Northamptonshire Land, Poll & Window Tax Lists

This record set contains transcriptions from a number of taxation records held by Northamptonshire Archives. They include Land Tax for 1801 for most parishes in the county, Window Tax for ‘Higham Ferrers hundred (administrative area) for 1750, Cleyley and Towcester hundreds for 1772 and an early Poll Tax for Huxloe, Rothwell and Corby hundreds in the north of the county for 1698.

These indexes give last name, first name, year and place. For land tax records, the occupier, owner and the sum payable may be given although some records are not so informative.

For window tax records, the number of windows in the property is generally given (the higher the number, the larger the property) and for some, the amount of tax paid. The Poll tax of 1698 is mostly a list of names of taxpayers (heads of households) within a parish.

Further information may be gained by consulting the original documents which are held at Northamptonshire Archives.

Land tax records are generally found amongst the Quarter Sessions records with returns from 1780 to 1832 having a much greater rate of survival. They can be used to pinpoint the head of a household in a parish at a certain time, either as an occupier or as the owner. However, there was not a standard form of recording the information so the amount of information given can vary and the amount payable may not always be included.

Window tax was based on the number of windows in a house and was first introduced in 1696. It was a banded tax depending on the number of windows and often led to windows being bricked up to avoid paying the tax. Survival rates for returns for Northamptonshire are generally low. The tax was repealed in 1851.

Poll Tax – this return relates to a taxation on goods and/or income and gives the names of those paying in three hundreds (administrative areas) in Northamptonshire, the amount paid is not recorded but the index of names of those resident in the parish can act as a mini-census of heads of households.