Subsidy Rolls - Malhamdale Poll Tax 1379

A bewildering variety of taxes were levied to fill the coffers of Medieval monarchs, who were frequently desperate for money to wage wars and squander in other ways. Taxes have left behind many detailed records, mainly of the rich, but some forms of taxation, such as the Poll Tax, extended right to the lowest levels of society.
The largest collection of 12th -17th century taxation records is held at the National Archives, listed under class E 179 and are traditionally known as the subsidy rolls. A National Archives leaflet to the various forms of taxation is available, and they also provide a searchable E 179 index. This can be searched by place, date and other categories, to provide descriptions of the records, lists of places covered, and details of published texts, but there are no online transcripts of the actual documents.
Poll taxes were essentially taxes levied on individuals rather than property or wealth, with everyone over a certain age, and not otherwise exempt, being liable to pay a given amount. As a result, the surviving records of such taxes generally include a rather higher proportion of the population, and surviving documents record the names of a great many individuals and frequently include details of occupations and relationships.. The most famous such taxes were undoubtedly those granted in 1377, 1379 and 1380, the last of these being a major factor in the outbreak of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. In 1377 a tax of a groat a head was voted by both clergy and laity and in 1379 the tax was again levied on everyone over 16 years old, but using a graduated scale, with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster paying ten marks, down to the peasants paying one groat each. After the rising of 1381 the poll tax was only used to raise money from aliens, and the next general poll tax wasn't imposed until 1513. During the reign of Charles II money was obtained in this way on several occasions, causing much resentment. After 1688 poll taxes became a favourite means of raising money for the waging of the war with France. Sometimes a single payment was asked for the year; at other times quarterly payments were required. The poll-tax of 1698 did not produce as much as was anticipated, and it was the last of its kind in England until it was tried again in the late 20th century, causing another uprising.
All known surviving receipts and assessments from the fourteenth-century taxes have been transcribed or calendared by Carolyn Fenwick, and the Yorkshire taxes are included in The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379, and 1381: Wiltshire - Yorkshire Pt. 3, published by the British Academy Records of Social and Economic History, 1998-2004.

Malhamdale Poll Tax 1379

In 1379 this tax was levied on the head of each person above fifteen years old, at the rate of 1/- for each person. In most places the collectors assessed the number of shillings each village must pay by the number of 'heads' and shared this sum amongst the household. A rich man might pay considerably more than his shilling, and a poor man correspondingly less, And in Malhamdale you can see that the majority paid fourpence only, with only Johannes de Malghome of Calton paying the much larger sum of 6s 8d.
The following information and lists for the Malhamdale townships is taken from The Craven and Northwest Yorkshire Highlands by Harry Speight and published in 1892. It is not quite certain where some of the Malhamdale area townships are listed as there are no seperate listings for Bordley, Winterburn or Malham Moor, but it is possible they are listed under Hetton, Flasby and Malham respectively. GENUKI provides a complete listing of the 1379 Subsidy Rolls for Yorkshire if you wish to examine the adjacent townships.

A LIST OF THE INHABITANTS OF CRAVEN AND BORDERING DISTRICTS, FIVE CENTURIES AGO BEING THE POLL TAX RETURNS OF THE WAPENTAKES OF STAINCLIFFE AND EWECROSS, 2ND RICHARD II (AD 1379 )

This famous Tax, which was the cause of an ill-starred revolt, was framed and levied on the accession of King Richard II as a means of raising funds to re-furnish the Treasury coffers, which had been emptied on French battlefields, and to maintain Calais and other maritime towns of France, then in the possession of England. It was in the form of a graduated poll-tax ranging from 10 marks, at which the Duke of Lancaster was charged, down to 4d, on all lay persons above the age of 16 years, notorious mendicants excepted . The clergy were separately taxed. All married couples were charged at a single rate. These ancient Rolls are especially valuable, as they exhibit in great measure the state of society at the time ; who were the Knights and Esquires ; who the merchants, artificers &c., and what the relative size and importance of the villages comprised. From these simple lists we gather the number and names of the married and unmarried inhabitants, what their degree and avocation, although these are not always stated. The same rank or trade is, moreover, not always charged alike, which must have been regulated by the income or standing of the individual. Thus, an Esquire was usually rated at 20s., but sometimes at 6s . 8d ., and even 3s. 4d . Farmers of manors and granges were charged 2s . ; tradesmen and artificers commonly 6d ., but occasionally 1s . ; innkeepers, 2s. and 1s . ; while the great mass of the people, who were engaged in agriculture, paid a groat, or 4d .
Entries of the same trade are often described under different names, e .g., a smith is sometimes a mareschal, ferour, orfaber ; a tailor, cissor, tailliour, or taliar ; a butcher, bocher, flesher, carnifex, or fleshewer ; a grocer, spicer ; a joiner, sagher ; a shoemaker, sutor ; a mason, cimentor ; a builder or waller, douber or dauber ; a thatcher, theker ; a weaver, textor or webster ; a cloth-fuller, fullo or walker ; a dyer, tinctor or lystar ; a merchant, mercator ; a peddler pedder. Other occupations, such as hosteler, herbeiour, miller, diker, slater, nayler, glasier, &c., are obvious and self-explanatory.

Printed copies of The Craven and Northwest Yorkshire Highlands by Harry Speight, published by Elliot Stock, London in 1892, are generally available as there was a fairly recent reprint of the book.
You can also download a free, searchable PDF copy from Archive.org