As far as I can remember the tax of 3d was from 1783 to 1794, but that the baptism ceremony could be performed regardless of whether the tax was paid, but the baptism could only be entered in the parish register if the tax was paid or if "P" was entered for an excempt pauper. I think that something applied to burials as well but would need to check that. Around that period, I had a number of "missing" baptisms. Some were later found either where all children of a family of various ages all baptised together late 1790s or so, or in the early 1800s individually as adult baptisms. However, I also came across some examples where the baptism must have taken place at the time as it had been recorded in the Bishop's Transcripts for a parish but had not been recorded in the original parish register - was this a form of tax evasion? Worth checking the BTs as well as the PRs during this period. There were also I seem to recall taxes on civil BMDs during the civil war. Also I noted once (but not the source) that a charge/tax was made for births(2s), burials (4s) and marriages (2/6d) between 1694 and 1706 to raise money for a war against France - and that there were fines for attempted evasion and fines for children not baptised. I'm sure our ancesters found ways of evading the tax then too, so could expalin missing entries in registers during that period. Richard (Apologies if any Welsh appears below, I've tried stopping it appearing) -----Original Message----- From: Marilyn Moffat [mailto:marilyn@moffat-mk.co.uk] Sent: 17 May 2005 13:15 To: ENG-GLO-HAWKESBURY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [HWK] Baptisms After 1783 I'm cross posting to both lists as this little gem of information, posted by Eve McLaguhlin on the Usenet News genealogy forum is I think of interest. (It was news to me at least!!) I have had great difficulty with my HULBERTs in Biddestone because the baptism records are a shambles for the period from about 1780 to 1800. There are very few meaningful records for this period which means I have had trouble sorting out a whole flock of William and James baptisms, which makes identifying the "missing links" for this generation very difficult However - a tax on baptisms as suggested below may explain a lot. Can anyone with images explain what happened to the Hawkesbury baptisms in this period? This is where the one HULBERT I can trace (thanks to my gran keeping a marriage certificate!) ended up in 1819 .... <start quote> (from soc.genealogy.britain) >Whilst at Hampshire Record Office today, I came across the following entry >in the Baptism Register for Boldre. > >1783 >On subsequent baptisms (3> >new tax takes place. > >In the Register note the bracket symbol was joined to the bottom of the >figure 3. Does this denote a tax of three farthings, It was a national tax of 3d, imposed on all baptisms entered in the parish register. The clergy resented being used as tax collectors, and having to account to the excise man from time to time. There was an exemption for paupers, and the clergy tended to use this as a get out 'exempting' everyone who didn't actually pay Land tax. Result, cvast numbers of 'P' marked entries, which didn;['t mean 90% of the parish had suddenly gone on the parish overseers'/ <end quote> ==== ENG-GLO-HAWKESBURY Mailing List ==== Visit Robert Millard's local and family history web pages at http://www.hawkesburyhistory.co.uk. ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx