 more folk living over 16 than in 1377 over 14, 

 which would seem to point to a not altogether 

 extinct desire on the part of taxpayers to escape 

 payment, rather than to any particular catastrophe 

 in that district. The total of 1377 furnished 

 ,22,607 2s. 8d. by 1,356,428 groats from 37 

 counties from all over 14 years of age, excluding 

 Mendicants, and the Clergy (about 30,000 ; see 

 Clerical Subsidy 51 Ed. III.) ; by allowing for 

 Monmouth, Chester, and Durham, the total popu- 

 lation over 14 might be 1,500,000. But as what 

 was true of Claro might be applicable to all Eng- 

 land (a recorded excess in 1379 of those over 16, 

 over those over 14 in 1377), it may be reasonable 

 to estimate the 1,500,000 as over 16 and not over 

 14. On the assumption that there would be 37% 



" Rising in East Anglia," which should also be consulted for 

 1 38 1, and separate clerical subsidies are to be found in both vols. 



92 



