The Hearth Tax

The 1664-5 Hearth Tax in Montgomeryshire

The hearth tax was levied between 1662 and 1689 but most surviving records date from 1662 to 1666 and 1669 to 1674. The basic principle was to tax householders, other than the poor, for each hearth they owned. In principle, therefore, the more hearths you owned, the more you paid. The surviving hearth tax returns include lists of chargeable and not chargeable householders with a note in each case of the number of hearths each possessed. The returns therefore have some of the characteristics of a census and, in national terms, are one of the nearest things to one before the 19th century.

Montgomeryshire has returns for 1662 and 1664-5 or thereabouts, arranged by hundred and township. The 1664-5 returns were transcribed by a member of the Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society and have been uploaded gradually onto this page over the last few years. This project is now complete.

The attached returns are completely unchecked but you are welcome to download them for personal use. Click on the Hundred names for the pdfs. The material is copyright and no part of it may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission, in writing, of the Society. The file for Llanidloes Hundred looks smaller than it should be - returns may be missing from the original or mixed up in the transcripts. Please note also that, although the files indicate a date of 1671, this tax is thought to date to 1664/5.

A transcript and index of the 1664-5 tax, which involved checking the original at the National Archives, Kew, west London, and the Leonard Owen transcript of this tax, were published in 2008 in the MGS Montgomeryshire Records Miscellaneous series. Please see the Publications page on this website.

Cawrse and Deuddwr Hundreds uploaded first.
Cyfeiliog Hundred added 26 December 2002.
Deuddwr Hundred added 26 December 2002.
Llanfyllin Hundred added 12 December 2003.
Llanidloes Hundred added 31 January 2004.
Mathrafal Hundred added 22 September 2004.
Montgomery Hundred added 14 August 2006
Newtown Hundred added 19 August 2006.
Poole Hundred added 23 August 2006