local. Now Hist. [ad. med.L. trībulāgium (trubl-), f. trībulum threshing-sledge (in (in med.L. app. some other crushing-machine): see -AGE.] A species of poll-tax formerly levied on each tin-miner in some of the stannaries: see quots. Cf. TRIBULARY.
[1296–7. Ministers’ Accts., 24–5 Edw. I. (Bailiff’s Accts. Edmund of Cornw.) (P.R.O.). Perquisita stagnariorum. Idem reddit compotum de cxj solidis vij denariis de minutis amerciamentis Nigre More hoc anno et de vj solidis de Trublagio hoc anno. Ibid. (1338), 12 Edw. III., 816/11. De x solidis iij denariis de quadam consuetudine vocata Tribulagium videlicet de quolibet homine operante cum tribula, obolum.]
1537. Lett. Hen. VIII., in Rymer, Fœdera (1712), XIV. 581/1. Concedimus eidem Johanni Greynfeld Tribulagium nostrum, sive consuetudinem vocatam le Tribulage, infra Hundreda nostra de Penwyth et Kerr.
1906. G. R. Lewis, in Victoria County Hist., Cornwall, I. 537/1. Tribulage, a poll tax levied in Blackmore at the rate of 1/2d., and in Penwith and Kerrier at 1/2d. … for each labouring tinner. Ibid., 538, note. The Civil War brought with it the final extinction of tribulage, dublet, and the fine of tin.
1908. Stannaries, v. 140. The tax known as ‘tribulage,’ or ‘shovel money,’ which represents the only attempt at a capitation tax in the Cornish stannaries, was paid in two stannaries only, Penwith and Kerrier, and, after 1342, Blackmore. Ibid., 141. The record of tribulage payments is necessarily incomplete from the fact that the duty was collected and paid to the receiver by the head bailiff, and often included in their accounts with the perquisites of the stannary courts.
