SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY

Page 41.

SKELTON LAND TAX PAYERS - 1793.

The following two rolls of Land Tax payers for Skelton and Greater Moorsholm in the year 1793 has been contributed by Margaret Long of Maryland, USA.
She obtained them from the Mormon Library there.
Moorsholm was part of Skelton Church Parish until later in the next century.
The Emmersons and John Taylor who appear on the roll are her ancestors.
She is searching for more details about the Taylor family. What she already knows is given at the bottom this page.
If you share this Taylor ancestry or can help please contact the email address on the Introduction page of this website.

In 1793 George III was on the British throne and his Prime Minister was "Billy" Pitt.
All the landed gentry of Europe had been terrified by the Revolution of 1789 in France and the threat to spread it across the Continent.
A Coalition of European Powers, including Britain,was formed to combat France, where in this same year mass conscription of all men of fighting age had been introduced.
Britain had a small standing Army and her contribution to the Coalition was her Naval power and payments to other powers.
The Government badly needed an "Aid to his Majesty" and would do for the next 22 years as the struggle against the French Revolutionaries and then Napoleon continued.
Five years later the Land Tax was set at 4 shillings in the pound or 20% and Pitt, the Younger, would invent Income Tax.

The tax was set on an assessment made in 1692 when the Tax originated and this basis never changed even though other values did.
Generally the Owner paid, but this charge could be shifted to the Occupier who then paid less in Rent.
The Tax was based on Land and only some buildings.
Thus John Wharton paid less on Skelton Castle than some of his tenants in their farmhouse.
[This was the man, who was at that time was in the process of spending millions in today's money on having the Castle demolished and rebuilt and pursuing a corrupt political career as MP for Beverley by bribing the populace for votes. He ended up in the Fleet Debtor's Prison, London.]


LAND TAX ROLL FOR THE TOWNSHIP OF SKELTON 1793.


[FAMILY RESEARCH QUERY,
"The family is John Taylor and his wife Christian Clarke Taylor + children.
At the Old Skelton church is one gravestone for this family.. It's as follows:
Row 4. Number 65.
In memory of the three sons of John and Christine Taylor
Anthony died May the 31st 1769, aged 7 weeks, Tobias died June the 28th 1770, aged 5 weeks. George died December the 18th 1771, aged 8 weeks.
There are other children of this family plus the parents who died at Skelton.
The parents are; Christian Taylor died 1786 and her husband, John Taylor died 1788.Skelton.
So that leaves 4 children still living in 1793 when the land tax was done, but the Taylors are shown owning the property but they are not living at this property at Skelton.
The 4 children are:
Isabel Taylor age 30 and she died in Nov 1793 at Skelton.
John Taylor age 28 died May 1809 [master mariner] and remember at Sneaton gravestone.
James Taylor age 18 died at Gilling West 1850.
Thomas Taylor age 14 ( haven't found out what happened to him.)
In 1801 James Taylor is selling the property at Skelton along with his brothers, John and Thomas."
]

LAND TAX ROLL FOR GREATER MOORSHOLM 1793.


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