– Parish Rates - The Parishioners at Parish Meetings approved rated for the relief of the poor, upkeep of the church, maintenance of the roads etc. – these rates were levied according to full rents of the estates – Assessments were made out in books showing the rental value of each property in pounds and shillings and the rate payable in pounds shilling and pence – when allowed a schedule was given and signed also.
* Rate Books
put simply record money charged to and collected from householders - a form of local taxation.
to begin with they were entered into different books but later combined into general rates.
the early books are in written format but the later printed ones had entries under these headings:~
no. of property being rated
name of occupier
name of owner (which may be the occupier or not)
description of property , i.e. barns / stables/ cottage
name or situation of property (i.e. address)
the estimated area of the property expressed in yards, acres, roods and poles
the gross estimated rental
the rateable value
the amount of rate to be paid
the amount of rate collected if any.
these range from 18th century to the mid 20th century although a few exist from earlier i.e. 16th & 17th century
rate books only list the head of household sometimes by surname only
address are not always given in full
the further back you go the less detail you will find
Rate books will be held at TNA (Kew) or the Local RO
To check if anything has been transcribed in your area google
'poor rate books' 'church rate books' general rate books' etc etc
A2A will give you access to the catalogues of many respiritories search the area you want for rate book/s as the keyword with/without spaces
• Window Tax or Light Tax was introduced in 1696 (to replace Hearth tax) with amendments in 1747 and 1797. it was abolished in 1851.
The value to historians is the collection of names, usually of the tax-payers.
After 1784, house and window tax asesments were consolidated; they were then known asthe 'assessed taxes'. These were taxes imposed on male and female servants, carriages, carts,hair powder, horses , shops and waggons.
These assessed taxes can provide a wealth of information on the everyday and business lives of taxpayers.
The information can help, not only with names but tell the researcher whether or not an ancestor was a shop keeper, owned a horse, used hairpowder, employed servants and how many windows their house had.
