USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 1 Connecticut and the British Government > Part 21
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3 Ibid., III, 4-5, 4II. 4 Ibid., IV, 412.
5 Ibid., IV, 287, 440.
6 Ibid., V, 334-335.
7 Ibid., V, 472-473.
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year following it was to be assessed at eight shillings per acre as pasture land and the year it was ploughed for the ensuing year's harvest it was to be rate free as were also all lands for a period of four years subsequent to clearing and enclosing.8
According to the law as it stood in the year 1750, all males between the ages of sixteen and seventy years of age with property valued at eighteen pounds or over were liable to payment of rates with certain exceptions, which included officers of state, ministers, college tutors, school- masters, and students. In the valuation of land, house lots of three acres were rated at twenty shillings, upland pas- ture land stood at eight shillings an acre, meadow land in Hartford County at fifteen shillings per acre as before, and in other counties at seven shillings and sixpence per acre, and boggy meadow at five shillings. The act further placed a valuation of four pounds on an ox and three pounds on a cow, a horse, or a mare, with swine at one pound. This taxable property was to be listed and re- turned by the listers to the general assembly in the month of October under penalty of ten pounds for the negligent lister, and as was previously noted, a fourfold assessment for those who failed to make proper returns.9
Upon the basis of the law as it stood in 1750 the fifty- three Connecticut towns reported a combined assessed valuation of £1,201, 122 5s 6d with New Haven leading with a list totaling £54,448 15s 112d and Bolton at the bottom with £7,664. The population of Connecticut in I750 was probably somewhat over one hundred thou-
8 Ibid., V, 502-503.
9 Acts and Laws of the Colony of Connecticut (1750), pp. 135-136. Nothing here is said about the excise on liquors which went to the support of schools or the tonnage and import duties which amounted to very little. Brief re- ports on these are found in "The Account Book of Joseph Talcott" (MS.) Connecticut State Library.
3
sand.1° These figures would, therefore, indicate that the per capita valuation of taxables in Connecticut in 1750 was about twelve pounds.
Given this assessed valuation of taxables, it is now necessary to examine the rate to determine the burden resting upon the individual.
In the year 1749 a committee of the general assembly appointed to answer certain queries sent to Connecticut by the Board of Trade, in reply to the question as to the income of the colony, stated that the annual revenue by rates and duties in time of peace amounted to about nine thousand pounds in bills of credit of which some two thousand pounds or thereabout was expended for the support of the schools." This would mean that the per capita tax amounted to about two shillings and sixpence in the new tenor money, the value of which will be pres- ently explained.12 In May of that year the assembly pro- vided for three taxes each of threepence on the pound on all polls and rateable estate: the first, based upon the forthcoming October list, was to be collected on or before May 1, 1751; the second on the list for 1750 to be collected in 1752; and the third on the list for 1751 to be collected
10 In 1756 there was a total population excluding Indians of 129,994. See Conn. Col. Rec., XIV, 492, Appendix. F. B. Dexter, in his "Estimate of Popu- lation in the American Colonies," gives the number in 1750 at about 120,000 based upon a census of the year 1761 at which time the population was 145,590. (See the American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, New Series, V, 33, for Dexter's table.) In 1749 in answer to the Board of Trade's queries, a committee of the general assembly gave a rough estimate of the population. It stated that "The number of our inhabitants of both sexes and all ages are computed to be about 70,000 whites and 1,000 blacks and they are greatly increased within the ten years Last past which we attribute (under the divine blessing) to a wholesome air, industrious Life & frugality in Living." Law Papers, III, 302 (Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., XV).
II Law Papers, III, 303.
12 In 1756 the revenue of the colony was put at £4,000 sterling. "Connecti- cut Answers to the Heads of Enquiry." Fitch Papers, I, 211 (Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., XVII).
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in 1753.13 However, due to the receipt of funds from Eng- land for reimbursement of the expenses of the Connecti- cut troops engaged in the reduction of Fort Louisbourg in the late war,14 it was found possible to make an abate- ment of twopence on the tax of threepence levied in the years 1751 and 175215 and not only meet the expenses of the government but also to call in the bills of credit still outstanding against the colony. It, therefore, meant that the tax stood in those two years at the rate of a penny on the pound, new tenor money, with the privilege of paying the rate in old tenor bills upon the basis of three and one half of these as the equivalent of one of the former, or in Spanish milled dollars valued at thirteen shillings and ninepence in the new tenor. Thus, the two levies in terms of sterling value stood at one third the face value and were, therefore, each equivalent to one and one third farthings sterling on the pound new tenor and in terms of lawful money were less than one half face value and amounted to less than two farthings on the pound. These were the last taxes in Connecticut based upon the tenor bills. The latter, originally issued to pass on a lawful money basis, had greatly depreciated in value,16 largely,
13 Conn. Col. Rec., IX, 448.
14 Wolcott Papers, pp. 40-41 (Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., XVI).
15 Conn. Col. Rec., X, 65, 128-129.
16 The old tenor bills were first issued by Connecticut in 1709 during the course of the War of the Spanish Succession. From that date to 1751 these had gradually declined in value until in the latter year they stood at one eighth of their original face value, one half of the depreciation having come, it was asserted, during the period subsequent to the Cape Breton expedition in the late war. The new tenor bills issued from October, 1744, to June, 1746, to the amount of £110,000 to defray military expenses also depreciated but not to the same extent. See Jonathan Law to the Duke of Bedford, May 1750. Law Papers III, 435-437 (Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., XV), also "The Hartford County Merchants' Memorial" of May, 1751, in the Wolcott Papers 1750-1754, pp. 62-64 (Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., XVI). The outstanding bills of credit in terms of the old tenor stood at £340,218 18s 7d in 1750, ac- cording to a report of a committee for the general assembly. Ibid., pp. 101- 102. For a discussion of Connecticut currency see Henry Bronson in the New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers, I.
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it was claimed, due to the fact that the bills of credit of other colonies, especially those of Rhode Island, were ac- cepted on a par with Connecticut bills although not of equal value.17
The mercantile interests of Connecticut, it should be pointed out, were filled with consternation to see the credit of the colony decline and with it the medium of exchange. As early as 1749 a bill passed the general as- sembly which provided for the calling in of all outstand- ing bills of credit both old and new tenor. The act in ques- tion pledged to apply to this end not only the money to be appropriated by parliament as reimbursement of the expenses of the Cape Breton expedition but also the pro- ceeds of the taxes of 1751, 1752, and 1753, referred to previously, after the expenses of government had been met.18 This was followed by the act of parliament of the year 175119 for restraining the issue of paper money by the New England colonies. This law had been passed in spite of the efforts of the Connecticut authorities to se- cure an exception in favor of their government as one which had not abused its powers in this respect.20 Fur- ther steps in the direction of financial rehabilitation were taken when in 1752 and 1755 the colony itself passed acts against the circulation within its borders of the cur- rency of Rhode Island and New Hampshire.21 In the lat- ter year, moreover, it was voted that after November I, 1756, all accounts of the government were to be kept in lawful money.22
The problem of calling in the paper tenor issues
17 See "Reasons for Supporting the Hartford County Merchants Memo- rial," Wolcott Papers, pp. 64-66.
18 Conn. Col. Rec., IX, 447-449.
19 24 Geo. II, c. 33.
20 "Reasons in Behalf of the Colony of Connecticut," Wolcott Papers, 1750-1754, p. 302 (Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., XVI).
21 Conn. Col. Rec., X, 105, 406-407. 22 Ibid., X, 424.
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amounting to £340,218 18s 7d in terms of the old tenor bills and of stabilizing the currency, to which end the colony was now pledged,23 did not present great difficul- ties, it would appear. In the spring of 1753 a tax of three farthings "in lawful silver money" on the pound of rate- ables as listed in 1752 was ordered collected in August giving the taxpayer liberty to offer the new tenor at the rate of fourteen shillings and sevenpence and the old tenor at the rate of fifty-one shillings as the equivalent of six shillings lawful money or of a Spanish milled dol- lar24 and in October a halfpenny tax also in lawful silver money was provided for under the same conditions.25 From this time forward throughout the remainder of the colonial period the rates were based upon lawful money values and by 1764 the tenor issues had all but disap- peared from circulation,26 although both old and new tenor bills continued to be handed in from time to time in small amounts in the payment of taxes well into the period of the Revolutionary War.27
The last of the taxes laid before Connecticut became involved in the Seven Years' War, was that for 1754 of three farthings lawful money. During the years, there- fore, from 1749 to 1755 it is evident that the public bur- dens were far from onerous, especially in light of the exemptions of certain groups from all rates and the lib- eral concessions to the predominant agricultural inter- ests. The latter, as was previously made clear, paid no rates upon wild, unfenced land nor on land that was be- ing prepared for the following year's harvest, and were given an extraordinarily low assessment on cultivated
23 Wolcott Papers, pp. 101-102; Conn. Col. Rec., X, 65 note.
24 Ibid., X, 157.
25 Ibid., X, 197.
26 Ibid., XII, 339.
27 For numerous instances of this see John Lawrence's Account Book under "Taxes Received," MS. in Connecticut State Library.
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lands; at least if the prices at this period had any rela- tion to those of the year 1762 when wild land brought three pounds lawful money an acre. Indeed, previous to the opening up of lands on the upper Connecticut in 1761, wild lands had sold for four pounds, and cultivated farm lands had run as high as ten pounds an acre lawful money,28 although the latter were assessed at but ten shil- lings per acre if yielding crops and but seven shillings and sixpence if lying in meadow, and were unrated if undergoing ploughing. Further, it was customary to allow the payment of taxes in produce at specified rates.29 In other words, there was without question a vast difference between the payment of three farthings on the pound lawful money on productive land in Connecticut at this period and the payment of four shillings sterling on the pound levied upon the land in England, accepting the fact that the methods employed in arriving at a taxable valuation were in some respects quite different.30
With the outbreak of hostilities along the American frontier in 1754 and the entrance of the colonies into the last of these French and Indian wars, Connecticut was plunged into a period of ten years of war finance. In 1755 taxes totalling fourpence on the pound were levied on the towns, in 1756 it was fivepence, in 1757 it increased to ninepence, in 1758 it was a shilling and a halfpenny; in 1759 it rose to the highest point, thirteenpence; in 1760 it dropped to tenpence and was also tenpence in 1761, but in 1762 it was fivepence and three farthings, in 1763 six- pence, in 1764 eightpence, and in the year of the Stamp Act crisis it dropped to a penny-the normal tax in Con- necticut at this period in time of peace.31
28 Ezra Stiles, Itineraries, pp. 50-51.
29 For example, see Conn. Col. Rec., XI, 9.
3º S. Dowell, A History of Taxation and Taxes in England, I, 197; II, 53.
31 Conn. Archives, "Finance and Currency," 1764-1774, V, 5.
8
Surprisingly enough, it appears that from 1765 to 1770 no colony taxes were raised, but in the latter year a tax of twopence on the pound was collected, based upon the list of the previous year. This was repeated in 1771 and from that time to the outbreak of the American Revolu- tion, taxes averaging a penny on the pound were levied.32
It will be well now to analyze more specifically the taxation burdens placed upon the towns. In 1756, the second year of Connecticut's participation in the French and Indian War, she submitted her people to taxation amounting to fivepence on the pound of polls and rate- ables upon the list of 1755. This, according to the records of the colony treasurer, produced £29,567 17s 914d in lawful money.33 The population of the commonwealth, upon the basis of returns made that year to the Board of Trade, was 128,242,34 which meant that there was levied
32 The following table will make clear the nature of the town levies from 1770 to 1775:
Date of levy
Rate
I770
2d
List of 1770
Purpose To retire £10,000 in bills of credit
Date of Collection
May 10, 1772.
1770
2d
1769
I77I
Id
1771
To retire £12,000 in bills one half one half To retire
Dec. 31, 1772.
Sept. 30, 1773.
I773
Id
I772
£12,000 in bills
June 1, 1775.
To retire
Jan. 2, 1777.
£15,000 in bills one half one half
Dec. 31, 1775.
1774
Id
I775
Dec. 31, 1770. Oct. 10, 1773.
I77I
Id
I772
June 1, 1774.
I773
Id
I773
1774
Id
I774
Dec. 31, 1776.
See Conn. Archives, "Finance and Currency," V, 33, 54, 70, 82.
33 "Account Book of Treasurer Talcott, 1755-1770," MS. in Connecticut State Library.
34 Conn. Col. Rec., X, 623.
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a per capita tax of four shillings and sevenpence.35 In 1759 when a tax of thirteenpence on the pound was levied -the highest level that taxation reached in Connecticut in the eighteenth century-the per capita tax was eleven shillings and fourpence; in 1761 on a levy of tenpence, it was eight shillings and fivepence; and in 1765 on a levy of one penny, it was ninepence and two farthings. Stated in terms of sterling values the per capita levy in 1756 was three shillings, fivepence, and one farthing; in 1759 it was eight shillings and sixpence, and in 1765 it was seven- pence and one farthing.
While these war-time levies were greatly in excess of the rates paid in times of peace, yet in comparison to those carried by the people of the mother country during the same period, they would not be considered heavy in light of a per capita tax in England that in peace time averaged a pound sterling from the middle of the cen- tury onward.36 Nevertheless, in the year 1765 the towns were still owing, according to Jared Ingersoll, eighty thousand pounds in arrears of taxes37 and in 1769, by the auditor's report, they were still owing £45,369 7s rod, mostly on the rates due from the year 1758 to and in- cluding 1765.38 Whether this situation was due to the growing incapacity of the taxpayer to meet his burdens,39
35 The per capita tax of Hartford with a population of 2,926 and a total levy of £817 5s 34d was five shillings and sevenpence and that of New Haven with a population of 5,085 and a total levy of {1196 17s Id was four shillings, eightpence, and two farthings; the former was assessed with a total of £38,338 18s taxables which gave it a per capita assessed valuation of thirteen pounds, two shillings, and elevenpence, and the latter assessed at £45,924 9s 134d had a per capita assessed valuation of nine pounds and ninepence. These figures have been derived from the "Account Book of Treasurer Talcott, 1755-1770."
36 S. Dowell, A History of Taxation and Taxes in England, III, 130, 163.
37 See Ingersoll Stamp Act Correspondence, p. 44.
38 Conn. Archives "Finance and Currency," V, 26.
39 According to Ingersoll, these arrears could not be collected due to the poverty of those on whom they were laid.
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or to a simple reluctance shared by all mankind to pay taxes, or to the fact that the colony was so abundantly provided with financial resources that it felt under no necessity of pressing the taxpayer, it is of interest to note that, according to the auditors' figures, there was a pro- gressive decline after the year 1757 in the response of the towns. By 1769 they were still in arrears for one eleventh of the taxes of the year 1761, one ninth of the year 1762, one fifth of the year 1763, one third of the year 1764, and one third of the year 1765.40 This reduced the per capita tax actually paid into the treasury by 1769 from a hypothetical four shillings and ninepence on the rate of 1762 to four shillings and threepence lawful money, or three shillings and twopence farthing sterling; from four shillings and tenpence on the rate of 1763 to three shillings and tenpence lawful money, or two shil- lings and tenpence halfpenny sterling; from six shillings and threepence on the rate of 1764 to four shillings and twopence lawful money, or three shillings and three half- pence sterling; and from ninepence halfpenny on the rate of 1765 to sixpence halfpenny lawful money, or four- pence, three farthings sterling.
An examination of the treasury accounts for this pe- riod shows that some of the town collectors had succeeded
40 In 1769 there were due the following amounts from the towns for the years 1758-1765 inclusive:
S
d
On the elevenpence halfpenny rate of 1758 I379 3
43/4
On the thirteenpenny rate of 1759
2087 I5
I
On the tenpenny rate of 1760 .
2619 3
9
On the tenpenny rate of 1761
5413 19
6
On the fivepence three farthing rate of 1762
4237 I7 514
On the sixpenny rate of 1763
8717 5 93/4
On the eightpenny rate of 1764 On the penny rate of 1765 .
17748 9 III4
2078 19
03/4
See the Ledger Book of Treasurer Lawrence under date of February 1, 1769, Connecticut State Library.
II
by 1769 in gathering in and remitting their back taxes, others still lagged behind, making little or no effort in that direction; a few it appears, as was the case of the Hartford collectors, gathered considerable sums but failed to remit these.41 By the year 1767 the non-payment of back taxes had become nothing less than a political scandal and in May of that year the general assembly passed an act for the securing and more speedy collecting of these, which provided that whoever neglected to pay to his collector his taxes now due, would be liable to the payment of interest on the same from the following Sep- tember or until the said tax was discharged and that every collector who failed to pay into the colony treasury a tax due should pay lawful interest on such rate after the expiration of sixty days.42 Nevertheless, this did not have the effect of bringing in the taxes. In 1769, upon the basis of an auditor's report, it was found, for example, that Hartford, rated in 1758 to pay £2150 18s 9d, was owing £544 16s 1172d of this sum; rated in 1759 to pay £2212 98 II12d, was owing £781 16s of this sum; rated in 1760 to pay £1683 2s Iod, was owing £453 15s 712d; Suf- field, rated in 1760 to pay £723 5s 5d, was owing £607 3s 01/2d; Colchester, rated in 1761 to pay £1086 17s 9d, was owing £505 IS 772d; Norwich, rated in 1763 to pay £ 1450 I78 73/4d, was owing {1092 8s 714d; Simsbury, rated to pay in that year £593 18s 9d, was owing £451 8s 034d; Fairfield, rated in 1764 to pay {2010 198 3d, was owing £1306 os 91/2d; Lebanon, rated to pay in that year £1270 198 4d, was owing £778 7s 4d; Middletown, rated to pay
4I Conn. Col. Rec., XIII, 541.
42 Ibid., XII, 560-561. The reader should not be misled at this point. The law would seem to refer to current taxes; it actually referred to the taxes levied upon the towns up to and including the year 1765. This is indicated by a careful examination of the Treasury Books of both Joseph Talcott and John Lawrence.
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in that year £1749 5s 3d, was owing £1574 13S 412d; and New Haven, rated to pay in that year £1905 IIS 534d, was owing £832 198 3d.43 It is perhaps not surprising that the treasurer, Joseph Talcott, was subjected to sharp censure for having "in a great measure neglected to con- form to the direction of law respecting the collection of taxes and other dues to this Colony"44 and that he was displaced by John Lawrence.45 A committee of the gen- eral assembly was thereupon appointed to examine the treasurer's books and report back to the assembly the state of the obligations due to the colony which was done in 1770,46 and by the year following the assembly took decisive action empowering the treasurer to appoint at- torneys, if need be, to sue in order to compel settlement on the part of the towns.47 It will be illuminating to notice the steps taken in some of the cases to bring about an honoring of these obligations on the part of the default- ing towns.
On September 1, 1769, Elihu Wadsworth, a constable and collector for Hartford, was charged with a balance of £781 16s due from that town on the rate of 1759; an exe- cution was directed against him that day, since an execu- tion two years previous had not produced effect, and he was committed to jail; there he remained until May 30, 1771 when he took the oath provided by law for poor prisoners; thereupon, on June 15 of that year execution was granted against the selectmen of the town for the sum of £875 125 4d, which represented the principal plus the interest dated from the year 1767; the payments on this were completed February 12, 1774.48 On April I,
43 See the "Rate Book of John Lawrence, Treasurer for Rates of 1755- 1765," Connecticut State Library.
44 Conn. Col. Rec., XIII, 94.
45 Ibid., XIII, 129.
46 Ibid., XIII, 517. 47 Ibid.
48 "Rate Book of John Lawrence," p. 29.
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1770, an execution was granted against the administrator of the estate of Dositheus Humphry, late collector at Hartford, for the sum of £524 2s 3d back taxes for the year 1760 with interest from September I, 1767,49 settle- ment was finally made on February 29, 1780, with total abatements granted on these taxes of £292. Enos Lane, collector for Suffield, was charged with £607 3s 112d of the taxes of that town on the rate of 1760; complete set- tlement was apparently never made; the last payment by the town occurred in 1780.50 John Hopson, collector for Colchester, was charged in 1769 with £577 os Iod in taxes due from that town on the rate of 1765; the return upon the execution was non est; in 1770, as a conse- quence, an execution was granted against the selectmen by order of the assembly, and this failing of results in 1772 an execution against the inhabitants of the town; settlement was made by abatements, cash, and a bond, in 1773.51 Daniel Collins, collector for Stonington, was charged with £454 16s 7d in taxes due from that town on the rate of 1761; it appears that an execution was granted in 1763 against him and in 1769 another which was returned non est with a result that proceedings were instituted against the selectmen who came to a final set- tlement early in 1780.52
The foregoing brief survey of certain aspects of the history of taxation in Connecticut from the years 1750 to 1775, helps to establish certain conclusions. By what has been said, it is evident that the people of Connecticut were most happily situated with respect to financial obli- gations which they owed to their government. The per capita tax, that in 1750 amounted to but one shilling and nine and three fifths pence new tenor or about seven-
49 Ibid., p. 43.
5º Ibid., p. 47.
51 Ibid., p. 51.
52 Ibid., p. 62.
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pence sterling, rose in the course of the French and In- dian War to but eleven shillings and fourpence lawful money or eight shillings and threepence sterling, the peak of war taxation. In 1765 it dropped to ninepence halfpenny lawful money or sevenpence and one farthing sterling and then quite disappeared until the winter of 1770. From then on to the outbreak of hostilities against the mother country it averaged annually but about seven- pence halfpenny sterling. Nevertheless, with so moderate a tax the towns showed the greatest reluctance in making the remittances due and it is significant that on back taxes covering the period of the Seven Years' War, the defaulting towns were freed from interest charges on this sum for the years preceding 1767.
II
Up to this point we have been considering taxation in colonial Connecticut with respect to internal aspects. It is now desirable to analyze the bearing that this and other related matters concerned with public finance had upon the relations of the colony with the mother country preceding the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.
There is no denying the validity of the traditional point of view that the chief cause of the growing opposition of the colonials to the imperial administration during the decade preceding the outbreak of the Revolutionary War arose through plans of taxation and fears of these plans. Speaking of the situation in 1764, Professor Channing, in his History of the United States, says, "The Americans felt that they were already overburdened with taxa- tions."I "This Colony," complained Jared Ingersoll of Connecticut in 1765, "is Eighty Thousand Pounds in Debt, Arrears of Taxes, that cannot be collected, by
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