1520s Lay Subsidy Roll

A book entitled Worcestershire Taxes in the 1520s:  the military survey and forced loans of 1522-3 and the lay subsidy of 1524-7 (available to view at The Hive in Worcester) is a useful guide to some family names 13 years before parish registers start.

The lay subsidy lists persons liable to tax, ie heads of households who had lands of at least 20 shillings, goods of at least 40 shillings or wages of at least 20 shillings. Live-in servants who were paid wages of at least 20 shillings were also included.  The spellings of the names are as given in the book but most of the modern equivalents can be recognised.

Lay Subsidies – Blackenhurst Hundred: Assessment 1525

With thanks to Richard Cudd for transcribing these records, taken from Worcestershire Taxes in the 1520s, Worcestershire Historical Society New Series Vol. 19, 2003.

Maureen Spinks, May 2019