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

The first church rate book only begins in 1776, but it is curious as showing to whom the land then belonged. 

From Old Times at Otterbourne by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

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.

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

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

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