Note 72 — Taxation in Rhode Island, 1636-1689.

114These proceedings are to be found in the town records Vol. III, p p. 12-15. A table of values such as that given in the text was not always adopted when a rate was to be levied, but the rate of assessment seems often to have been left to the discretion of the assessors. In the case of the £160 rate of 1684 a committee was appointed to "Consider what lands may be deemed Rateable." The committee report "That all Meadowes & Orchards & all other improved lands what so Ever it is yt is inclosed, is Rateable, and as for Cattell, That all Sorts of Cattell upward of a yeare old are Rateable," but no table of values is reported. The number of assessors varied from three to five. They were prominent men of the community and there was a tendency to reelect the same individuals for the service. In a list of twenty-two assessors appointed between 1678 and 1687 there are only eleven different individuals.