1664 Hearth Tax & Protestation Oath Accuracy.

[River Raven]

I have been using the 1664 Hearth Tax from the OPC website for a lot of my research.

As an example St Enoder has 79 entries. I always assumed the parish to be larger than this. Are they complete?

Another nagging problem is an individual who has children in the parish and the National Archives has all sorts of records on his life, calling him a blacksmith etc... and owning land so must have had a house no matter how small, but the closest name in the Hearth Tax is Stephen Bosking (From Stephen Hoskyn) and he only has one hearth - but surely a blacksmith would need more than one hearth? Surely he would need two at a minimum. Otherwise he is just not there.

Similar problem with the Protestation Oath. No Hoskyn to be found, but they are all giving birth and marrying in the parish.

[osprey]

they are transcriptions and according to the site "therefore open to human error"
http://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/hearth_tax_background.php

Have you checked the originals?

Do you have any wills for the family? There's one indexed at the Cornwall record office for Stephen Hoskyn, yeoman of St Enoder, 1703 ref AP/H/2834.
You can get a copy from Truro
http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=14713

There are other documents listed ,searching on Hosk*n & Enoder

http://crocat.cornwall.gov.uk/dserve/DServe.exe?dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Index.tcl
including the text of a deed of partition from 1671

[River Raven]

They you very much for your reply. That is very interesting about the will. Unfortunately I live in China but that will be top of my wish list one day when I am out of the country.

Are there scanned originals of the hearth tax anywhere online or only through different record offices? Just wondering. I would feel it cheating to relegate this to mistakes and blank parts.

[osprey]

The record office can post you a copy of the will & you can pay by credit card.

The Hearth Tax is at the National Archives

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/hearth-tax.htm

Have a look at 'Did everyone pay the Hearth Tax!' - he wouldn't have paid on the hearth in the smithy.

The 1642 Protestation Returns are in the Parliamentary archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/searches/locresult_details.asp?LR=61