Early Tudor Craven: Subsidies and Assessments 1510-1547

edited by R.W. Hoyle (1987)

 

This volume contains a critical edition of the surviving early Tudor assessments and lay subsidy returns for the West Riding wapentakes of Staincliffe and Ewcross, broadly the area of the Yorkshire Dales.

The whole or sections of seven returns are included covering the period 1522 to 1547, together with an introduction and appendices. The introduction describes how the assessments were compiled and their weaknesses, which in turn sheds new light on the resistance to taxation in this area in early Tudor times and the subterfuges to which subsidy commissioners were driven in making their returns to the Exchequer.

The appendices include a guide to other subsidies collected in the reign of Henry VIII for which no returns are extant, and the township organization of the district. The last appendix contains a new edition of a muster for Craven c1510.

This edition should appeal to economic historians interested in social structure and the history of taxation. In addition, because the Yorkshire Dales was one of the few areas of highland England for which such returns were made, this volume should be of interest to historians of highland communities. The area of townships covered and the large number of personal names, may before the start of parish registers in 1538, will also be invaluable to local historians and genealogists.