Barking & Dagenham Local History
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Where History Is In The Past

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Hearth Tax Returns

Dagenham Analysis

 

It is possible to create a picture of the world in which our l7th Century villagers lived, particularly when we can augment the Returns with wills, inventories and parish registers.

 

One hearth usually implies a house of between 2 and 4 rooms, with no upper floor, which belonged to a labourer or smallholder (husbandman). These men farmed small areas of up to 40 acres, but most farmed far less.   A glance at the Returns shows that all those poor people who were exempt had houses of only one hearth. 

 

The wealthier folk in the village lived in houses with two hearths - usually the craftsmen, yeomen and husbandmen with larger acreages. This group was particularly prominent in. We know from other sources that they included: tailors, a blacksmith and a carpenter.  There were other trades in the village too, although we don't know the size of their houses: a shoemaker, a miller, a woolcomber, a victualler, a carver and a barber as well as a maltster.

 

Those with three or more hearths were the wealthiest, with many leaving a large sum of money at their deaths.

 

 

Hearth Tax Returns 1662:  for Dagenham Ward [ERO: Q/RTh 1]

                       

 Name

 Original Return No

 No of Hearths

 Allibon, Job gent

  39 

 5

 Arnold, John

 81

  3 

 Baushame? John

 31

13

 Bennett, Thomas

100

 1

 Berrington, Josephine

 52

 1

 Bonham, Thomas gent

 32

15

 Boothe, William

 69

  2

 Burrell, ?

 85

  1

 Bussett, Rosalind?

 53

   4 

 Crofte, William

102

 2

 Comyns, Robert

 34

 10

 Crowefield

 63

 4

 Dove, Stephen

 90

 2

 Dove, Thomas

 67

 2

 Edlym

 73

 3

 Eldress, Josephine?

 92

  3 

 Elliot, John

 94

 2

 Ellyeott, Georgina

 51

 4

 Estbroke, William

 45

 8

 Eve, Simon

 48

 6

 Fields, John

 83

 1

 Fields, Robert

 63

 7

 Gaunt, John

 98

  2 

 Gibson, Walter

 99

 3

 Gill

 54

 4

 Gower, John senior

 77

 5

 Grove, John

 95

 5

 Hollingsworth, John

 64

 2

 Jolly, Thomas gentleman

 65

 4

 Jones, John

 89

 3

 Joyce, Edward

60

 5

 Jud ?

 84

 1

 Lilly, Thomas

 79

 2

 Little, Thomas

 58

 3

 Little, Thomas

 66

 4

 Mathewson?

 80

 2

 More

 40

 6

 More, Samuel gentleman

 36

 8

 Nicholls, William

 72

  5 

 Osborne, Isaac?

 96

 1

 Parsons, Thomas

 75

 3

 Peacock, William

 46

 3

 Peoolly? Samuel

 88

 2

 Pragell, Richard?

101

 2

 Reading, James

 87

 5

 Shipton, William

 38

 6

 Sparks, Thomas

 93

 3

 Speller, William

 47

 4

 Stafford, Thomas

 68

 2

 Stockdales

 56

 3

 Stockdale, William

 55

 3

 Surridge, Henry

 70

 1

 Surridge, John  gentleman

 35

 5

 Swingate, Spencer

  43 

10

 Suezern? Georgina

 59

 2

 Taverner, Robert

 57

 2

 Teaton, Thomas

 82

 1

 Thorogood, John

 91

 5

 Trapper, Walter

 74

 2

 Truelove, Thomas

 33

 5

 Twyford? Thomas

 44

 5

 Tydie, Robert

 61

 2

 Tylney ?

 37

 7

 Vesper? Thomas

 93

 3

 Vinton, John

 86

 1

 Walker

 49

 4

 Walker, John

 50

 1

 Whitte, John

 41

 7

 Whitham, Thomas

 42

 6

 Wilson, John

 97

 2

 Willson, Christopher

 76

 2

 Woodruffe, William

 78

 1

 Woolston, Samuel

 71

 2