In 1670 one hundred and twenty Matlock households paid the annual tax which was levied on the number of fire hearths they had. This was also referred to as "chimney money".

Sonia W Addis-Smith has contributed the following explanatory notes and the alphabetical list of names:

The Hearth Tax (or "Chimney Money") was in place from 1662 to 1689, as a useful source of national revenue. People paid 2 shillings a year for each hearth assessed. It was paid in two equal instalments, on Ladyday (25th March) and Michaelmas (29th September), by the occupier of the property, or owner if it was vacant. It was an extremely unpopular tax and led to rioting in some parts of the country, but not in Derbyshire. In the early days of the tax, people tried to avoid the payments by blocking up their chimneys and claiming exemption certificates for them. For Wirksworth, the records contain a list of 40 people whose wealth was "not sofishant" for them to pay the tax. The Assessment lists are now very useful to Genealogists, giving lists of all householders, village by village, living in Derbyshire in the 1660s.

The list of Matlock people below has been resorted into alphabetical order, for ease of Genealogical searching. The figure following each name is the number of hearths or chimneys.