Duty on Hair Powder Act 1795

The Act stated that everyone wishing to use hair powder must, from 5 May 1795, visit a stamp office to enter their name and pay for an annual certificate costing 1 guinea (equivalent to {{GBP|100}} in 2020).{{cite web |url=https://politicaldresser.com/hair/hair-powder-act-1795/ |title=The Hair Powder Act of 1795 |date=15 February 2018 |work=Political Dresser |editor-first=Alexandria M. |editor-last=Navrátil Van Praag |access-date=11 August 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/head-tilting-history/rise-and-fall-powdered-wig |title=The Rise and Fall of the Powdered Wig: While it's true that wigs were a major status symbol early in the second half of the 18th century, by 1800 short, natural hair was all the rage. Learn all about the rise and fall of wigs |series=Head-Tilting History |date=22 July 2020 |work=American Battlefield Trust |url-status=live |access-date=11 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702174322/https://www.battlefields.org/learn/head-tilting-history/rise-and-fall-powdered-wig |archive-date=2 July 2020}} Certain exemptions were included: the Royal Family and their servants; clergymen with an income of under £100 a year; and members of the armed forces who were privates in the army, artillery soldiers, mariners, engineers, non-commissioned officers, subalterns, officers in the navy below commander, yeomanry, militia, fencibles, and volunteers. A father with more than two unmarried daughters could buy two certificates that would be valid for any number he stated at the stamp office. The master of a household could buy a certificate for a number of his servants, and that certificate would also be valid for their successors within that year.

Substantial fines could be imposed on those brought before the courts.{{blockquote|At the quarter sessions of the peace held at Bourne, in Lincolnshire on Tuesday se'nnight, the Rev. Francis Barstow, of Aslackby, was convicted in the penalty of twenty pounds, for wearing hair powder without having previously taken out a licence.{{cite news |title=Hair Powder Certificate Act |newspaper=Northampton Mercury |date=23 January 1796 |page=3}}}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Hair Powder Certificates, etc. Act 1795

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of Great Britain

| long_title = An act for allowing further time for persons to take out certificates for using or wearing hair powder, in pursuance of an act of this present session of parliament, intituled, "An act for granting to his Majesty duty on certificates issued for using hair powder;" and also further time for the admeasurement and registering of boats, barges, and other vessels, in pursuance of another act of the same session, intituled, "An act for requiring all boats, barges, and other vessels, of certain descriptions, used on navigable rivers, and on inland navigations, in Great Britain, to be registered."

| year = 1795

| citation = 35 Geo. 3. c. 112

| introduced_commons =

| introduced_lords =

| territorial_extent =

| royal_assent = 26 June 1795

| commencement =

| expiry_date =

| repeal_date = 21 August 1871

| amends = {{ubli|Duty on Hair Powder Act 1795|Registry of Boats, etc. Act 1795}}

| replaces =

| amendments =

| repealing_legislation = Statute Law Revision Act 1871

| related_legislation =

| status = Repealed

| legislation_history =

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| collapsed = yes

}}

The Hair Powder Certificates, etc. Act 1795 (35 Geo. 3. c. 112) was passed later in the same session of Parliament to allow people more time to apply for certificates.{{cite web |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/0d5eb485-a13a-4b8f-bb51-10f01827807f |title=Public Act, 35 George III, c. 112 (Reference HL/PO/PU/1/1795/35G3n259) |date=1795 |work=The National Archives |access-date=11 August 2020}}

The wearing of powdered wigs tied in a queue had already been declining, and the tax speeded this decline, resulting in the change of dress in the 1790s. In its first year, the tax raised £200,000.{{cite web |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ad3dafbb-cc41-49b7-ba0c-e21ecdaec5e0 |title=HAIR POWDER CERTIFICATES (Reference QS/16) |date=n.d. |work=The National Archives |access-date=11 August 2020}} In 1812, 46,684 people still paid the tax. In 1855, only 997 did and almost all of these were servants. By the time it was repealed in 1861, it yielded an annual revenue of £1,000.{{cite book |last=Dowell |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Dowell |title=A History of Taxation and Taxes in England from the Earliest Times to the Year 1885. Volume III. Direct Taxes and Stamp Duties |location=London | publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |year=1888 |pages=255–259}}

According to author Jenny Uglow, those who chose to pay the guinea hair powder tax were nicknamed "guinea-pigs" by reformist Whigs who chose instead to cut their hair short (the "French" cut) and go without a wig as an expression of solidarity with the French. Those deriding hair-powder taxpayers as "guinea-pigs" were, in turn, satirized by The Times as members of the "Crop Club" wearing the "Bedford Level", a reference to Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford.{{cite book |last=Uglow |first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Uglow |title=In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon's Wars, 1793–1815 |location=New York |publisher=Farrar Straus & Giroux |year=2014 |page=149}}

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Category:Repealed Great Britain Acts of Parliament

Category:Tax legislation in the United Kingdom

Category:Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1795

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