Agricultural Statistics 120 



this period seems to have been 2^ millions or more, Poll Tax 

 and the following figures taken from the detailed 

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

 suggest omissions : 



Per 1,000 of Popu- iQth cent. Model 



lation, Claro, 1379. 1,000 England. 



358 Men wed 273-3 



358 ... ... Women wed ... ... 273-3 



284 ... ... Over 16, unwed ... 453*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), ^ mav 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 bothvols. 



92 



