Hearth taxes were introduced in the British Isles in time for the cold period of the Little Ice Age. They came with the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy. In England and Wales, they were levied from 1662 to 1689 at one shilling per hearth and collected twice yearly. It was also collected in Scotland between 1691 and 1695, and continued in Ireland into the early nineteenth century.
Hearth tax records name the head of household and the number of hearths. Many returns also list those exempt from payment, often the poor. Hearth tax records function as a quasi-census for the later seventeenth century.
Hearth Tax Digital, currently containing 370,407 entries, allows users to explore information on individual names and communities, including whether householders were men or women, their titles (such as Mr, Mrs, or widow), and, in some cases, their social roles, including medical and military occupations.
The records are published unabridged, following the layout of the original manuscripts, and are fully dated. Latin text is transcribed and translated into English, with abbreviations clearly indicated.
Find a list of the coverage at https://gams.uni-graz.at/archive/objects/context:htx/methods/sdef:Context/get?mode=records. Recent and forthcoming additions include London(City, Southwark, and Westminster), Bristol, Norwich, Yorkshire (all three ridings, plus Hull and York), and East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex). Improved search tools and an interactive map support both targeted research and broader exploration.