Hearth tax and became widespread in the 14th century when the royal finances were unable to bear the rising costs of war and state agents. In particular, "fouages" were levied in 1342 and 1349. The "hearth-penny" was an Anglo-Saxon term for "Peter's pence". In England, hearth tax, also known as hearth money, chimney tax, or chimney money, was a tax imposed by Parliament in 1662, to support the Royal Household of King Charles II. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Parliament calculated that the Royal Household needed an annual income of £1,200,000. The hearth tax was a supplemental tax to
Hearth tax 1922 the building was destroyed by fire, which also destroyed the Rolls (along with the Ireland census records for 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851), but copies of some of the Rolls have survived. The comprehensiveness and near-national coverage of hearth tax returns differentiates this historical evidence from other pre-modern surveys and tax records. Unlike other taxation surveys, the hearth tax recorded the names of those who were not liable to pay the tax, and hence provides a means of looking at a full range of social groups. The work of C.A.F. Meekings during the mid-twentieth century is an important resource