These Shropshire tax records from Henry VIII's time reveal the beginning of the modern income tax system. They are of interest to tax historians and to social historians. Family historians will also find the large number of names in the records a rare source for time before most of the earliest surviving parish register s and for which few wills exist. The comprehensive index aids searches. The book contains transcriptions or abstracts of the surviving papers of the lay subsidies of 1523-1527 and 1543-1545 and the benevolence of 1545. 70% of these records are new and have not been published before. The documents have been formatted to replicate the lay-out of the original documents and to make reading easier. Most of the documents are in the form of lists, usually set out by township. They show the taxpayers of each small locality with their assessments according to their individual wealth and provide a picture of society and of social structure at the critical time of the mid-16th century inflation.