12 September1999 alan.hewat@gmail.com

Roxburgh housholds 1690 (Hearth Tax records)

ROXBURGH PARISH HEARTH TAX

TRANSCRIPTION FROM SRO DOCUMENT E69/21/1 (An exact double of the lists of Roxburgh Parioch)

In 1690, the Scottish Parliament granted a tax on every hearth in the kingdom of 14 shillings for the year. Both landowners and tenants were liable to pay, therefore, may be named in the records; only the poor - receiving charity - and the hospitals were exempt. Fortunately, the Roxburghshire Hearth Tax records have survived. I have re-arranged the names alphabetically to aid in finding individuals. In Nether Roxburgh it contains an Andrew Hewat (the elder) who had a slightly superior house with two hearths (the church Manse had 4), and two younger Hewat's, Andrew and Rolland. A Helen Hewatt is listed among the poor . There is a Thomas Hewat in Over Roxburgh, but no mention of any James' in 1690.

This list may be compared with for example the list of marriages, births and christenings from the Parochial records around the 1690's, from which I have compiled a chart of early Hewats, where the name spelling has been systematised. We find that in 1690 there were 2 Andrew Hewats, one (the younger?) married to Issobell Lumsdine in 1668, with a son James in 1691; the other to Nans Richardson , parent of Helen Hewat (1678) and also probably still alive in 1690. An Andrew Hewat married a Margaret Richardson before 1703, but was probably too young to be included in the 1690 list.

A Thomas Hewat married Nans (Agnes) Bullman in 1671, and was probably still alive in 1690. Yet a Nans Bullman also married Rolland Hewat in 1685. Probably this was a younger Nans Bullman; often the same names re-appear because of the common practice of naming the first son after the paternal grandfather, the first daughter after the paternal grandmother, the second son and daughter after the parents etc.

These families are easier to follow if we arrange the Parochial records according to the years, with original spelling kept, or after systemising the spelling, according to the wife's name, or the husband's name.

Alan William Hewat (alan.hewat@gmail.com)