church rate

plural church rates

1. countableuncountableA tax raised by certain English parishes primarily for the maintenance of buildings of the Church of England, now voluntary but formerly levied on all residents regardless of denomination.

   As to the amount and money value of Church Rate, that really is not worth contending about. A paltry average of two-pence in the pound!

   1861, Francis Whaley Harper, Dialogues on National Church and National Church Rate, page 20

   2 more examples

   The abolition of church rate would endanger the existence of tithes, because whatever differences there may be between them in point of law and in point of fact, the difference with regard to conscience is the same.

   1859, The Present State of the Church Rate Question Exhibited […], page 13

   I venture to say that no man of common sense and candour can read that evidence carefully, without having any prejudices he may have entertained against the good old English Custom of Church-rates utterly done away.

   1860 January 29, Thomas Thorp, Church-Rates: A Village Sermon […], published 1861, page 13