Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

An order being issued out from the lords of the Treasury for the collecting of the duty of hearth-money upon the smiths’ forges in Sheffield and Hallamshire, after having made me but bad returns for the favours I had done them before in that case, they came to me to desire my assistance, that they might be excused from that duty, if possible, by my means and intercession. I told them it were much fitter they should apply themselves to the interest they had done lately, for I should not concern myself any more in that affair; that as to favour, I doubted not but they thought themselves able to find it by others, or else their application would have been more constant to me.

Comment

Comment

The claimed situation in 1680:

In Hallamshire there are above One Thousand Cutlers, Sciser-Smiths, Shere-Smiths, Sickle-Smiths, &c. And at Brimmingham are Sword-Smiths, Cutlers, Spurriers, Bridle-Bit-Makers, Naylers, and divers other Handicrafts Men who live by Manufacturing of Iron and Steel, are very Poor, have numerous Families, most of them Working at 6 d. or 8 d. a day Wages, cannot make any Work without Blowing, and therefore must have Blowing-Forges in their Houses, (as well as Thousands of others in other parts of England;) some of them (though the poorest Men of all) have Two or Three. These most of them live in poor Cottages, wherein there are not above two Chimneys apeece, and for which there is not above 20 s. per annum Rent paid.
(Cutlers and Smiths of Sheffield etc. 1680)

Apart from concern for their alleged poverty, these were people one would want to have on one’s side in a civil war.

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Original

An order being issued out from the lords of the Treasury for the collecting of the duty of hearth-money upon the smiths’ forges in Sheffield and Hallamshire, after having made me but bad returns for the favours I had done them before in that case (I mean the cutlers and corporation there), they came to me to desire my assistance, that they might be excused from that duty, if possible, by my means and intercession. I told them it were much fitter they should apply themselves to the interest they had done lately, for I should not concern myself any more in that affair; that as to favour, I doubted not but they thought themselves able to find it by others, or else their application would have been more constant to me; and as for hopes of relief by justice, the law was now much changed since this matter was first in question, by reason of the opinions of the judges given in the case, and of several verdicts both in the Courts of the King’s Bench and of the Exchequer concerning it.

186 words.

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.

• Blacksmith (5) ·
• Bribery (5) ·
• Charles II (1630-85) (25), King of Scotland 1649-51, King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration until his death ·
• Corporate tax (1) ·
• Cutlery (7) ·
• HM Treasury (2) ·
• Hallamshire (5) ·
• Hearth tax (3), principally the property tax imposed by Charles II in 1662 and repealed in 1689 following the Glorious Revolution ·
• Reresby, John (1634-89) (23), Thrybergh-born, politician and diarist, governor of York 1682-88, 2nd baronet ·
• 📌Sheffield (72) ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·

All tags.

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