King Henry VIII needed money as he wanted to reclaim former English-ruled territory in France. This territory had been lost forever 70 years before, but Henry VIII still added ‘King of France’ to his titles! In May 1523, Parliament granted the King an annual subsidy for 4 years to fund his military campaigns so the English people had to pay up. P.S. Henry VIII’s army “provoked havoc in Northern France” but achieved nothing.
Assessments were made by government-appointed tax collectors:
Land: 12d per £ of land value
Moveable Goods: Over £20 of goods – 12d per £ of value. 40 shillings to £20 of goods – 6d per £ of value (farm equipment, household furniture and cooking vessels, livestock)
Annual Wages over 20 shillings (£1): paid 4d
£1 in 1520 was worth about £500 today. You could have bought 2 cows with £1 but you wouldn’t have been able to afford a horse.
Surrey Lay Subsidies 1523 for Ash Parish
| Ash Residents 1523 | Tax Paid on Goods Owned | Tax Paid on Land Owned | |
| Bedyll | Robert | £1 | |
| Bedyll | Thomas | £7 | 10s |
| Beterton | John | £2/13s/4d | |
| Beterton | William | £1 | |
| Beydon | Thomas | £13/4s | |
| Boxfold | Richard | £6 | |
| Carwyk | Stephen | £1 | |
| Collins | John | £1 | |
| Cooke | Thomas | £1 | |
| Gonner | James | £1 | |
| Hedger | Richard | £1 | |
| Jennings | John | £1 | |
| Jewer | Clement | £1/6s/8d | |
| Kinge | John | £3/6s/8d | |
| Kinge | Robert | £1 | |
| Lagge | William | £1/6s/8d | |
| Mabanke | Edmund | £5 | |
| Mabanke | Nicholas | £2 | |
| Moone | Anne (widow) | £10 | |
| Matchwick | Stephen | £1 | |
| Matchwick | William | £1 | |
| Mathew | Thomas | £2/13s/4d | |
| Monger | Clement | £1/6s/8d | |
| Monger | John | £4 | |
| Monger | Joan (widow) | £5 | 14s/4d |
| Monger | Stephen | £1 | |
| Monger | Thomas | £2 | |
| Raunce | Robert | £8 | |
| Russell | John (Jun) | £1 | |
| Russell | John (Sen) | £12 | |
| Russell | Robert | £1 | |
| Street | Robert | £1 | |
| Taylor | Stephen | £6/13s/4d | |
| Thayre | John | £2 | £1/10s |
| Upfold | William | £1 | |
| Vyne | Ralph | £40 | £56/13s/4d |
| Warner | George | £14 | |
| Woodhatch | Robert | £1 |
Who Were these Ash Residents Who Paid Tax?
Ash Parish Registers of births, marriages and deaths do not begin until 1549 so we have to look elsewhere for information on Ash residents in 1523. The records of Cleygate Manor and personal wills, for example, have been useful.
Only 5 Landowners in the Parish! The 2 biggest landowners were King Henry VIII who owned 2 manors in Ash (Cleygate and Henley) so he wouldn’t tax himself and Chertsey Abbey who owned both Ash and Frimley Manors; the clergy were taxed through a separate clerical subsidy. So … this left only 5 landowners in Ash Parish in 1523; everyone else were tenants.
The Landowners
Ralph Vyne of Farnham and Poyle Manor in Tongham (which he purchased in 1503) was a member of the wealthy Vyne family who owned land in Oxfordshire as well Farnham and Guildford. In his will, Ralph mentions that he had purchased ‘land in Ash’. He also directs that the rent from Ralph Vyne’s Ash property was to be used by his son Henry Vyne to pay for an annual prayer service. Little did Ralph know that, in a few years time, the newly formed Church of England would banish prayers for people’s souls.
Ann Moone (Mone/Moone) was the widow of Edward Moone of Ash Manor. We have some information about Edward Moone from the Cleygate Manorial Rolls:
John Thayre, a farmer of Ash Manor, died in 1534 and left a will. The Thayre family continue to be recorded in Ash for the next 160 years. Like Ralph Vyne, John was also concerned about his soul: “To be buried in Ash churchyard; to the mother church of Winchester 2d, to the high altar 3s 4d, to rood light of Our Lady 4d, to the Brotherhood of St James 4d, for masses and for parent’s souls 10s.“
Joan Monger was the widow of an unknown member of the Monger family of Ash and were likely the parents of John Monger, listed in Cleygate Manorial Rolls as “a freeholder of a farm in the manor”. The Monger family was prominent in Ash, some being farmers, others potters making so-called ‘Borderware’ mainly for the ever-growing London market.
John Bedyll owned a small parcel of land as he only paid 10 shillings tax but as he paid £7 tax on his movable goods he must have been a leaseholder of a sizeable farm with just a small property he owned freehold.
Ash Residents Taxed on Goods
These Ash residents would have mainly been tenant farmers who had farm equipment and held their land by copyhold of the Lord of The Manor of the various manors in Ash Parish. We have specific information on a few of them:
Clement Monger: An Ash Museum Newsletter tells us something of this man: “Clement Monger of Ash, potmaker, died in 1544, and his will records that his overseers were his brother John Monger of Guildford and John Monger of Ash, Potter.”
Edmund Mabank: Cleygate Manor tenant farmers
John and Robert Russell: Cleygate Manor tenant farmers
Collins, Gonner, Hedger, Jewer, Kinge, Lagge, Matchwick, Russell, Taylor, Warner, and Woodhatch families all show up in the Ash Parish Records after they begin in 1547.
What about all the other Ash Residents? Assuming a population in the Ash Parish of around 300, why did only 38 pay tax? Most people were farm workers being paid a daily wage for work done. None of the farm workers pictured below probably had land, or sufficient moveable goods, or a decent annual salary to be taxable.
Select Sources
- FindMyPast.com (subscription needed)
- www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk
- Discovery | The National Archives
- Normandy Historians (normandyhistorians.co.uk)
- London, England, Wills and Probate, 1507-1858
- England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858
- Ash Museum Newsletter July 2019