Hearth tax significant proportion of householders were not liable to pay at all. The hearth tax was much resented because it often entailed inspection of the interior of dwellings by the sub-collectors and petty constables, who had legal authority to enter every property to check on the number of hearths. Some people stopped up their chimneys so that the tax was not due on them, but where this was discovered by the assessors the tax was doubled. On 31 July 1684, a fire in Churchill, Oxfordshire, destroyed 20 houses and many other buildings, and killed four people. It was apparently caused by
Hearth tax on the web without electronic access to the original texts from which the information has been drawn. When it comes to the hearth tax, it is vital to be able to see the names within the original order of the lists. A final word should be reserved for exemption certificates. Until recently there was relatively little concern with the exemption certificates that recorded the names of the householders who were not liable to pay the hearth tax. For the West Riding there are around 650 of these certificates, helping to fill the gaps for some areas where the exempt are