The bill 'for laying an imposition upon chimney hearths' was passed in parliament and received royal assent on 19 May 1662. Although a tax referred to in the Domesday book as 'fumage' provided a pre-conquest precedent for the bill, it is to be doubted whether there was any awareness of such a precedent. The passage of the act owed more to the current interest in consumption taxes, such as those on ale and beer, and a proposed salt duty, as well as the need to provide a regular source of income for the king.

The tax to be levied was a twice-yearly charge of 1s. for every fire, hearth and stove within each 'dwelling, or other house or edifice', in England and Wales, including lodgings and chambers in the inns of court and chancery, and colleges and other societies. Houses worth less than 20s. in annual rent, or containing no more than £10 worth of moveable goods, were exempt, as were blowing houses, stamp-furnaces and kilns, and hearths and stoves on the sites of hospitals or almshouses. The poorest inhabitants of the parish, those exempt from contributing towards poor relief, were also excused from payment. Anyone claiming exemption by reason of poverty had to procure a certificate attesting to his/her impoverishment, signed by the minister and a churchwarden of their parish, as well as two justices of the peace. Payment was to be made twice annually - at Michaelmas (29 September) and on Lady Day (25 March) - and the tax was to be collected indefinitely. Prosecution of arrears, however, was limited to two years.

No commissioners were appointed to levy the tax, but rather, the existing local administrative machinery was to be employed. Constables, headboroughs and other parish officers were responsible for notifying all landlords and tenants that they were to make a written return of the number of their hearths within six days. Empty houses were to be assessed by the constables, who were also required to enter all inhabited houses in order to verify the returns made by occupants. The constables were to send in their returns to the next Quarter Sessions following 31 May 1662. The justices of the peace were then to instruct the clerk of the peace to compile these returns and make two enrolled copies of the assessment of the whole county. One of these enrolments was for the use of the sheriff, who was charged with receiving the tax, and the other was to be signed by three justices and returned to the Exchequer for use in auditing the sheriff's account.

Collection of the hearth tax in each parish or township was the responsibility of the petty constable. He was to collect it within six days of the date on which payment was due, giving acquittances for receipts, and had the usual power of distraint to compel payment. The petty constable was to deliver the money collected to the high constable of the hundred within 20 days of the payment date, together with lists of taxpayers and defaulters. Within the next 10 days, the high constable was to make his return to the sheriff, and he, in turn, had a further 20 days in which to account at the Exchequer for the money which he had received. The entire process was in theory to be completed within nine weeks of the payment date.

The tax was slow to be collected, however, and receipts were far below those anticipated, because of various problems in the administration of the tax. Difficulties in transporting the money, corruption and lack of incentive among the petty constables, abuses in granting exemption certificates, the widespread resistence of taxpayers, and confusion produced by the annual changeover of sheriffs and constables were all factors hampering the efficient assessment and collection of the tax.

The revising act of July 1663 addressed some of these problems, but concentrated largely on a perceived negligence in assessment. New assessments were to be made, and the returns made by the petty constables were to be checked by 'two substantial inhabitants'. The assessments were also to be written in books or rolls in two columns under the headings 'Chargeable' and 'Not Chargeable'. A penalty of 40s. was payable by householders making false returns, and the petty constables were liable to be fined £5 if they failed to send their assessment to the high constable within 20 days of receipt from the inhabitants of their parishes. The high constables were to examine the assessments and forward them to the justices of the peace, two of whom were also to make an examination of them before sending them to the clerk of the peace within 10 days. The clerk was then to prepare the assessment roll for the county within 20 days, and the duplicate for delivery to the Exchequer within two months.

These reforms did little to improve collection, however, as receipts fell further, and by the spring of 1664 it became apparent that the system was in need of re-organisation. A bill for a second revising act, therefore, was drafted by a commons committee, and became law on 17 May 1664. Under its terms, the collection of the hearth tax was no longer the duty of the sheriffs, but was instead put into the hands of professional receivers appointed by the lord treasurer, the chancellor and the Exchequer barons. The receivers gave bonds as security for the collection, appointed their own sub-collectors and took oaths in the Exchequer. The principle of self-assessment was abandoned. The receivers were given copies of the 1662 assessment for their area and authority to enter all houses, in the presence of a local constable, in order to review and update the old assessment periodically.

Sets of printed instructions for the first collection under their receivership, that due at Michaelmas 1664, were issued to the receivers, one of which is now E 179/265/30. They gave specific directions for the form and content of the records to be kept by the collectors, and included a |pro forma| account to be used as a sample. The receivers were to deliver their returns to the clerk of the peace, and as before, he was to prepare county-wide assessments which were to be approved by the justices and returned to the Exchequer. The procedure for collection was also tightened up; the sub-collectors had the power to levy distresses on refusers after an hour's wait, and violent resistance was punishable by imprisonment for one month. All the money collected was to have been paid in to the Exchequer by the receivers within three months of the payment date.

The act of 17 May 1664 also dealt with the recovery of arrears which had accumulated during the sheriffs' period of administration, assigning this task to the receivers who were to be appointed under a special commission. Berkshire documents demonstrate the means by which this was undertaken at a local level, petty collectors being warranted by their chief constables to produce new assessments, exemptions being signed by the local minister, and all (in principle at least) being signed by one or more justices of the peace (see E 179/243/25). The statutory limit of two years for the prosecution of arrears remained in place, however. Three types of schedules of arrears were prepared, many examples of which can be found among the E 179 documents. One listed the names of individuals with three hearths or more owing arrears, another gave the names of petty and high constables who had received money which they had not yet paid in, and a third detailed 'desperate debts' of which the sheriffs, who were still required to account for their receipts, were to be discharged. The receiver was to return his arrears schedules to the Exchequer, together with his 'answer', which indicated what he had and had not collected.

Although the efficiency of collection had been improved and the initial receipts under the new administration were encouraging, a stiffening resistance to the tax, lack of cooperation from the justices of the peace, a general economic depression and outbreaks of the plague resulted in a further decline in hearth tax revenue. By the end of 1665, the receivers' administration was deemed to be a failure.

From Lady Day 1666, the administration of the hearth tax was farmed out under contract to a consortium of London businessmen for a period of seven years, with an option to terminate the contract at the end of three years, and no requirement to account at the Exchequer. The farmers had to make an advance of £250,000 of the farm towards their annual rent, to help repay two loans of £100,000 each, raised on the strength of anticipated hearth tax revenue in 1665 to finance the war against the Dutch. The contract also allowed the farmers to claim defalcations (or allowances) for falls in revenue due to plague, invasion, rebellion or fire. Their administration of the tax proved nonetheless to be little short of disastrous.

The great fire of September 1666, in which the new Hearths Office perished, not only seriously diminished the hearth revenue in London, but it also made repayment of the loans to the City companies who had provided them a matter of urgency. An even greater problem, however, resulted from a bill presented by the commons in Parliament in September 1666 'for the Sale of Chimney Money'. The plan was ultimately rejected on grounds of practicality, but it led to rumours that the hearth tax was to be abolished, and the rising expectations caused by the circulation of these rumours resulted in widespread and violent opposition to the farmers' collection, when they proved to be unfounded. Sporadic rioting occurred in various towns over the next two years. Justices of the peace, moreover, resenting the farmers as socially-inferior outsiders, were often uncooperative or obstructive. Finally, two other factors which contributed to the farmers' decision to surrender the farm at the end of three years were the disputes between the farmers and the Treasury over defalcations claimed, and the costly delays and confusion caused by the changeover from the administration of the receivers to that of the farmers at Lady Day 1666.

At the surrender of the farm, the entire administration of the hearth tax came to a halt. The tax was not collected at Michaelmas 1669, while discussions were afoot about how to proceed, but by February 1670 the Treasury had decided to return to the system of appointed receivers, each of whom would manage groups of two or three counties. This time the system was strengthened by the appointment of two experienced hearth tax administrators as 'Agents' for the hearth tax, who were to exercise a general supervision over the receivers and collectors and act as a liaison with the Treasury. In June 1670 standard printed exemption certificates were issued to increase efficiency and perhaps also to limit their proliferation. Both the administration of the tax and economic conditions generally improved, and receipts began to rise in the 1670s.

Nevertheless, this period of receivership ended on Lady Day 1674, when the lord treasurer decided that more revenue could be produced by farming out the hearth tax once again. Various tenders were considered before the farm was granted to three farmers for a period of five years. The king had an option to cancel the farm after three years, but he did not exercise this right and, although records are scarce, it seems that this administration was more or less successful. This five-year period was followed by another five-year lease to different farmers at an increased rent, from Lady Day 1679. In May 1683, the farm was abolished and nine commissioners were appointed by the king to administer the hearth tax, together with the excise.

During the 1680s there was a steady rise in the revenue raised from the hearth money, but the tax was always extremely unpopular and violent outbursts against it continued until its abolition. Seeking popular support at the onset of his regime, William of Orange promised remission of one of the taxes imposed by his predecessors. On the recommendation of the commons, he chose this most hated of taxes, widely regarded as a 'badge of slavery upon the whole people exposeing every mans house to be entred into and searched at pleasure by person unknown to him'. In the first session of the first parliament of William and Mary, which assembled on 13 February 1689, the Hearth Tax acts were repealed; in Caernarfonshire at least, this news was greeted with approval in a letter dated 4 April 1689: 'The people are extremely pleased that there is a likelihood to pass the Ludlow bill and the hearth money' (National Library of Wales, Brogyntyn MSS (Clenennau Letters and papers) 877 (NLW Film 1036)). Any arrears which were due on 25 March 1689, when collection of the tax officially ended, were still to be collected, however.

There are many returns from all stages of the process of assessment and collection of the hearth tax among the E 179 documents and in other series, for example, E 199/9/35 is a schedule of arrears of individuals for the first collection of the hearth tax for Devon. A few hearth tax assessments are also held in the British Library, county record offices and other local repositories, and a large number of county-wide assessments have been transcribed and published. Hearth Tax returns for Wales held outside TNA include a roll for Caernarfonshire, which appears to date from the earliest period of the tax, possibly the first collection. This is in Gwynedd Archives: Caernarfon Record Office, ref. QS Hearth Tax, with a transcript at the Archives Department, University of Wales: Bangor, Bangor MS 13491. One roll for Denbighshire for 1662 and another for 1664 are in the National Library of Wales, ref. Chirk Castle Group B 65 and 68.

The National Library of Wales holds the following:

Hertfordshire: Declaration (draft) of payment of arrears of hearth money, with note of amount outstanding, 1674 (Esgair and Pantperthog 371).

Anglesey: Letters (2), dated 1673 and 1674, rel to collection of the hearth tax, ref. Carreglwyd Group II 23, 410.

Carmarthenshire: Order for stay of process in recovery of money from estate of late receiver of hearth money (copy), dated 16 July 1679 (Dynevor Group A, A85).

Denbighshire: Papers relating to the hearth tax, including petty constables' returns for various townships, c.1662-70, ref. Chirk Castle Group B 64, 66-7. Other material includes the following: an undated letter relating to the tax and exemptions, ref. Chirk Castle Group F 5394; receipts of the Myddleton family in respect of residences in Denbighshire, 1666-85, ref. Chirk Castle Group F 5696, 7523-83; notes on hearth duty, Chirk Castle and townships in the hundred of Chirk, 1687, ref. Chirk Castle Group F 13155, 13203. There are also returns, dated 6 November 1673, ref. Chirk Castle Group F 13207-11; these documents may once have formed a paper book possibly containing details of arrears, but further research is required to make a firm identification.

Denbighshire: Two notebooks in the Plas Nantglyn collection contain material relating to the hearth tax: an undated copy of an order to collect from the receivers of hearth money in the six counties of North Wales to the petty constable of the township of Segrwyd, Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch parish, Isaled hundred (2, unnumbered pages at reverse end of book), and a note of the number of hearths in Isaled hundred (6, f. 128).

Glamorgan: Form of exemption certificate (2), dated 10 November [temp. Chas II, c.1670s?], Nicholaston parish, ref. Penrice and Margam 5183.

Merioneth: warrant to high constable of Ardudwy uwch artro, to make a hearth tax return, dated 14 November 1663 (Crafnant and Gerddi Bluog 1, 3).

Gwent Record Office hold receipts for hearth tax, 1677 and 1683, Bedwellty parish, Monmouthshire (ref. Misc MSS 538 and 540).

Pembrokeshire Record Office holds receipts for hearth tax for the half-year ended Lady Day (25 March) 1673, for places in Dungleddy hundred, Pembrokeshire, ref. HDX/207/9.

Documents in The National Archives in series other than E 179 suggest that there were some difficulties in collecting the tax in several areas of Wales; an Exchequer inquiry into sheriffs' arrears of hearth tax in the counties of Anglesey, Caernarfon, Denbigh, Flint, Merioneth and Montgomery was ordered by commissions dated in 1666 (E 178/6660, containing arrears schedules, 1662-4, and examination of constables, 1665). Depositions dating from c. 1671 and c. 1673 relating to a further enquiry, into the collection of the tax in Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire in 1666 and 1667 also survive (E 134/23Chas2/Mich30 and E 179/134/25Chas2/Mich23). It is clear that another dispute over the sub-farmer's collection of the tax during the period 1666-9 in Denbighshire was investigated in the Exchequer, as an original collector's book, together with what appear to be copies created for the enquiry, are now at E 179/222/300/1 - E 179/222/300/6. Other documentation is also at E 134/24Chas2/East29. Depositions dating from c. 1672 relating the collection of the tax in Carmarthenshire to a period when the tax was farmed also survive (E 134/30Chas2/Mich15 and E 134/31Chas2/East11).

Most hearth tax records held in the Public Record Office date from the two periods when they had to be returned to the Exchequer for auditing: Michaelmas 1662 to Lady Day 1666, and Michaelmas 1669 to Lady Day 1674. C.A.F. Meekings, a former Assistant Keeper, made a thorough study of the PRO's hearth tax records, and his notes, organised chronologically by county, have been printed in two volumes:

'Analysis of Hearth Tax Accounts, 1662-1665' (List & Index Society, CLIII, 1979); and 'Analysis of Hearth Tax Accounts, 1666-1699' (List & Index Society, CLXIII, 1980).

These invaluable volumes give references to the declared accounts of the sheriffs (E 360) for all the instalments of the tax in each county, and refer to other hearth tax documents in the PRO, such as E 165/57, a book of states and views of account of the Receiver of the Hearth Tax for the period 1685-c.1700, and the British Library as well. Also useful for students of the hearth tax is |The Hearth Tax and Other Later Stuart Tax Lists and the Association Oath Rolls|, ed. J. Gibson, 2nd ed. (Federation of Family History Societies, 1996). This volume lists all known extant returns by county, as well as all returns in print.

TNA series State Papers Domestic contains various scattered documents relating to the hearth tax, for example: schedule of hearth money for arrears to Lady Day 1665, Durham (SP 46/135/7); fragment of an order containing the date 1667, East Riding of Yorkshire (SP 46/135/13); exemption certificates, Laleston, 1670, and Llangeinor middle hamlet, Newcastle hundred, and Cardiff town, Glamorgan, 1671 (SP 46/135/42, SP 46/135/45 and SP 46/135/43), Anmer, Freebridge Lynn hundred, Norfolk, 1671 (SP 46/135/58), Kenchester, Grimsworth hundred, Herefordshire, 1672 (SP 46/135/61), Long Melford, Suffolk, allowed 1674 (SP 46/135/104) and unidentified, possibly Whilton, Northamptonshire, 1671 (SP 46/135/51).

(|Stat. Realm|, V, pp 390-393, 493-495, 514-516; VI, pp 1, 61-62; J.D. Purdy, |Yorkshire Hearth Tax Returns| (University of Hull, Studies in Regional and Local History, VII, 1991), pp 1-18; |Surrey Hearth Tax 1664|, ed. C.A.F. Meekings (Surrey Record Society, XVII, 1940), pp ix-lxxxiii; |The Glamorgan Hearth Tax Assessment of 1670|, ed. E. Parkinson (Cardiff, 1994), p xiii); E. Parkinson, 'The Administration of the Hearth Tax, 1662-1666', unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of Surrey Roehampton (2001).