THE STAMP OFFICE, SOMERSET HOUSE
THE STAMP OFFICE, SOMERSET HOUSE

Aquatint etching by Rowlandson & Pugin

Isaac Henry Sercombe (1795-1870) was a clerk then a solicitor at the Stamp Office at Somerset House from the 1830s to the 1860s, and made several court appearances as witness on its behalf. Stamp duty, a form of tax which persists to the present day, used to require a physical stamp as proof of payment. The Stamp Office, with the Tax Office, formed what was to become the Inland Revenue.

THE STAMP OFFICE, SOMERSET HOUSE

Aquatint etching by Rowlandson & Pugin

Isaac Henry Sercombe (1795-1870) was a clerk then a solicitor at the Stamp Office at Somerset House from the 1830s to the 1860s, and made several court appearances as witness on its behalf. Stamp duty, a form of tax which persists to the present day, used to require a physical stamp as proof of payment. The Stamp Office, with the Tax Office, formed what was to become the Inland Revenue.