ABSTRACT
Church pews were filled by many whom early modern society recognised as prominent residents. Yet those prominent residents are not automatically revealed in studies of land ownership alone. Ship money was a specific tax, initially only levied on towns and ports in coastal counties during times of national crisis. Traditionally, ship money records have been used in conjunction with the protestation oath of 1641 and the hearth tax records to assess levels of literacy and wealth within and across parishes. The freehold land of the manor of Earls Colne, sublet at the time of the ship money assessment, comprised 96 acres and belonged to the property called Prucknutts farm. At the time of the ship money collection, William Wayford or Warford was only recently widowed. Her husband William, who had taken the leases of lands within the manors of Earls Colne and Colne Priory as a subtenant, had died and been buried at Earls Colne on 13 September 1634.
