Tax to raise £400,000 With the outbreak of war in Ireland in late 1641 Parliament voted for a new form of taxation. The new tax used the quota approach adopted for Ship Money. Rutland’s allocation was £1050, with local county commissioners appointed to administer its raising, similar to Subsidies. The tax was to be raised in two tranches in May and November 1642. Abandoning the nominal valuations used for subsidies the Rutland commissioners elected to use actual rental valuations as the basis for the township subdivision. The township allocation was then further subdivided into tax charges on all persons, including nobles and members of the clergy, who generated wealth from the township. Township members’ tax charges for the May 1641 tranche survive for three of the county’s hundreds and provide a relative measure of the wealth of each township’s inhabitants.

Subsidy Taxes (see also Governance, p53) Subsidy taxes were based on the assessment of two forms of wealth: land rentals and goods. In Rutland the latter was generally crops and livestock. By the time of the Stuarts, subsidy assessments had become nominal and only reflected in the crudest sense a person’s relative wealth. All the subsidy taxes listed in the database had the same threshold assessment levels of £1 for land and £3 for goods and, except in the 1611 assessment, the same tax rates per assessed pound of four shillings for land and 2s 8d for goods. Thus, a threshold land assessment generated a four-shilling tax liability and a threshold goods assessment an eight-shilling liability (i.e. 3x 2s 8d). The tax rates per assessed pound for the 1611 assessment were for land 1s 4d and for goods one shilling. Sometimes multiple subsidies were granted which required double tax payments. To achieve this requirement the county commissioners who administered the assessments had an option to double either the assessment or the tax rate. The table below shows how each assessment was rated. From 1625 subsidies were used to penalise recusants, generally Catholics: those assessed for land or goods had their tax rate doubled while others were charged a poll rate of eight pence each.

Miscellaneous Lists Individual payments to Oakham’s poor at a time of plague in June 1642 Protestation – in May 1641 Parliament demanded the swearing of an oath by all males aged eighteen or over to defend the Protestant religion, the King and the powers and privileges of Parliament. Although a county-wide list of those taking the oath would have been sent to Parliament it has not survived. Those details that have survived are from a few preparatory lists for various townships Dole of Corn and Beef – List of Cottesmore and Barrow’s poor receiving provisions 1639-42. Christmas List – Local people invited to attend the manor house of Cottesmore & Barrow at Christmas 1639. Members of Rutland’s Militia ( Trained Band ) in 1614 and 1640. Some gaps for location and hundred in the 1640 list are associated with arms required from the clergy and for the cavalry A list of Rutland individuals impressed for service with the Army fighting in the Low Counties in 1627 A list of Rutland individuals impressed for service with the Royal Army against the Scots in 1640 A list of electors voting in the 1646 election for Rutland’s two vacant MP seats. Electors were required to be resident at the time of the vote and hold at least forty shillings of freehold land in the County. They could cast a vote for each of two separate candidates

Hundreds and Townships Historically Rutland was divided administratively into five Hundreds: Alstoe, East, Martinsley, Oakham Soke, and Wrangdike. Within the Hundreds the population was concentrated in townships that were or had been the centre of an open field system. An exception was the manor of Leighfield which consisted of the old royal forest, which when included in valuations was part of Oakham Soke Hundred. While most townships were coterminous with a parish, some parishes had two or more townships, for example Ryhall and Belmesthorpe. There are two places where caution is needed: first, Oakham, this was divided manorially into two, i.e. Oakham Lordshold (including the Castle and most of the town) and Oakham Deanshold (the church and the rest of the town and Barleythorpe, belonging to the Abbey of Westminster) – the latter is generally referred to in these sources as Westminster Fee; Secondly, the places we know today as Great and Little Casterton. Great Casterton was known in these and many other historical sources as Casterton Magna or Bridge Casterton and Little Casterton as Casterton Parva.

Comments / Corrections The author’s digital copies of relevant British Library Egerton and Huntington Library Hastings papers have been deposited for personal consultation at the Rutland County Museum, Oakham. Rutland Local History and Record Society is keen to maintain the relevance and accuracy of the Database and should you have any query, comment, or spot any mistake, please contact us at http://www.rutlandhistory.org/contacts