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 POLITICAL HISTORY farm was then let to Alexander Noel and John Gary for two and a half years at jr500 per annum ; '™ but a memorial of September 1665 from the Excise Commissioners shows that Rutland was, before the expiry of this period, united with Leicestershire for the purposes of the tax, William Lathom being appointed for the latter county in lieu of Alexander Noel, and that Gary and Lathom prayed, on similar grounds, to be relieved of their office. They were superseded by John Aldern of St. Giles in the Fields and John Ramsay of St. Clement Danes, who appear to have been more successful in carrying on the business, but in March 1667 received an abatement on account of losses incurred through the plague.^^' Another tax of this period, which seems to have been as unpopular in Rutland as elsewhere, was that of Hearth or Chimney Money — a tax of zs. yearly upon every fire hearth, imposed in 1662 and continued until the beginning of the i8th century.'*" In 1665 a warrant was issued for the arrest of the sheriffs of Rutland and some fifteen other counties for unpaid arrears, which was followed by many subsequent ones.'" A letter of 21 May 1663 from Southampton and Ashley to 'the successor of Sir Hugh Ducy, late sheriff of county Rutland,' '^^ informed him that he was to act as the receiver of the amount of the eighteen months' assessment on the county 'which was unpaid to the said Ducy;''*" Rutland's share of this monthly assessment of jr7o,ooo was £2J2 4^. 6d. Titus Gates, the originator of the story of the Popish Plot, was born in 1649 at Oakham, where his father, Samuel Gates — who had previously been rather notorious in East Anglia as an Anabaptist ' Dipper ' — is supposed to have been a teacher at the time.'** The only Rutland Roman Catholic who appears to have suffered through his perjuries was Jeffrey Hudson, who was arrested on suspicion on account of his religion and imprisoned for some time in the Gatehouse at Westminster.'*^ At the Restoration the old families reappeared in the political affairs of Rutland, and the Sherards, Noels, and Mackworths shared the representation until the end of the century, with one short exception. In the autumn of 1679 an election took place in the heat of the Exclusion Bill controversy. ' It appears that the ardent zeal against popery in the smaller freeholders must have overpowered the natural influence of the superior classes,''*" and Rutland chose as one of its members Sir Abel Barker, the old Parliamentarian. But this Parliament met only to be prorogued for a year ; before it met again Barker was dead, and his place was taken by Sir Thomas Mackworth 187 "' Cal. Treas. Bks. 517. ''* Ibid. 640. Cf. ibid. 341, and ibid. 1667-8, pp. 190, 259. '*° Stevens, Hist. Acct. Taxes, pp. 310, 350. Stevens says th.it 'though it never amounted to above £300,000 per annum, yet afterwards it became one ground of endless clamour, as if it had been the most grievous burthen ever imposed upon subjects.' '" Cal. Treas. Bks. 1660-7, p. 604. Cf. ibid. 1660-7, pp. 27, 57, 74, 169, 502. "* This successor appe.irs from the list of sheriffs given by Wright {Hist. Rut. 13) to have been William Palmes ; but in the P.R.O. List of Sheriffs Richard Winckfield (Wingficld), who died before his account was presented, and Beaumont Bodenham are given as sheriffs in 1662 and 1663 respectively, and Ducy does not appear at all. '*■ Cal. Treas. Bks. 1660-7, p. 524. '" Rut. Mag. iii, 21. Cf. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 397 ; letters from Robert Horseman to the high sheriff (Abel Barker) with respect to the delivery into his hands of Samuel Oates as 'a dangerous schismatick preacher.' '" Wright, //«/. Rut. 105. "' Hallam, Const. Hist, (i-vol. ed. Ward, Lock & Co.), 593. '" Ret. of Memb. of Pari. Barker died in 1679 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. 379. 203