hearth-penny Hist.
Also 1 heorðpeniᵹ, -pening, 3 hert-, hurt-, hurdpeny, hurpeny.
[So called because chargeable on every dwelling-house.]
1. The payment also called Peter's pence and Rome-scot, anciently made to the Pope.
| c 1000 Edgar's Laws ii. c. 4 (Schmid) Sy ælc heorð-peniᵹ agifen be Petres mæsse-dæᵹe. 1235–52 Rentalia Glaston. (1891) 13 Et dat hurdpeny sicut Jordanus. Ibid. 76 Edit[ha]..reddit xijd. de Gabulo et viijd. ad lardarium et hertpeni. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 159 Let the Hearth-penny be paid before the Feast of S. Peter. 1889 Archæol. Rev. Aug. 43 It was called Rome-scot, Rome-penny, Hearth-penny. |
† b. perh. = sulh-ælmesse, or plough-alms, an ecclesiastical tax on ploughed land (Schmid). Obs.
| c 1000 Rectitud. Sing. Pers. in Schmid Gesetze App. iii. 372 Sylle [cot-setla] his heorð-pæniᵹ on halᵹan þunres-dæᵹ, eal swa ælcan friᵹean men ᵹebyreð. |