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
Peter Brooke (17th-century MP) Peter Brooke (17th-century MP) Sir Peter Brooke (c. 1602 – 1685) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1646 and 1656. Brooke was the younger son of Thomas Brooke of Norton by Eleanor Gerard, his third wife. In 1646, he was elected Member of Parliament for Newton in the Long Parliament. In 1656 he was elected MP for Cheshire in the Second Protectorate Parliament. Brooke, then of Mere Hall, Cheshire which he bought in 1652, was knighted on 24 July 1660. He was High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1669. He was appointed