Poll Tax

Poll Tax was a tax of the Middle Ages, which, as its name implies, was levied upon each member of a community. In England it amounted to three groats upon all over 15, and was a most unpopular tax. It was levied in 1377 and in 1380, and in 1381 the arbitrary conduct of those to whom the tax was farmed out caused much disturbance, notably that of which Wat Tyler was the moving spirit. King William III.'s hearth tax, the window tax of a later period, and the income tax of our own time are the nearest modern counterparts.