E 115c1547-c1685Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Certificates of Residence
Certificates of residence were issued so an individual was not liable for the payment of a tax more than once, whether through change of residence or through lands held across different localities. They were first introduced as a provision in the lay subsidy act of 1514, part of the Tudor revival of taxes that were assessed on individuals.
Certificates of residence are held in their tens of thousands at The National Archives: the wording of the certificates is formulaic, but almost every document gives the names of the commissioners in charge of assessing the tax in each locality, the parliament at which the act to grant the tax was passed, the name of the taxpayer in question, their current residence, the part of the tax in question - for example, the 'second payment of the second subsidy' or 'second payment of the fourth and last of the four subsidies' - and the date of the issue of the certificate. The E 115 series also includes the pouches in which the certificates were originally stored.