From 1662 to 1689 a tax was levied on the number of hearths in a
house; surviving records therefore indicate the size of
individuals' houses. The original records are now at the National
Archives in Kew. For more details see the Gibson Guide The Hearth
Tax (FFHS 1996), available in the Local Studies and Archives Room
at Peterborough Central Library.
Northamptonshire Record Office holds microfilm copies of the
relevant National Archives series [E.179] major project to
transcript and publish all the mid-seventeenth century Hearth Tax
Returns for Great Britain is in progress, but so far the only local
one to be published is for the former county of Cambridgeshire:
Cambridgeshire Hearth Tax Returns, Michaelmas 1664 edited by
Nesta Evans. (British Record Society, 2000). The only local
parishes covered are, therefore, Thorney and Whittlesey.
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