{"id":227,"date":"2018-02-21T22:29:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T22:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=227"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:36:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:36:34","slug":"window-tax-tax-upon-light-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/21\/window-tax-tax-upon-light-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Window tax \u2013 a tax upon light and air"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Window Tax was introduced in 1696 and repealed in 1851 and was used as a means of assessing which households were liable to pay church and poor rates.<\/p>\n

It was soon mocked as a tax upon light and air, with a satirical verse written in 1747 starting out by reminding readers that God said \u2018let there be light\u2019, and going on to suggest it was generous of \u2018the squire\u2019 not to tax all four elements!<\/p>\n

An explanation the same year as to why inmates of workhouses and prisons didn\u2019t have to pay window tax for those institutions should be satire, but was perfectly serious.<\/p>\n

The Carlisle Journal<\/strong>, in 1818, also called it a tax upon light and air that led to rooms being (boarded up) turned into noisesome dungeons, promoting the spread of typhus.<\/p>\n

Window tax, window duty \u2013 unpopular either way<\/h2>\n

Known also as the Window Duty, it was debated in the House of Commons in April 1850, when Lord Duncan moved a resolution that it should be repealed.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d first pushed for it five years earlier, when then-Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel\u00a0had promised he\u2019d take it into consideration. And in 1848, the reformist Prime Minister Lord John Russell <\/a>had basically said he\u2019d like to scrap it, but the country needed the money.<\/p>\n

Lord Duncan said the nation\u2019s finances were now healthier \u2013 unlike the public who had to pay the tax.<\/p>\n

He quoted reports that this \u2018tax upon light and air\u2019 neutralised sanitary reforms and was a \u2018fruitful source of disease and mortality\u2019.<\/p>\n

Scrapping it would also be good news for the window-glass trade.<\/p>\n

If it wasn\u2019t scrapped, he thought perhaps it could at least be modified so houses with fewer than 12 windows were exempt.<\/p>\n

And he suggested they could always get rid of the African squadron* and better administer the Woods and Forests, to offset the loss in public income.<\/p>\n

He was backed by General Sir George de Lacy Evans, Lord Dudley Stuart,\u00a0Sir George Pechell<\/a>,\u00a0Sir Benjamin Hall<\/a>,\u00a0Joseph Hume, and\u00a0Lord Robert Grosvenor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the chancellor of the Exchequer,\u00a0 Sir Charles Wood,\u00a0wasn\u2019t keen on giving up a tax producing \u00a31,800,000 without a substitute. He said there were 3,500,000 houses in the country of which 3,000,000 were exempt and the rest were surely mostly owned by the rich.<\/p>\n

Lord Duncan\u2019s motion narrowly failed: 77 voted \u2018aye,\u2019 but 80 voted \u2018no\u2019. However, a national campaign against the tax grew and it was finally repealed in 1851.<\/p>\n

The idea only rich people paid it was wrong.<\/p>\n

In towns and cities it was unusual for the working classes to live in individual homes.\u00a0 They would usually live in large tenement buildings which, however they had been subdivided, where considered to be one dwelling house under the terms of the tax, and therefore subject to heavy window tax assessments. \u00a0 <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Source<\/a>).\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Good for builders, bad for health<\/h2>\n

And of course one way to dodge paying was to brick or board up windows. The effect can still be seen today on large Georgian properties. There, it was mostly an inconvience for the inhabitants. But for the poor, living in cramped, damp conditions, blocking out ventilation helped spread terrible diseases, such as smallpox and cholera.<\/p>\n

\"window<\/p>\n

Westmorland Window Tax 1777<\/h2>\n

In Westmorland, the Window Tax was no doubt unpopular with those who had to pay it, but it does provide some information for anyone researching their family history today.<\/p>\n

You can get copies of the 1777 registers from Cumbria Family History Society<\/a>,\u00a0along with the 1770 details for Whitehaven<\/strong> and Hensingham<\/strong>, and the 1674 Westmorland Hearth Tax<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I say it provides \u2018some\u2019 information, as these records are very basic. Although I know from the parish registers and other sources that I had family in Temple Sowerby<\/strong> (and surrounds) from the 1640s (probably earlier) to the early 1800s, only one shows up on the 1777 North Westmorland register, and none for the 1674 Hearth Tax. Either they\u2019d boarded up their hearths and windows, didn\u2019t have any (unlikely), or just somehow got left off the lists.<\/p>\n

The returns don\u2019t give much detail anyway. The Hearth Tax records, for instance, just have entries like:<\/p>\n

Cliburn. Lambert, Tho. 1 hearth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*this Royal Navy squadron, formed to tackle the slave trade, was controversial. Though its aims were worthy, many people thought it an ineffective waste of lives and money. The Anti-Slavery Society, in 1849, disclaimed any participation in the squadron, which it said had utterly failed its purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Window Tax was introduced in 1696 and repealed in 1851 and was used as a means of assessing which households were liable to pay church and poor rates. It was soon mocked as a tax upon light and air, with a satirical verse written in 1747 starting out by reminding readers that God said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[52,51,50],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-history","tag-westmorland","tag-window-duty","tag-window-tax"],"yoast_head":"\nWindow tax \u2013 a tax upon light and air - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Window Tax imposed on UK householders for more than 150 years was an unpopular way of collecting revenue, and contributed to deaths from disease. 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