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

I bear imprisonment as well as ever, but I do not intend to stop after the church rate question is settled.

From The Battle of The Press As Told in the Story of the Life of Richard Carlile By His Daughter, Theophila Carlile Campbell by Campbell, Theophila Carlile

These last, together with sparrows, continue to appear till 1832, when the Rev. Robert Shuckburgh, in the vestry, protested against such use of the church rate, and it was discontinued. 

From John Keble's Parishes by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

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

It awakened and alarmed many of them when I said that the church must be restored, and that we must have a church rate.

From From Death into Life or, twenty years of my minstry by Haslam, William

In 1850 a dispute of considerable public interest with regard to the levying of the church rate between the vicar and the wardens and overseers was decided in the Court of Queen's Bench.

From The Churches of Coventry A Short History of the City & Its Medieval Remains by Woodhouse, Frederick W.