The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects by Sedley Lynch Ware
page 57 of 135 (42%)
page 57 of 135 (42%)
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Originally a tax varying from a farthing to a penny for each household
(hence the names "smoke farthings," "hearth penny," "smoke silver"), the payments were commuted for a small lump sum exacted yearly. Thus we find in the Elizabethan accounts mention of "St. Swithin farthings;"[307] of "Ely farthings;"[308] of "Lincoln farthings,"[309] etc., according to the _name_ of the cathedral to which they were paid; or, again, of "Whitsun farthings;" of "Pentecost farthings," etc., according to the _time_ of the year at which the payments were made.[310] These payments must not be confused with "Peter's pence," which had before the Reformation been paid by English parishes to Rome.[311] Lastly the mother parish church, in large parishes requiring chapels of ease, would exact (when it could) contributions from those congregations who frequented for ordinary divine worship these chapels of ease within the parish. And these exactions would be made irrespective of the fact that these congregations were bound to repair their own chapels and possessed their own churchwardens.[312] When the means or expedients we have hitherto set forth were found insufficient, or impracticable, or too tardy for an emergency, the parish was compelled to resort to _Rates_ or _Assessments_. Assessments were levied in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of purposes. In an emergency, or if the sum to be raised was not large, a levy might be made by the principal men of the parish upon themselves only.[313] A "rate" might, however, be made to collect a very small sum, as well as a very large one.[314] All kinds of units or rules of assessment were resorted to from parish to parish, and (apparently) sometimes no fixed unit at all was taken, men's ability to pay being |
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