1665 Herefordshire Hearth Tax
The 1665 hearth tax transcript on the Woolhope Club website is presented in two distinct parts. Firstly a personal name index which gives a reference to the hundred and parish (or other land area) in which the record is to be found.
Secondly, images of the transcript pages of the returns; these have introductory pages and then the returns organised by hundred in alphabetical order. There are notes on missing names and places also summaries for each hundred at the end of the transcript, also included at the end of each hundred.
However, the names index reference does not give a page number in the transcript but uses an earlier page-independent reference system developed by Michael Faraday in his transcript of the 1663 Herefordshire Militia Assessments (LMA), published by the Royal Historical Society in 1972.
Each reference consists of a code for the hundred followed by a number for the parish or other land area in which the return is to be found. For example, Goodrich in Wormelow hundred was Wm5 in LMA and is Wm5 in the 1665 hearth tax transcription. In fact, John Hornden annotated his hearth tax transcription with LMA to indicate where there is an entry in the 1663 militia return.
This would be plain sailing if the two returns had exactly matching collection areas but they didn’t and extra codes were needed. In addition in both sets of returns place names do not have the modern form or have been mis-transcribed.
Searching by personal name
There were far too many personal names to use the website search mechanism for the hearth tax entries. Use the transcript’s Personal Names Index which opens in a new window and look for your name. You can save the index for future reference by right-clicking on the page. When you find a name of interest, you have two options: you can either browse the individual entries which are organised by hundred (see below) or you can use the site search mechanism on the Home Page by putting in the hundred or number code e.g. Wm5 or R24. This should bring up just the page image of the transcript.
Searching by location
Each page image of the transcript returns has been given a keyworded name. For the majority the current name of the parish/location (if known) has been used as a keyword as well as the code (e.g. Wm15 Marstow). A single page may have more than one location on it and often a parish will be split between pages. In this case the two images names would include Wm15 Marstow 1 and Wm15 Marstow 2. In a few occasions the permitted image name has been too long to include all the information and a duplicate image has been added with a slightly different name.
There is no need to find each page image to browse through a particular hundred, as there is also a document for each hundred of all its images, plus a analysis at the end of each of the returns for other years for that hundred (below). A map of the hundreds can be found here. The hundred codes are:
B: Broxash; E:Ewyas Lacy: Ge: Greytree; Gm:Grimsworth; H: Huntington; R: Radlow; S: Stretford; Wb: Webtree; Wg: Wigmore; Wp: Wolphy;
Wm: Wormelow.
You can also go to the Search on the Home Page, select OTHERS as the type to search, and put in the search terms Hearth Tax plus the reference number (say B10a) or the place name if you know it (Marden) and the you can click on the 'More' at the right to view or download. Please note that some download file names do not have the full version below as they are too long to be saved as such.
BROXASH HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
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B20 Tedstone Delamere 2 B21 Tedstone Wafer B22 Thornbury Rowdon |
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B23 Ullingswick LC B23a Little Cowarne B24 Wacton B25 Whitborne 1 |
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B26 Winslow 2 B27a Withington B27b Thinghill B27c Yeow Withington |
CITY OF HEREFORD
Links to individual page images
EWYAS LACY HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
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GREYTREE HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
GRIMSWORTH HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
HUNTINGTON HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
RADLOW HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
STRETFORD HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
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Stretford S10b Bury & Weston S10c Moorcot S10d Marston S10e Broxwood |
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Stretford S11a Shobdon 2 S11b Lye Connop S12 Staunton Stocklow S13 Stretford |
WEBTREE HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
WIGMORE HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
WOLPHY HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
WORMELOW HUNDRED
Links to individual page images
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Wormelow Wm9a Kilpeck 2 Wm9b Treville Wm9c Lanhitock Wm10 Llandinabo |
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Wormelow Wm14a Little Birch Wm14b Aconbury Wm14c Little Dewchurch |
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Wormelow Wm15 Marstow 2 Wm16 Much Birch Wm17 Much Dewchurch 1 |
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