Stamp Duties Act 1783

Stamp Duties Act of 1783

Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act for granting to His Majesty a Stamp Duty on the Registry of Burials, Marriages, Births, and Christenings.
Citation	23 Geo. 3. c. 67
Dates
Royal assent	7 July 1783
Other legislation
Repealed by	Stamps Act 1794 34 Geo. 3 c. 11
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Stamp Duties Act 1783 (23 Geo. 3. c. 67) was passed by the House of Commons of Great Britain in order to raise money to pay for the American War of Independence. Under the provisions of this Act, all baptism, marriage and burial entries in each parish register were subject to a tax of 3d (old pence). Church ministers were empowered to collect the duty, and were allowed to keep 10% of this fee as compensation for their trouble. Refusal to pay carried a fine of five pounds.

This was a deeply unpopular tax, and many clergymen were sympathetic to the plight of their parishioners, and as paupers were exempt from this tax, it is not uncommon for family history researchers and genealogists to find that the number of supposed poor people within a parish has increased many times above normal during these years until the act was finally repealed in 1794. Such entries in a parish register are annotated with either the letter "P." or "Pauper". If a family could not claim exemption then it was not unusual for them simply not to bother, and this would result in a number of adult "late" baptisms during the following decades.

The Act was repealed by section 1 of the Act 34 Geo. 3 c. 11.

References

• "Old Parish Registers". General Register Office of Scotland. 28 June 2006. Archived from the original on 4 July 2006.