At a meeting of the Scottish Parliament on June 29, 1693 it was agreed to introduce a Poll Tax, firstly to meet the arrears of the country, and secondly to pay the troops their outstanding wages. Any residue was to be used as their Majesties thought fit.

The parliament, “do freely and chearfully offer the poll money following”:

Everyone was obliged to pay six shillings Scots (2½p) with the exception of those living on charity, children under 16 years of age and families whose assessment was less than £1.10.00 scots.

As well as the above the 6 shillings the following additional payments had to be made:

1. Cottars with a trade to pay 6 shillings.
2. Servants receiving more than £6 per annum to pay one twentieth of their wages, in which was reckoned ‘bountith’, such as shoes and clothing, although liveries untaxed.
3. Tenants to pay one merk for each hundred merks of the Masters valued rent. It was up to the Masters to adjust the amounts proportionately amongst their tenants.
4. Tradesmen, merchants, seamen and chapmen in any burgh were taxed according to their free stock: this excluded workmen’s tools and household plenishings.

5. The nobility were taxed according to their degree, and their children according to their courtesy rank. (A Duke’s heir paid the same as the Marquis; the Duke’s younger sons paid the same as an Earl, etc.)

All unmarried & forisfamiliate daughters (i.e. put in possession of all land that formed her father’s property) to pay one third of the eldest brother’s poll tax.

Widows, whose husbands would have paid £1.10.00 or more, were required to pay one third of the sum their spouses would have paid, except for heiresses who paid the same poll.

6. Notaries, Procurators before inferior courts and messengers-at-arms to pay £4.
7. Macers and under clerks of session to pay £6.
8. Advocates, clerks of Sovereign Courts, Writers to the Signet, sheriffs and their deputies, commissaries and their deputes, doctors of medicine, surgeons, apothecaries and ministers to pay £12.
9. Army officers to pay one-day’s pay.
10. Heritors paid according to their valued rent:

If a person fell into more than one of the above categories, then they were to be taxed at the greatest rate. However, some people preferred to declare their stock for taxation at the flat rate, some because their means exceeded the sum demanded, others because by declaring it they were liable for a lesser tax.

Lists and rolls were to be compiled by the appointed Commissioners no later than the third Tuesday in August 1694. The Commissioners had to put up a notice, on the parish kirk door, at least three days before people had to compear and give their names, qualities, degrees and the value of their estates. If they were unable to write, a clerk was to note the details, gratis.

An abstract of these rolls had to be returned to Parliament by October 1, 1694 and all the money returned by Martinmas (November 11, 1694). If the poll tax had not been paid by then individuals would be liable for a quadruple poll, all the money would be obtained by ‘poynding of their readiest Goods.’. If a shire or burgh was owed money by the state, they were permitted to retain the sum out of the poll tax monies collected and remit the balance to Parliament.

The collection of the tax did not go as smoothly as anticipated and Parliament debated on May 28, 1695, “ wither the Pole falls short by its insufficiency, or by the negligence of the Tacksman, and what may be the cause of the Deficiency”. The question was remitted to the Commissioners for the Security of the Kingdom for further consideration.

The Poll Act was read on June 27, 1695, and it was decided that tenants should pay one hundredth of the valued rent of their property and not one two hundredths of the real rent. The new poll tax was to be raised, “... in regard of the great and eminent Dangers that threaten this Kingdom from fforeign Enemies, and intestine dissatisfaction, and the designs of evil men and that our coasts are not sufficiently secured against Privateers”. A sum of £300,000 pounds scots was required to maintain suitable ships to protect the Kingdom. Many of the pay scales were the same as in 1694, but some were simplified or changed.

The changes were:

1. Servants paid one fortieth of their yearly fee.
2. Seamen were to pay 12 shillings.
3. Tenants to pay one hundredth part of their valued rent.
4. Merchants, shopkeepers etc. were to pay according to the value of their stock:

5. Gentleman £3, but if they renounced their position and this was duly recorded in the Herald Register (gratis), then there would be no charge. Few people availed themselves of this option.
6. Officers in the forces would be taxed two days pay.

The Poll Tax payment was due by the first Sunday in October 1695. If it was paid within 30 days after this date a double poll tax was charged, after that a quadruple charge was to be made.

The 1693 Poll Tax was farmed out by the Government to Lord Ross, Sir John Cochran of Ochiltree and others for the sum of £44,100 sterling of tack duty. During the next two years the exertions of the tacksmen met with little success, for, in July 1695, an Act was passed turning the tack of the poll into a collection,

“the levying of the money by Pole being new, and the Countrey and others concerned not observing the Rules & ordinances contained in the Act of Parliament thereanent, the tacksmen were unable to pay the stipulated tack duty, unless they were allowed to exact the penalties imposed by the Act, which would have tended to the disturbance and oppression of the whole Kingdom.”

On August 30, 1698 the Scottish Parliament once again decided to raise money to pay the arrears of the army and navy, by means of a third Poll Tax. Although some simplification of the bands was made, the amount to be paid by various ranks remained roughly the same.

[Sources: Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 1124-1707, 12 vols., 1814-1875; List of Pollable persons within the shire of Aberdeen. 1694, 2 vols. edited John Stuart, Aberdeen, 1844.]

Money

The three columns at the right are pounds, shillings and pence, £.s.d.

12d [pence] = 1s. [shilling]
20s. [shillings] = £1
1 shilling is equivalent to 5p.

It should be remembered that at the period of the collection of the poll tax the Scottish pound was worth a twelfth of its English equivalent. The merging of the currencies of the two kingdoms effectively took place after the Union of Parliaments in 1707.

SCOTS ENGLISH[Sterling]

12d = 1d [less than ½p]
1 merk = 1/1½d [about 5½p]
£1 = 1/8d [about 8p]

All the sums recorded in the Poll Tax transcripts are in Scots Money