T he taxes paid by our ancestors have left behind some remarkable records. From the late 14th century Poll Taxes, providing us with evidence of the emergence of fixed surnames, to the Restoration era Hearth Tax, which produced lists of virtually every householder in the country, the documents can help us to locate the whereabouts of our forebears at times when the more familiar parish registers might let us down.
There’s not much that hasn’t been taxed over the years: the government has periodically attempted to raise revenue through duties on, among other things, windows, land, carriages and coaches, servants, hair powder, and, of course, income.
1694 Stamps Act
A tax on the dead – or rather, an inheritance tax – was first brought in by the 1694 Stamps Act: initially, a fixed rate of 5 shillings was levied on estates worth more than £20, but in 1780, a sliding-scale was introduced and Legacy Duty was born.
A specimen death duty account
file. The vast majority were consigned to the incinerator on the recommendations of Lord Denning in the 1960s. TNA IR 19/33
‘Death Duties’
As family historians, when we talk about ‘Death Duties’ we use it as a generic
