In 1690, in an attempt to pay back monies advanced to them by the Shires and Burghs, and to reduce the arrears of the army, the Parliament of Scotland granted a tax of 14 shillings on each hearth in Scotland. ¹ This was a one-off tax, payable at Candlemas (2 February) 1691. Hospitals and paupers on parish poor rolls were exempted. Parliament appointed as principal collector James Melville of Cassingray. Sub-collectors were responsible to Melville for drawing up lists of the hearths within their areas. The identification of hearths and collection of the tax progressed slowly; most had been collected by 1694, though in some of the remoter parts of Scotland no lists were ever produced. Melville’s heirs were only finally relieved of their commitment by an act of Parliament in 1705. ²

The sub-collectors were required to list not only the hearths on which the tax was levied, but also those the poor - who were exempt, and also those that remained deficient (or unpaid). Bringing together the information however took time. The list of hearths for the bailliary of Carrick was presented to the Exchequer on 22 March 1693; that for the bailliary of Cunninghame followed on 14 June 1694, and that for Kyle on 1 August 1694. The rolls survive among the records of the Exchequer in the Scottish Record Office.³

In general terms, the historical value of the rolls is that they provide the fullest list of people before the censuses of the nineteenth century. Most of the other contemporary records which record people and places deal largely with landowners: the Hearth Tax was payable by all, including tenants and cottars. As will be seen below, however, not all of these are recorded. Poll Tax rolls, for about the same period, exist for several counties in Scotland, including Ayrshire’s neighbour, Renfrewshire, but there are no comparable Poll Tax rolls for Ayrshire. ⁴

Althought the rolls should be regarded as having been compiled in 1691 or soon after, many have been amended, usually by the insertion of notes in the margin, or else above or after the entry concerned, often in what looks like a different hand to the one which compiled the original list. There often, but not always, relate to entries where part or all of the tax has been unpaid. In some cases the amendment contradicts the information in the payment columns (e.g. the third payment column might record three hearths surveyed and three hearths paid for, but a marginated note might record "rests 2"). Other corrections are much clearer, e.g. "now in Gaiston" or "poor". The rolls should be regarded, therefore, as working documents, containing information compiled between 1691 and 1694. For most readers this will not be especially important, but where any amendments infer the erection or dereliction of a building, succession to property, or the migration or death of an individual, the reader should refer to the original roll in the Scottish Record Office.

In Ayrshire the form of the rolls varies between bailliaries and between parishes, which affects their usefulness to the modern reader.

CARRICK. The sub-collector, John Hamilton, claims in his deposition to have personally surveyed most of his bailliary by occular inspection (below, p.1), and the way his rolls are compiled suggests that this may have been true to some extent, since Hamilton’s lists .appear to have been compiled settlement by settlement, rather than estate by estate, as in the other two bailliaries. In all cases except one the list is a single one for the entire parish, usually giving both tenants’ names and the names of their fermtouns. Hamilton would certainly have come across many of those named in the rolls in the course of his work as Bailliary Clerk of Carrick.⁵ All parishes in Carrick have been included, and one parish - Maybole - has been broken down into separate estates, though again most fermtoun names are recorded; the first section in the Maybole list probably represents the town itself, although few trades are recorded. There is no record of either the poor or the deficients.

1. Acts of the Parliament of Scotland. vol ix.. 1689-1695. Edinburgh. 1822. p.236.

2. Acts of the Parliament of Scotland. vol xi.. 1702- 1707. Edinburgh. 1824. p.284.

3. Miscellaneous tax rolls, [E69/2/1-3]. Scottish Record Office (SRO).

4. For a discussion of the historical value of surviving Scottish tax records see Cecil Sinclair. Tracing Scottish Local History: a guide to local history research in the Scottish Record Office. Edinburgh. 1994.

5. Plea Rolls for the Bailliary Court of Carrick survive for the period 1663-1717 (with gaps) partly in the SRO (RH 11/14/2/1-13) and partly in the Ayrshire Archives (ATD 42/7). Transcription of these was begun at the same time as the Hearth Tax rolls, and it is hoped to publish a complete transcript of the surviving records of the Carrick Bailliary Court later in this series.