church rate

American  

noun

Ecclesiastical.

1. (formerly in England and Ireland) a compulsory assessment imposed on the parishioners' holdings of houses or land in order to repair the parish church and maintain its services.

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Etymology

Origin of church rate

First recorded in 1705–15

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

church rate

Every forty shillings paid in on the church rate counted one degree.

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Earle, Alice Morse

The poor rate is no longer made at the Vestry; the church rate is a thing of the past; and what is then left?

From The Hills and the Vale by Jefferies, Richard

There has been no return yet laid before parliament of these partial burdens on land, but they cannot be estimated at less than the church rate, or £500,000 a-year.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 61, No. 376, February, 1847 by Various

Since 1887 a church rate has been levied on the Evangelical-Lutheran communities, and since 1904 upon the Roman Catholics also.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 8 "Haller, Albrecht" to "Harmonium" by Various

The Quaker constables had refused to collect the church rate, and for this refusal were thrown into prison.

From The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut by Greene, Maria Louise