Death and Taxes - the full story

Most people (in the UK anyway) who hear the two words 'Death and Taxes' tend to think of Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) who is usually credited with saying: 

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." 

This was apparently written in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789, which was re-printed in The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1817. 

 Before that however Daniel Defoe used a similar phrase in The Political History of the Devil, 1726: "Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed." 

And much more recently Margaret Mitchell says the following in her book Gone With the Wind, 1936: "Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never a convenient time for any of them."