Central Government Taxation Records for Wales, 1291-1689

ESRC Refs:

RES-000-23-0200
RES-000-22-1189

Director:

Nia M.W.Powell

Research Fellow:

Helen Watt

Tax records may not immediately conjure the image of exciting sources of information, and yet, surviving central government records relating to taxation in Wales between 1291 and 1689 constitute a exceedingly rich corpus of information that throws light on the social, economic and political development of Wales during the medieval and early modern periods. Access to these documents, held at The National Archives at Kew, had been hampered in the past by poor and inadequate means of referencing.

The School, in collaboration with The National Archives at Kew and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, has been engaged since June 2003 in a project to research these records systematically. This has been carried out under the direction of Nia M.W. Powell of this department, who was awarded a research grant of £94,556 by the ESRC in April 2003. Helen Watt was appointed Research Assistant for the project in June 2003, and is now Research Fellow.

The records provide information of direct relevance to Wales and its development over a time-span of four centuries. The nature of the information varies according to the tax raised, but it includes data invaluable to understand Welsh social, economic and administrative developments before 1700. It is one of the few sources available systematically to study pre-nineteenth century Welsh demography, and the comparative wealth of various regions of Wales during the medieval and early modern periods. Since many of the documents consist of assessments of individuals, they also provide a wealth of information for family historians for a period when other sources, such as parish registers, are less than comprehensive in Wales. In addition to this, the research has revealed procedures for assessing and administering taxes that were particular to Wales, shedding unexpected light on its constitutional structure during the medieval period and on the practical significance and operation of the 1536 Act of Union.

Making these documents more accessible has been an important element in this current project. The identification of correct document dates, tax grants and place-names is now almost complete, and is recorded as work progresses onto an electronic database, available online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e179, The database includes the names of places covered in the records down to the smallest administrative unit, the date of each document, information on the tax levies from which they originate, notes about their physical format and information about their condition. The database thus contains a detailed guide for potential users.

Such detailed information on the content and context of the documents should facilitate research in all the fields noted above. The discovery of new material during the project has increased the known tax documentation relating to Wales by 44%, and this will, no doubt, lead to revision of current Welsh historiography. A second grant of £43,500 was awarded by the ESRC in January 2005 to research this newly discovered material. Making accessible for the first time a set of data for Wales that can be compared directly with other regions in England will allow quantified comparison between the two countries, and contribute to a better understanding of British history as a whole. A comprehensive understanding of the data will facilitate further research into regional contrasts within Wales itself, and foster comparisons between Wales and the various regions of England.

A further aim is to create digital images of the documents, to be made available online in association with the electronic database. Together, these databases will allow research to be carried out at a distance, overcoming the geographical obstacle to access posed by the location of these documents at The National Archives, Kew. This should allow researchers not only in Wales, but also outside the British Isles to access the material, so as to enhance and widen further research by a variety of scholars.

Supporting Files

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View Presentation - MS PowerPoint

A Poll Tax on Sheep of the Brecon Beacons!

What kind of sheep were there in Wales four and a half centuries ago?

Did you know that a poll tax was levied on sheep during the mid-sixteenth century?

It was on 12 March 1549 that the commons granted a relief, including this tax on sheep, with a graded scale of payments according to the age of the animals, the nature of the land on which they grazed and the number of sheep that any owner had. It was an extremely unpopular tax, and resistance to it fuelled the growing agrarian discontent that erupted into open rebellion during the summer of 1549. The tax was therefore repealed on 4 November 1549, and since it was so short-lived very few records of its collection have survived in England or Wales. It was thus a great surprise to discover, during the course of the research, documents from Breconshire recording the retrospective collection of the tax there in 1575, more than a quarter of a century after its repeal. The existence of these rare survivals was hitherto unknown.

There is detailed information about the various categories of sheep that grazed in the hundreds of Merthyr Cynog (TNA E 179/21/44) and Defynnog (TNA E 179/219/47), including the location of their pastures, how many each owner had and the names of the owners. This is an unusual and valuable source that sheds new light on the prosperity of pastoral farming during this period, and informs us about the contribution of sheep more than four and a half centuries ago to this vital element in the Welsh economy.

Further information is available from the E 179 database - www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e179

See also Anthony Adolph, ‘The squeeze on sheep’, Ancestors, Issue 24, August 2004, 50-55; ‘News’, Ancestors, Issue 26, October 2203, 7.