“Just within would be the raised dais, with its flanking window bay, and the long table, at the higher side of which the lord with his family and any distinguished guests took their meals, whilst on the floor below those of an inferior rank were seated at tables ranging along each side of the room. At the opposite, or western, end, the oaken screens, nine and a half feet high, extended across the full width, dividing off the heck or passage, from which opened out the kitchen, buttery, and other offices, and from over which the musicians in the minstrels’ gallery would on all occasions of more than ordinary importance enliven the feast with their melody. This hall was also used for the transaction of business between the lord and his vassals, for here he would hold his royalty court, receiving their suit and service, and administer justice according to the powers granted to him by the Crown. At night time the retainers would huddle together on the thickly strewn rushes in the middle of the floor, around the fire and its convolving wreaths of smoke ascending to the open lantern in the roof. For it must be remembered that chimneys were not introduced into England, except to a few castles, until the fifteenth century, about the time when the Redemans would be transferring Levens to Alan Bellingham.”
With chimneys came new taxes, and some of them were not only keenly resented, but evaded as openly as was possible. The people seem to have had a special dislike to the tax of two shillings a year which was passed in the twelfth year of Charles the Second, for that was a heavy sum, having regard to the value of money then. Among the manuscripts preserved at Rydal Hall, Westmorland, by the le Flemings, are a great many references to this tax. There were schemes for substituting other imposts, as appears by a sentence contained in a letter (May 10th, 1669) by Daniel Fleming, Rydal, to Joseph Williamson, who had just purchased the estate of Winderwath, near Temple Sowerby:—“There are rumours one while that the Scots are up in armes, another while that bishops and dean and chapter lands will be sold, or annext to the crowne in the place of the excise and hearth money, and bishops to be maintained by sallaries out of the exchequer.”
Another document is from the Lords Commissioners to the justices of the peace in the Barony of Kendal, concerning the collection of the hearth tax, and an item in a news-letter of April, 1671, says, “This day the Lord Treasurer received proposals for the farm of the hearth money; those who propose to keep it as it was, advancing only £100,000, are to make a new offer.” During the following summer another came “from the Court at Whitehall” to the justices of the peace for Westmorland, “Cautioning them against allowing exemptions from hearth money too readily. They should consider firstly who are they whom the law intends to be exempted. Then they should appoint petty sessions for the signing of certificates at such times and places that the royal officers may attend and be heard. It cannot be supposed that the law intends to oblige the justices to allow whatsoever shall be offered them without examining the truth thereof.” A news-letter of April 23rd, 1674, gives an idea of the extent of the tax in the following sentence:—“This day the farm of the hearth money was made and let to Mr. Anslem, Mr. Perry, and Mr. Buckley, at £151,000 per annum, and £25,000 advance, commencing at Michaelmas next.”
Some of the entries are of special interest to Cumberland and Westmorland. Thus in a letter to Daniel Fleming on January 8th, 1674-5, Robert Joplin, writing from Kendal, “apologises for writing as he had not been able to wait upon him. Has been seven weeks in the country, and surveyed and taken account of all the hearths in most of the market towns of this county, and in Cumberland. Had always behaved with all civility. If he will have the duplicates of the surveys made they will be handed in at the next sessions.” A week later Robert Joplin and Richard Bell, the collectors of the hearth tax, report to the justices of Kendal: “Have surveyed most of the market towns in the two counties, levying the tax of 2s. on every fire hearth. Would not proceed to distrain without the justices’ permission. Some refuse to pay because they were not charged before. All kitchens and beerhouses refuse on the same pretence. Many hearths have been made up, most of them lately. We trust that the justices will be very careful in giving certificates.”
A few days afterwards Nathaniel Johnson, another collector of the tax, writes from Newcastle to Daniel Fleming that he “does not think the determination of the justices to proceed in the matter of the hearth money under the old survey, until the new is perfected, is consistent with the law; nevertheless he will yield to their opinion.” Johnson proves to be a difficult official with whom to deal, and he writes to Fleming in July, “Remonstrating against the conduct of the Kendal magistrates in the matter of the hearth money. It has been already decided that smiths’ hearths are liable. The practice of walling up hearths in a temporary manner is plainly fraudulent. The magistrates ought not to countenance such things, nor refuse the evidence of officials engaged in this business, for of course none other can be made. May reluctantly be compelled to appeal against their proceedings.”
These and similar protests did not appear to have much effect, though frequently repeated, and ten years later came an order from the Lord High Treasurer to the Clerk of the Peace of the county of Lancaster, to be communicated to the justices, in view of the difficulties raised by them in the collection of the hearth money: “The duty is to be levied on empty houses, smiths’ forges, innkeepers’ and bakers’ ovens, on landlords for tenements let to persons exempt on account of poverty, on private persons where there is a hearth and oven in one chimney. The duty may be levied on the goods of landlords and tenants which are not on the premises whereon the duty arises.”
There is a rather amusing reference to the subject in a letter sent by William Fleming to his brother Roger Fleming, at Coniston Hall: “Tell the constable the same hearth man is coming again. Tell him to be as kind as his conscience will permit to his neighbours, and play the fool no more. The priest and he doth not know how happy they are.”
The means available, in bygone days, for quenching fire were, everywhere in the two counties, of a most primitive character. In March, 1657, the Corporation of Kendal decreed, as there had “happened of late within this borough great loss and damage by fire,” and the Corporation had not fit instruments and materials for speedy subduing of the flames, that the Mayor and Alderman should each provide two leathern buckets, and each burgess one such bucket, before May 1st following, the penalty being a fine of 6s. 8d. in the case of the leading men, and half that amount for default on the part of others.