Cambridgeshire Hearth Tax Returns: 1664, Michaelmas

The earliest full modern Census in England was in 1841, but there are records from before that time that you might be able to tap into to get a clue about ancestors.  Of course, as usual, the best records are kept on those with the most money (home and land owners) and the poorest (criminals).  But there's always a chance you'll find something.

One set of records pre-1841 Census is the Hearth Tax returns.  In Cambridgeshire this Census style return was created at Michaelmas in 1664 - some considerable time before 1841.  If you say there are four generations per century, that's reaching back 6-7 generations.  However, population was much smaller then!

The Hearth Tax was a tax on the number of fireplaces in a house.  As most people will have had one fireplace per room, it makes sense that bigger houses can be taxed more!  You can look at the Hearth Tax Returns from Cambridgeshire at the National Archives in London, but, for most people, that's somewhere they'll never get to!
At Cambridgeshire Archives there are some alternatives you can check out:

• Hearth Tax returns for 1662, 1664 and 1674 for most of Cambridgeshire on microfilm. 
• Hearth Tax returns of 1672 for the hundreds of Papworth, Northstowe and Chesterton on microfilm (no other areas, just those three).
• You can view an indexed transcript of the 1674 returns compiled by Norman & Vicky Uffindell.

But, if you're the sort of person who likes to have your hand on your information, kept in your study or on your bookcase, then the great news is that Nesta Evans & Susan Rose, of the Cambridgeshire Records Society, produced a book, "Cambridgeshire Hearth Tax Returns Michaelmas 1664" providing a complete transcript of the 1664 returns (with added information from the 1662 returns) together with detailed information on the Tax, local population and social structure of Cambridgeshire at that time.

You can contact the Cambridgeshire Records Society, who will be pleased to sell you a copy for £24 (£16 for members).  The book is approximately 450 pages, of which ~330 are the records themselves and the rest is information and explanations.

• ISBN Number:  ISBN 0 904323 15 3
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• Publication Year:  2000

However, you can find copies online a little cheaper if you want to use the difference in cost for other genealogical expenses.  You can buy it online at Amazon.co.uk

Cambridgeshire Hearth Tax 1664

When I last looked it was possible to get a copy for about £17 - giving you £8 to spend on another certificate, BMD records CD from your local Family History Society, or another book!

There's no point buying this book until you've got back as far as 1800 at least and feel confident that your ancestors were settled in Cambridgeshire.  For some people this won't be hard, some families have lived in the county "forever"!  Mine are mostly in Cambridgeshire, with only about 5-10% having left, but I'm not really sure where they started from.  Maybe they just turned up in Cambridgeshire in ~1800.  Maybe a trip to the local archives to check out those microfilms might be on the cards first!  Then it'd be time for a shiny new book on the study wall!