Ancient Assessments. 



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reaching all classes, but the historic poll tax was a certain charge, 

 generally Is. a-head onpersonsof all conditions and estates above fifteen 

 years of age (mere beggars only excepted) . The poll tax of William 

 the Third on the other hand, was upon a scale of degrees; such as were 

 worth £50 paid 4$. a year; those worth £300 and reputed gentlemen 

 £4 ; tradesmen and shopkeepers £2. Persons chargeable with finding 

 a horse for the militia, to pay after the rate of £4 for each horse. A 

 person keeping a coach and horses, a peer of the realm, a clergyman of 

 £80 preferment, and an attorney each paid alike £4. Non-jurors in 

 every case had to pay double. This, the last instance of poll tax, pro- 

 duced over two and a half millions, which was far short of what would 

 have been raised if it had been rigorously exacted. But it was an 

 obnoxious impost. Under the Act of 1695, granting duties on births, 

 marriages, burials, and on bachelors, the tax was upon a property. 

 Thus a scale : For persons possessed of fifty pounds per annum or 

 £600 personal estate, the burial fee was £1. 4s., and so on. The 

 parish paid tax on the burial of paupers, but neither their marriages 

 nor the birth of their children were liable to duty. As to the 

 bachelor's tax, it was upon those of twenty five years and upon such 

 widowers as had no children. It was an annual tax according to 

 degrees. Thus a bachelor duke paid £12, his eldest son £7. lis., his 

 younger sons £6. 5s. ; an esquier paid £1. 6s., his sons 6s. ; a gentle- 

 man and his sons 6s. each. Persons of £50 per annum or £600 

 personal estate, 6s., their sons 3s. 6d. The lowest degree was persons 

 not otherwise charged, who paid Is. The exceptions were Fellows 

 of the Universities and almsmen. It is said that these taxes were 

 carelessly collected, but they produced in William the Third's reign 

 £275,517. These assessments on burials, &c, if they had been con- 

 tinued, would have helped to a knowledge of the state of population. 

 There was also the property tax or rate. These were expedients to 

 levy a revenue to meet in part the extraordinary outlay required to 

 carry on the war against France. In the assessment of Swindon to 

 the aid of 4s. in the £ in 1692, the list of contributors is headed 

 with the name of Thomas Goddard, Esq., for all his lands, £80 19s., 

 of three gentlemen of the name of Vilctt, one at £8 13s., another 

 at £23. 9s., and another at £12. 5s., and Henry Thompson, the vicar, 



