Ertach Kernow - Taxation in Cornwall and Its early administration
With the election thankfully over we now await the repercussions of a huge Labour majority and how this will affect our lives and wallets here in Cornwall. Here we look at early administration, taxes and how these were levied in earlier times.
Following the Conquest in 1066 the new Norman rulers of Cornwall and England benefited greatly from the efficient administration system of the Saxons. Based on shires and then the hundreds within those shires, administration especially the collection of taxes was the envy of other European nations. Most of the English counties were named as shires such as Cornwall’s closest English county Devonshire, although now abbreviated to Devon since 1st April 1974 when the Local Government Act 1972 implemented. Until the abolition of the hundreds with the Local Government Act 1894 many of the historic hundreds of Cornwall were named as shires.
The Anglo-Saxon kings of England had battled to contain and defeat the Vikings since the last decades of the 8th century. This had led in due course to one of the most important early forms of taxation during the Anglo-Saxon period of rule. The Vikings of Scandinavia were great travellers of the ocean, and the east coast of England was of particular interest especially with silver rich monasteries an easy target. The larger area of land occupied by the Britons covering Cornwall, Devonshire and part of Somersetshire known as Dumnonia had gradually been eroded by the westward expansion of Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The Britons of Dumnonia, or as we now often refer to them as Celts, allied themselves with the Vikings against Wessex and in 838 fought the Battle of Hingston Down but were defeated. Elsewhere in England there was continuous fighting and creation of the Danelaw following the invasion of the Great Heathen Army into England in 865. This in time led to tribute being paid to the Vikings or Danes leading to the establishment of what would be called Danegeld, a tax on land. The tax was based on a hide, an area of land sufficient to support a family thought to be about 7 acres.
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During medieval times central government and power was invested in the king with much administration, justice and taxation based on smaller units. Beneath the shire and hundred lay the manors and the rise of these within the Saxon administrative system was part of the wider feudalism which prevailed during the medieval period as a way of governing and defending the country. Although institutionalised by the Normans following the conquest in 1066 the manor was part of the Anglo-Saxon way of life right up to the reign of King Harold II, formerly Earl Harold Godwinson of Wessex, who had himself held extensive land holdings here in Cornwall.
The Danegeld as it was named by the Normans was a wonderful administrative gift to William the Conqueror and far outlived its original reason for being levied. This tax levied on land would only apply to free men who owned land and there were many who avoided the tax, including the church. For this reason it was unpopular especially as the number of people and groups managed to exempt themselves increased. Other taxes were created and after 1162 the geld was no longer collected. Cornwall was for the ordinary folk a poor place, although as now having many wealthy people who personally avoided the taxes. In the mid-twelfth century the geld raised in Cornwall was just £23 compared to say the English counties of Devonshire £104, Somerset £278, Dorset, 248, and Wiltshire £389.
In distributing land and manors William I was shrewd. He ensured that no baron or knight became too powerful with large singular estates by spreading their manorial or land holdings across the country. Many knights who held land in Cornwall would also have held land in Devonshire and throughout England. However with regard to the earldom of Cornwall, which held a large number of Cornish manors, these were in the hands of Williams half-brother Count Robert of Mortain, on behalf of the king. In turn Robert of Mortain allowed a good number of Cornish manors to be tenanted to others who would subsequently hold fealty to him. During the years following the Norman Conquest a number of manors in Cornwall disappeared, likely as a result of insurrection against the Norman overlords by the Saxon landowners. In fact there were some twenty castles built in Cornwall to contain the Cornish, twice the number of Devonshire a far larger area of land, with rebellions still taking place as late as 1140.
The Domesday Book from which we get so much information relating to early manors and land holdings in Cornwall was begun by William I as a means of increasing taxes. What we call the Domesday Book was actually more than one survey manuscript. Cornwall was included in what is known as Liber Exoniensis or Exon Domesday and is the oldest of the three total manuscripts. This document is the only one that contains all the information in its original form and as such is of incredible importance to Cornish medieval history and a record of Cornwall’s resources at that time. The records mentions around 340 manors in Cornwall many of which were very small and due to the difficult land and travel conditions no doubt omitted a good number of farmsteads and hamlets with their plough’s livestock and people. No doubt the Cornish were very good at hiding anything that might be construed as taxable, as they would many centuries later as smugglers and in carrying out other nefarious activities. It has been suggested that Domesday grossly understated the population of Cornwall and work by Professor J.J.N. Palmer and his team arrived at a total figure of 3973 households. This was made up of 1,616 villagers, 2,289 smallholders and 68 burgesses in addition were slaves totalling 1,109 households. From this it can be estimated that the population of Cornwall adding in some of the omissions was around 30,000.
The manors or settlements were broken down into each of the hundreds of Cornwall, earlier names than better known ones used in later centuries. Rialton, Connerton, Winnianton, Tybesta, Fawton, Stratton, Pawton and Rillaton. There seems to be an anomaly regarding Pawton as only one settlement is included within that hundred, which actually lay within the hundred of Rialton, with Rillaton hundred excluded from the title page. Cornwall’s land area is 1,375 square miles totalling 880,000 acres and even today much of it remains unregistered. We can perhaps forgive those Commissioners sent out to compile the Domesday geld record any inaccuracies. However the total land noted by them amounted to just 5,753 acres broken down into 2,429 ploughland, 3,195 woodland and 129 as meadows. Cornwall’s distance from main population areas, its inaccessibility and wild terrain must have been too much for them and perhaps not of any value worth recording regarding land taxation. Domesticated animals were also counted as part of the survey as this would have added value to the land and estate. Surely even in 1086 they must have realised that the numbers did not add up with just 16 horses, 442 pigs, 1,042 cattle and cows and 12,411 sheep in the whole of Cornwall. One can almost imagine those medieval Cornish folk driving animals out onto the moors where out of sight and out of mind they waited until the Commissioners had left.
To be fair to the Commissioners the questions they asked of local men in court were thorough and included about the land on the last day of King Edward’s reign in 1066, when it was granted by King William and at the time of the survey. Besides the number of households, area of land and animals there were questions on equipment (ploughs) as well as mills and fisheries and changes in value between 1066 and 1086.
King William himself did not benefit from the survey dying in 1087 at Rouen and was buried at Caen. His successor know to history as William Rufus did not continue the completion of Domesday and his reign lasted just 13 years before he died in suspicious circumstances in 1100. Henry I another son of William I succeeded to the throne and was an effective ruler taking advantage of the opportunities of the earlier Saxon taxation system and no doubt the Domesday records, as well as creating new institutions. It was during the reign of Henry II that the historic Geld Tax was finally ended. King John’s reign saw an important step forward for Cornwall when ‘The Convocation of the Tinners of Cornwall’ better known as the Cornish Stannary Parliament was chartered in 1201. This exempted tinners from common taxes as well as other powers protecting the rights of tinners covering a large portion of Cornwall’s population. Many in Cornwall would have recently commemorated the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. This uprising was in response to taxation levied to support Henry VII and his war in Scotland, which Cornish folk believed did not benefit them whatsoever. Henry had also suspended the legal operation of Cornish tin mining and the authority and privileges of the Cornish Stannary Parliament.
Home of the Cornish Stannary Parliament at the Duchy Palace in Lostwithiel
We have now entered a new political phase with the incoming Labour government trying to balance the books and raise more taxes just as William I was planning in 1086. The challenges are very different, but with today’s taxation administration being far more advanced, far easier to implement. Here in Cornwall with our own issues we will no doubt see all sorts of tax avoidance schemes used by those second house owners trying to avoid the additional rates payable from next April.
Our ongoing Cornish Place Names project promoting knowledge about the Cornish language names of Kernow's towns, villages and places. Downloadable poster and audio pronunciation is available via this link to 'Essa / Saltash'. Click image to access.
![CPN - Week [005] Saltash](https://www.cornwallheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CPN-Week-005-Saltash-300x289.jpg "CPN - Week [005] Saltash")
