Subsidy: 1599

Parliament opened on 24 October 1597, and on 16 December granted three subsidies to be paid in three equal annual instalments. On the same day six fifteenths and tenths were voted.

Individuals (and corporations) paid 2s.8d. per pound for moveable goods worth £3 or more, and 4s. per pound for land worth 20s. or more. Aliens paid double these rates, and if they had no taxable assets, paid an 8d. per head poll tax for each subsidy.

Assessments were to be made by 1 October annually (1598-1600); certification was to be at the Exchequer by 1 November (1598-1600); and payment was due by 12 February (1599-1601). Books of the collectors' interim accounts and a list of commissioners for the levy of these subsidies survives in E 179/282.

No date is evident within the piece, and no details of the grant survive. Moreover, few of the people named within the piece are identifiable, although the appearance of Philip Constable of Everingham dates the piece to some point after 1574, when Philip succeeded his father, while Hugh Bethell, esquire, taxed on land in Ellerton, died in 1612. However, the document now at E 179/204/354, relating to the three subsidies of 1597, contains an incomplete subsidy assessment for Harthill wapentake. Comparison of the various rotulets shows that the seal tag slits are in almost exactly the same position, and thus it is almost certain (although not conclusive) that the rotulets within this piece once formed part of the piece now at E 179/204/354, the assessment for Harthill for the second of the three subsidies granted in 1597



Lay Subsidy, 19 Sep 1599?

E179/204/377

Bubwith and Harlthorpe

William Hotham in bonis

William Halley in bonis

Christopher Bewt in bonis

C—bert Raye in bonis

Foggathorpe and Laytham

William Bethell, gent, in bonis

John Hyndsley in bonis

Robert Hyndsley in bonis

John Hyndsley in terris