THE POLL TAX, MARCH, 1667 1 THE Act of Parliament of 18 & 19 Car. II, c. I, entitled 'an Act for raising moneys by a Poll and otherwise towards the maintenance of the present War', ordains that (1) twenty shillings in every £100 of personal estate is granted to the King; (2) all persons exercising any public office are to pay a shilling in the pound on the profits of their offices; (3) Serjeants at Law, Councillors, Attourneys, Sollicitors, &c., and those practising the Art of Phisick are to pay two shillings in the pound on their practice, but for the expenses of their practice an allowance is to be made of one third; (4) servants are to pay one shilling in the pound on their wages; (5) every person is to pay a poll tax of a shilling; but those who receive alms from the parish are exempt, and also all children up to the age of sixteen whose parents are so needy that they do not contribute to the Rates for the Church and Poor; (6) every alien is to pay double; (7) those of Ranks and Degrees are to pay as follows: Dukes £50... Baronets £15, Knight Batchelors £10, Serjeants at Law £15, Esquires £5, 'every gentleman or reputed gentleman above the age of 16 years' £1; bishops £20, deans £10, archdeacons £2, Doctors in Divinity, Law and Physic £5; but if a Doctor of Divinity has no benefice he is exempt from this payment. The assessment was to be made in February, 166, and the money was to be paid to the Exchequer before April 30, 1667. The assessment was to be made by assessors nominated by the King's Commissioners. If the assessment was too high, there was an appeal to the Commissioners. Among the records at the Town Hall there is a volume (P. 5. 7) which contains the assessment for this tax. It begins: 'Att a Generall Meeting of his Majestie's Commissioners for the Poll Bill, held in the Guildhall of the Citty of Oxon on Tuesday the 12th day of February in the 19th yeare of his Majesty's raigne, it was generally agreed that the persons heerunder named should be Assessors in each parish within this Citty & suburbes & that warrants 1 Statutes of the Realm, v. 584. should be immediately sent out to them to apeare before the said Commissioners at the place aforesaid on Monday the 18th of February instant at one of the clocke in the afternoone then & there to receive theire chardge, which was done accordingly, & unto which tyme & place the said Commissioners did adjourne. St. Martyns: Will. Walker, Will. Morrall. St. Aldates: Thomas Tipping, Ric. West. St. Giles: Will. New, Nickolas Daniell. Bynsy Tho. Crutch, Jeames Hearne. St. Thomas: Thomas Widdowes, Anthony Kendall. St. Maries: Thomas Adams, Will. Tayler. St. Mary Magdalen: Will. Sadler, Fanshaw Kettle. St. Peter in the Bayly: Thomas Andrews, Will. Greene. 'Att which said meeting on Monday Feb. 18th, 1666, the said Commissioners mett agayne in the Guildhall & then & there (all the Assessors before mencioned apearing) they gave them the chardge and full instruccons how to proceed according to the direccons in the said Actes of Parliament, with warrants to each parish to bring in their certificates by the 1st of March next and afterwards made choyse of Mr John Souch to be High Collector for the said Citty & Mr Townclerk to be theire clerke, & then adjourned untill Monday following one of the clocke being Monday the 25th of February instant. 'On which Munday Feb. the 25th, 1666, the said Commissioners, apearing in the Guildhall according to the adjournment, there met with the severall Assessors and Raters of each parish, and then and there perused so much of theire said rates as was done, & answered such objections as was made by the said Assessors concerning the same in order to compleating thereof & then adjourned agayne untill Friday the 1st of March next at which tyme the said Assessors are required to bring in the said Assessments finished.' The volume therefore seems to be the assessment that was presented on March 1, 166%, and the notes in the margin and the erasures represent the alterations that were found necessary in the process of collection. Anthony Wood mentions 1 that on March 18 he paid his share of the tax, viz. £1 as a gentleman, and is. for his poll, as will be found under the parish of St. John. It will be noticed that in some cases a widow pays one third of the charge due for the rank of her late husband; thus the widow of an esquire pays £1 135. 4d. and the widow of a gent. 6s. 8d. On the other hand in at least one case the widow of a D.D. pays nothing; but perhaps her late husband was not beneficed, and therefore would have made no payment for the rank he held. The number of persons who paid the poll tax in Oxford seems to be 8,566, of whom 6,499 belonged to the City, and 2,067 to the University. But this does not give us the whole population; for those who were supported by alms were exempt from payment, and also the children of those who were not assessed to poor rates. It is not easy to say how many there would be in these two classes: those maintained by the parishes would not be many, but it is to be noticed that in the poorer districts of Oxford house after house is represented by a husband and wife, which suggests that in such parishes as St. Thomas and St. Peter le Bailey many of the houses did not pay to the poor-rates and that many children in those parishes did not pay the poll tax. Probably the population of the City was about 7,000, of which about 500 were in the parish of Holywell. Mr. Thorold Rogers estimated that in 1666 the population of the City, excluding Holywell, was under 4,500, and the population of the University nearly 3,000, but the poll tax list shows that his estimate for the City was too small by 2,000 and for the University too large by 1,000. The numbers in each parish that pay to the poll tax are:- -St. Martin's 416, All Saints 632, St. John's 67, St. Mary's 470, St. Thomas 538, Holywell 436, St. Aldate's 584, St. Mary Magdalen 674, St. Peter le Bailey 491, St. Michael's 626, St. Peter in the East 836, Binsey 48, St. Giles's 253, St. Ebbe's 428. The parish of St. Clement is of course omitted; it is in the manor of Headington and the Hundred of Bullingdon. The number of the University is returned as 2,067, but this included the wives, children, and servants of Heads of Houses, many 1 Wood, Life and Times, ii. 103. College servants, some private servants, choristers, lay-clerks, and chaplains. It is difficult to say how many undergraduates there were. On the one hand the distinction between undergraduates and servants is not clearly marked; for though we can generally recognize a servant because he paid on his salary in addition to his poll tax, yet some servants (strange as it may seem) had no salaries, as may be seen by looking at the account of Magdalen College; so that we are often in doubt whether a man is a servant or an undergraduate. On the other side certain Commoners had the title 'Mr' as may be seen under Exeter College and St. John's College; and when the title occurs in other Colleges, we are not sure whether the individual is a Master of Arts or an undergraduate Fellow Commoner or Gentleman Commoner. The same uncertainty applies to the title Ds., which ought to mean a B.A., but may at times be used as a title of respect for Gentlemen Commoners. For these reasons the following table is only approximate: It is not known what is meant by the lines drawn by the collectors in the lists of the Colleges; perhaps they show where one staircase ends and another begins. Likewise in the various parishes short lines are drawn which seem to mark where one house ends; instead of reproducing these lines we have used brackets, but it may prove to be the case that sometimes we have included two houses in one bracket, when the collector forgot to draw a line between the two. St. Martin's Parish. £ s. d. Probable situation William Mathews and Anne his wife John Mathews, sonne John Browne, apprentice John Deely and Elizabeth his wife William Bayly, Esq., mayor, com- Mrs Mayris his wife Mrs Elizabeth, Alice, Mary and Richard Keate and George Wick- Mary Pitte, wages £2, and pole Deborah his wife Hannah Peirce, wages £2, and pole for his title £1, pole Is., for Mrs Grace Austine 1 his wife William Lakes and Tho. Hutting ton 1 Daughter of John Chesterman (Wood, Diary, ii. 269). |