Hearth less than 20 shillings a year and those who paid neither church nor poor rates. Also exempt were charitable institutions such as schools and almshouses, and industrial hearths with the exception of smiths' forges and bakers' ovens. The returns were lodged with the Clerk of the Peace between 1662 and 1688. A revision of the Act in 1664 made the tax payable by all who had more than two chimneys. The tax was abolished by William III in 1689 and the last collection was for Lady Day of that year. It was abolished in Scotland in 1690. Hearth tax records
Alderley House House" was completed, Sir Matthew Hale was granted the right of way from his new manor house into the churchyard. "The Lower House" was then to remain the Hale family home for the next 100 years. "The Lower House" was a substantial property: a nine-bay house with gables at either end and five small dormer windows in between. It was completed in the same year that Parliament introduced the Hearth Tax, and the surviving Hearth Tax Assessment records a house of 18 hearths. When ill-health forced him to relinquish his position as Lord Chief Justice in 1676, Sir Matthew Hale