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A VALUATION OF THE LANDS & GOODS OF THE INHABITANTS 



OF PENWITH, TEMP. HENRY VIII. EXCHEQUER Q. R. LAY 



SUBSIDCES, CORNWALL -^-^. 



Edited by H. MICHBLL WHITLEY, F.G.S. 



The Subsidy Eolls preserved at our Public Record OflS.ce are 

 replete with interest for the archaeologist, and indeed for all who 

 take an interest in the history of England. Amongst these rolls 

 is a valuation of the lands and goods of the inhabitants of 

 Penwith, made for the purpose of a subsidy between the years 

 1509 and 1523, which is one of the finest and fullest rolls relating 

 to Cornwall, and as such has been selected by the Council for 

 publication. 



The Hundred of Penwith consists of 24 parishes, but the 

 parishes of Uny — Redruth, lUogan, Crowan, and a part of 

 Camborne are missing. 



The return for each parish commences with a valuation of 

 the Rectory, and then follows the yearly value of the lands 

 within the parish, the value of the goods of the inhabitants and 

 their harness, and finally the aliens within the parish are 

 assessed. 



The value of money at the date of this roll may be taken 

 as having a purchasing power of twelve times its present amount ; 

 a penny being equal to a shilling now. 



With regard to the value of land we are not without a 

 guide. Bishop Latimer in his sermons, p. 101, says: "My 

 father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own ; only he had 

 a farm of three or four pounds by the year at the uttermost, and 

 hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men. 



"He had walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked 

 thirty kine. He was able and did find the king a harness with 

 himself and his horse. I remember that I buckled on his 

 harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to 

 school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the 



