Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

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In the year 1663, a subsidy called “hearth money,” was granted to the crown by Act of Parliament as an additional revenue, which was afterwards known by the name of the house and window tax, a customary duty as old as the conquest, when it was called “fumage,” and vulgarly “smoke farthings.” It amounted to the sum of two shillings on every hearth, in houses paying to the church and the poor. Warrants were accordingly issued by the Justices of the Peace of this Borough, to the constables of the several townships comprising the same, commanding them to give notice to the various owners and occupiers of houses of the intended impost, that returns might be made of what hearths, or stoves, were in their respective possessions, in order to their being taxed. The returns relating to this borough, dated the 14th of July in the last mentioned year, are very fortunately preserved amongst the records of the corporation, from which the following information as to the number of inhabitants in each township liable to pay the tax, and also the number of hearths, or stoves, in their possessions, is extracted, namely:

The above extracts make a total of 1431 inhabitants, possessing 2845 hearths, or stoves, in this borough; but, as the returns are incomplete in several places, there would be rather more than those numbers, which would make very nearly the sum of £300 to be contributed by this borough… This tax, so “grievous to the people,” was repealed by the statute of I William and Mary, cap. 10.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Armley (8) W/G ·
• Beeston, Leeds (6) W/G ·
• 📌Bramley, Leeds (5) W/G ·
• Burley, Leeds (2) W/G ·
• Chapel Allerton (3), inner suburb of north-east Leeds W/G ·
• Charles II (1630-85) (26), King of Scotland 1649-51, King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration until his death W/G ·
• Farnley, Leeds (4) W/G ·
• Fireplace (2) W/G ·
• 📌Headingley (15) W/G ·
• Hearth tax (3), principally the property tax imposed by Charles II in 1662 and repealed in 1689 following the Glorious Revolution W/G ·
• Hearth (2) W/G ·
• 📌Holbeck (10) W/G ·
• Hunslet (11) W/G ·
• Leeds City Council (34) W/G ·
• 📌Leeds (248) W/G ·
• Mary II of England (2) W/G ·
• Potternewton (2) W/G ·
• Progressive tax (1) W/G ·
• Property tax (2) W/G ·
• Statistic (1) W/G ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (150) W/G ·
• William III (9) W/G ·
• Wortley, Leeds (4) W/G ·

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Similar

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20 September 1819: Flags and fasces at a procession from Briggate to Hunslet Moor to protest the Peterloo Massacre

26 March 1662: The Leeds corporation appoints a cook

9 May 1622: Leeds corporation legislates against Sunday street life

9 April 1938: Huge crowds witness air-raid demonstrations on Holbeck and Woodhouse Moors, Leeds

3 November 1694: Leeds’s borough treasurer is mandated to pay goldsmith Arthur Monjoy £61 for making the ceremonial mace

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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I suspect Wardell’s real pleasure is in his footnote:

This person was found guilty and executed at York in 1696, for counterfeiting the current coin. The attic story of his dwelling-house in Briggate, was the place he used for this purpose, and was discovered in 1836, by some workmen engaged in repairing the premises. The apparatus used by him, together with a few silver coins were also found at the same time therein.

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