Hearth Tax Online

The Centre for Hearth Tax Research at Roehampton University, London, has an interesting project underway "providing data and analysis of the records of the hearth tax which was introduced in England and Wales by the government of Charles II in 1662."

The tax was collected twice a year, on Lady Day and Michaelmas, at a rate of 1 shilling per hearth  (fireplace), with exemptions. Some returns survive for most parishes between 1662 and 1689 when it was abolished.

Data online at present is last and first name and the community in which they lived, for Yorkshire, Durham and some of the home counties. There is also mapping and analysis.

Hearth Tax Online has a blog to which you can subscribe to stay up to date.

via Elizabeth Kipp's English Research from Canada blog.