Taxation (No. 2) Act 1663

XXI. Persons distrained having no Lands, &c.

Proceedings.; Imprisonment until Sums due, and also Fee for Arrest, paid.; Officer not executing Process; Penalty 20s.; Gaoler suffering Escape;; Penalty 40s. and Double Value of Rate and Fees.; Like Process for Subsidies due by any Person charged for another unpaid.; In default of Payment, Imprisonment.; Certificate by Commissioners.; Persons suspected to be not indifferently taxed refusing to appear or be examined.; Penalty 40s. or under, at Discretion of Commissioners.; Commissioners may punish by Imprisonment.

And if any such person that should be soe destrained have noe Lands or Tenements sufficient whereby he or his Tennants and Farmers may be destrained or have aliened eloyned or hid his Goods and Chattells whereby he should or might be destrained in such manner that such Goods or Chattells should not be knowne or found soe that the summe of or by him to be paid in the said forme shall not nor can be conveniently leavyed then upon relation thereof to the Co[m]missers or soe many of them as by this Act or the said Co[m]mission shall be thereunto appointed where such person or persons was taxed and sett by the Oathes of him or them that shall be charged with the leavying and payment of that summe or summes the said Co[m]missers shall make a Precept in such manner as is aforesaid for to attach take and arreast the body of such person or persons that ought to pay the said summes, And by this Act shall be charged with and for the said summe and summes and them soe taken safely to keepe in Prison within the Shire or other place where any such person or persons shall be taken and attached there to remaine without baile or mainprize untill they have paid the said summe or summes that such person for himselfe or for any other by this Act shall be chargeable or ought to be charged withall, And alsoe for the Fees of every such Arreast to him or them that shall execute such Precept twenty pence, And that every Officer unto whom such Precept shall be directed doe his true diligence and execute the same upon every person soe being indebted upon paine to forfeite to the Kings Majestie for every defaulte in that behalfe Twenty shillings, And that noe Keeper of any Goale from his Goale suffer any [X1 such] person or persons to goe at large by letting to baile or otherwise to depart out of his Prison before he have beene paid his said debt and the said Twenty pence for his arreast upon paine to forfeite to the Kings Majestie Forty shillings, And the said Gaoler to pay to the Kings Majestic the double value aswell of the Rate which the said [X1 person soe imprisoned] was taxed at as of the said Twenty pence for the Fees, And like Processe and Remedy in like forme shall be granted by the said Co[m]missers or as many of them as by this Act or the said Commission shall be thereunto appointed at like information of every person or persons being charged with any summe of money for any other person or persons by reason of the said Subsidyes and not thereof paid but wilfully withdrawen, nor the same leavyable within the Limitts where such persons were thereunto taxed, And if the summe or summes being behinde unpaid by any person or persons as is aforesaid be leavyed and gathered by force of the said Processe to be made by the said Co[m]missers, or if in defaulte, or for lacke of payment thereof the person or persons soe oweing the said summe and summes of money by Processe of the same Co[m]missers to be made as is aforesaid be co[m]mitted to Prison in forme abovesaid That then the said Comissers which shall award such Processe shall make Certificate thereof in the said Exchequer of that shall be done in the Premisses in the Terme next following after such summe or summes of money soe being behind shall be leavyed and gathered, or such person or persons for non-payment of the same committed to Prison, And if it happen any of the said Collectors to be assigned or any Maiors Sheriffes Stewards Constables the Headborough Burseholder Bayliffe or any other Officer or Minister or other whatsoever person or persons to disobey the said Co[m]missers or any of them in the reasonable request to them made by the said Co[m]missers for the execution of the said Co[m]mission, or if any of the Officers or other persons doe refuse that to them shall appertaine and belong to doe by reason of any Precept to him or them to be directed or any reasonable Commandment Instance or Request touching the premisses, or other defaulte in any Appearance or Collection to make, or if any person [X2 be] suspected not to be indifferently taxed as is aforesaid doe refuse to be examined according to the tenour of this Act before the said Co[m]missers or as many of them as shall be thereunto assigned as is aforesaid or will not appeare before the said Co[m]missers upon warning to him made or else make resistance or rescues upon any Distresse upon him to be taken for any parcell of the said Subsidyes, or committ any misdemeanour in any manner or wise contrary to this Act, or committ any wilfull omission, or other whatsoever wilfull doeing or misdoeing contrary to the tenour of this Act or Grant, The same Co[m]missers and every number of them above remembred or two of them at the least upon certaine knowledge of any such misdemeanours had, by Information or Examination shall and may sett upon every such Offender for every such Offence in the name of a Fine by the same Offender to be forfeited Forty shillings or under by discretion of the same Co[m]missers, And further the said Co[m]missers and every number of them or two of them at the least shall have Authority by this present Act to punish every such Offender by Impisonment there to remaine and to be delivered by their discretion as shall seeme to them convenient, the said Fines if any such be to be certifyed by the said Co[m]missers that soe assessed the same into the Kings Majestyes Exchequer there to be levyed and paid by the Collectors of that part for the said Subsidyes returned into the said Exchequer to be therewith charged with the payment of the said Subsidyes in such manner as if the said Fines had beene sett and taxed upon the said Offenders for the said Subsidyes;

Editorial Information

X1 interlined on the Roll.

X2 Variant reading of the text noted in The Statutes of the Realm as follows: being O. [O. refers to a collection in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge]