An original handwritten legal document from 1792 bearing rare George III Stamp Tax stamps. The document has a Coat of Arms revenue stamp for two shillings and six pence, with metal shield, used to prevent reuse, and the smaller King George III stamp which was the Land Tax and used to formally legalise the document. These stamps predate the introduction of the postage stamp by almost 50 years and were used for the Stamp Tax prior to the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, see below.
 
In an effort to raise revenue to pay for defending their colonies against the French and Indians, Britain’s Parliament decided to tax all paper goods from birth, marriage, and death certificates to newspapers. The Stamp Tax was a direct tax that conspicuously affected all segments of society, it was also imposed by Parliament on the colonies and was understandably so unpopular that it is credited with starting the American Revolution.
 
Where examples of these stamps can be found they have usually been cut from the original documents and so to find them in place on the original vellum document is very rare and in particular as this document is also of great interest, see below.
 
The document itself concerns the Manor of Cottingham Rectory in the East Riding of Yorkshire and is titled "The View of Frank-Pledge"; Frank pledge was a system of law enforcement in medieval England that held members of society responsible for each other's behaviour, the system originated in the Anglo-Saxon period and was regularised under the reign of King Canute II the Great of Denmark and England (1016-1035), everyone in the community except the highest nobility and their households was included in the system.
 
The document is written on vellum and measures  45 x 32.5cm (17.72" x 12.80").