ˈplough-ˌalms, plow-alms Now Hist.
[f. plough n.1 + alms; repr. OE. sulh-ælmessan.]
A church-due in Old English times and later, consisting of one penny per annum for each plough or plough-land.
| [a 1000 Laws of Edmund i. c. 2 (Schmid) Be teoðungum and ciric-sceattum. Þeoðunge we bebeodað ælcum cristenum men be his cristendome, and cyric-sceat, and Romfeoh, and sulh-ælmessan.] 1291–2 in Dugdale Monast. Angl. (1682) I. 256 De qualibet caruca juncta inter Pascha et Pentecostem unum denarium, qui dicitur ploualmes. 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xi. (1739) 20 Another Income arose from the Plough, and under the name of Plough-Alms. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. iv. 174 Plough-alms, a penny from every land, which was yearly offered, &c. |