ACCOUNTS OF JOHN BAGSHAW OF ABNEY GRANGE. 225 



a term of twenty-one years, is still in the hands of the present 

 Mr. Bagshaw ; it contains the proviso that the tenant must plant 

 " six trees of oak, ash or elme " every year during the tenancy. 

 The Old Farm was evidently much the most important at Abney 

 Grange ; by the list of rents for the year 1 7 1 7, it appears that 

 John Bagshaw paid nearly twice as much rent as any other 

 Grange farmer. I have not been able to find out the size 

 of the farms, so that there is no indication here of the price 

 of land. But the following transaction has some bearing on 

 the point: — "February ir, 1722, John Bagshaw bought of 

 William Bright of Callbar (Corbar) six acres and a half of land 

 at Little Hucklow, the price ^152 10s." 



(k) The total for rates and taxes is made up of a large 

 number of small payments. The Land Tax comprises four 

 quarterly payments of 6s. &,d. each for Abney (the township 

 of Hope parish), and four quarterly payments of is. 4^. for 

 Foolow (the township of Eyam parish). In this year the Land 

 Tax had been fixed by Walpole at 2s. in the -£i. In 1720 the 

 tax had been fixed at 3s., and we accordingly find the quarterly 

 payments in 1720 increased to gs. 6d. and 25. respectively. But 

 it is by no means clear that the Land Tax bears any exact 

 relation to the rent of the land. 



The rate of is. jid. in the £1 annual tax is deducible from 

 the amounts given for rent and land tax in 171 7, which was 

 a year when the 3s. tax was in force, and the explanation of 

 the differences no doubt lies in the origin of the so-called Land 

 Tax, which was originally on all sorts of property as well as land. 

 Its assessment was made in 1692, and only by desuetude was the 

 tax allowed to lapse, except upon land only. It became a sort 

 of arbitrary custom that a is. land tax brought in ^500,000, 

 and each county had to furnish its proper proportion. In this 

 manner a particular amount of land tax became attached to 

 a particular farm, and remained constant during many years, 

 even though the rent was altered. There is evidence indeed 

 that some of the Abney rents were raised about this time 

 without affecting the amount of tax. 



