Is there anyone living near the West Yorkshire Archive Service Bradford, Margaret McMillan Tower, Prince’s Way who could possibly look up the Tax Records paid by Hutton in 1705 to 1708?
I think and hope that a personal search is free, as it was when I searched Wakefield Records myself in the late 1970's.
In the past year I have made great progress with these tax records in Ancestry. Ancestry entitle them as being from 1704 but they have nothing earlier than 1781.
I have tried to organise a search with Bradford Archive Service, but their payment system kept failing and after some three or four attempts to pay for a search I had to agree to put it off for the time being until they might introduce a new system to receive overseas payments.
They did confirm that they hold these tax records -
DB5/C10/8a – 1705
DB5/C10/8b/1 – 1706
DB5/C10/8c – 1707
DB5/C10/8d – 1708
I have a copy of the Deeds to the land in Eccleshill which stretched from The Smiling Mule on Moorside Road, right across the Radfield Crofts which were quarried, to the cottages on Fagley Lane. I have been able to ascertain who was Head of family and when they died and were succeeded by the next generation just by studying each tax payment for each year from 1781 to 1832 and the 1836 Tithe Map shows that my great great grandmother Mary Hutton still paid for plots numbered 439, 440, 443, 444, and 445 in that year.
Some 5 years ago I had Wakefield do a land search and they came up with quite a lot, that pointed to the same land being tenanted by a James Hutton and Mary around 1711- 1714. That agrees with a summary on the Deeds for that time -
14th February 1712 ASSIGNMNT. Jas Walker to John Lister and Wm Hutton.
14th March, 1714 BOND. Jas Hutton to John Lister.
But as we can see the 1712 assignment names William and not James. That makes more sense from the birth and marriage records which mainly name William Hutton Senior and William Hutton Junior of Eccleshill. James may have taken over the land for a while as he married Mary Lister in 1705!
I may also learn much more by 22nd January when the National Archives Discovery say they will send me 4 pages on a litigation by William Hutton who in 1685 had a dispute with an Edward Ackeroyd over land in Eccleshill.
That might have been sorted by another marriage! William Hutton married Mary Ackeroyd in November 1686 and their son William was born in December 1686.
Something else that is interesting and may help others is that one can tell by the Tax paid how large the property was, or whether it was just a single cottage - tenants are named as well in later years. For example much of the time the Hutton land off Moorside Road had an annual tax of
6s 11½d. But in some years they paid a bit less, like 5s 11½d and a tenant paid between 7d and a shilling for one cottage.
Many thanks to anyone who may be able to take a look at these taxes for me, Malcolm
