Taken from
Michael Upchurch 1624-1681,
page 60.
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Tithes and
Tithables of the 1600s
by Mae Davenport Cox
Americans have
always been the subject of taxes,
and that goes back to the earliest
days of settlement by the English on
this continent. The subject of taxes
will be further discussed in
upcoming pages, but here we’ll take
a look at how colonists were
assessed with Tithes.
One would think
perhaps this related to the
religious act of tithing a tenth of
one’s income to the church, but the
tithes in Virginia were of a
different nature:
Tithe
also had a more general meaning
— any levy, tax, or tribute of
one tenth... As early as the
1620s in Virginia, the term
tithable meant liable to pay
taxes or one subject to
payment of taxes… In
Virginia any person legally
subject to a poll tax was
tithable, that is taxable. 1
Poll taxes were
levies assessed per tithable
(taxable person) and were divided
into three different categories.
Those were Public levies, County and
Parish levy. Paul Drake,2
an accomplished author, gave a
wonderful description of these:
The
tithes you find in county
records were and are secular
in nature and served
whatever duties the counties
had that were not those of
the churches. We have the
idea that life, law and the
church were but minor and
incidental to life then;
Wrong.
Taxes
were complex and in some way
affected every person living
here who was considered to
be of English extraction,
just as that or any other
tax had been viewed in
England for millennia.
Whether viewed as
a "tithe", a "head tax" or a "poll
tax", by 1623, tithes were imposed
on every "planter" above eighteen
years of age… 3
The term
"planter" was nearly synonymous with
"landowner". Shortly thereafter,
that age require-ment was changed to
those males over sixteen.
The tithables
consisted of all male natives of
the country and imported free
persons above sixteen; and all
male white servants and all
female white servants who worked
in the ground, and all male and
female Negro and Indian servants
whether above or under sixteen. 4
So it is that
White females and children under
sixteen weren’t counted as tithable;
caveat: White females who owned land
or who had inherited their husband’s
real property were responsible to
report any tithables living on, or
working on that land.
In the
early-to-mid 1600s, the list of
tithables was taken on June 10th
each year. Each county appointed
"able and discreet persons" 5
to compile the list of those living
within that county. Once the
justices deemed those lists to be
accurate, the names were forwarded
to the office of the Secretary at
Jamestown, who then submitted those
to the legislature. By this method
Burgesses were kept informed of each
county’s taxables.
Throughout the
seventeenth century, the law was
amended, yet the definition of
tithables remained quite the same.
There were some exceptions for those
who otherwise would have been taxed.
Those exceptions, each requiring
approval by the court (occasionally
by some higher officer or panel),
were those truly destitute and
without real property, those who
were physically or mentally disabled
and depended on the parish or church
for sustenance, and those who were
incarcerated or otherwise legally
exempt.
By June 10th of
each year, to gain approval of all
matters affecting tithes (except
parish levies), the master of the
household was required to report the
names of the tithables for whom he
was responsible. Undoubtedly, the
colonists looked forward to June
10th about the way today we enjoy
April 15th.
Fraud must have
been an issue during this era as in
1663 penalties were outlined:
An act to
discover concealed tithables was
passed in the House of Burgesses
session of September 1663 …
Masters concealing tithables
forfeited a servant to the
informer. If the concealed
person was a freeman or a
servant with less than a year to
serve, one thousand pounds of
tobacco was forfeited for each
person concealed. Women servants
were exempted from this act. 6
Another source
suggested that masters concealing
tithables were fined ‘thrice" (three
times) what the individual tithe
amount was that year. Either way, it
was a large enough penalty that most
likely not many of the lists
contained errors. Still, one way to
avoid at least some small sum of
taxation was to lie about the ages
of children or servants. For that
and other reasons courts were
occasionally called upon to decide
the "age", especially concerning
Black and Indian youth and children
of servants.
During the 1600s,
the amount of taxes paid varied with
the needs of the county or state.
Burgesses determined what amounts
would be needed in the months ahead,
and the number of tithables was
divided into that amount for each of
them to pay.
Tithes were
assessed and collected in pounds of
tobacco instead of cash. Tobacco was
basically the monetary system in the
colonies; cash was a rarity.
Except for the
exceptions mentioned, everyone paid
the same amount. There was no
leniency for any class of persons.
Rich or poor, for each tithe you
paid the same number of pounds of
tobacco to the colony. Farmers
struggling to make a living and
wealthy landowners with numerous
slaves paid the same amount per
tithable.
But these taxes
were not considered unjust, for a
man’s wealth was most often measured
by this count of family members,
dependents, and slaves.
Just as now, during this era, the
lists of tithes provided means to
establish the county population and
its various parishes. The population
was estimated at four times the
number of tithables.
1 Church
and State in Colonial Virginia,
Freeing Religion Resource Book,
1998, Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.
2 Paul Drake has
a degree in history and has been a
non-practicing lawyer (JD) since law
school. A historian, his research
has been, for the most part, in the
Southern States and Ohio. Now
retired, he is an avid genealogist
and teacher and continues his
passion for history. Paul has also
written many "How To" books for
genealogists and historians. His
books are listed at
www.drakesbooks.com
3 Institutional
History of Virginia in the 17th
Century by
Philip Alexander Bruce; page 548.
4 William and
Mary College Quarterly, Historical
Magazine, Volume VIII., page
160.
5
Institutional History of Virginia in
the 17th Century by Philip
Alexander Bruce; page 550
6
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/rn17_tithables.htm
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