Window tax, 1748-1798

From 1748 until 1851 taxes were levied on the occupants of buildings with several windows in Scotland. Window tax rolls, listing the householders and the number of windows in their properties, survive for the period 1748-1798 among the records of the Exchequer in the National Records of Scotland (reference E326/1). The window tax had been imposed in England from 1696. The rolls are arranged by county and royal burgh and there are some gaps for particular years for some counties and burghs. Initially the rolls list properties with 10 or more windows but from 1762 onwards they list those with 8 or more windows and from October 1766 they list those with 7 or more.