ˈhead-money
Money paid for or by each person or head.
1. A fee, tax, etc. paid per head; a poll tax; a capitation fee.
| 1530 Palsgr. 230/1 Heed money, truaige. a 1618 Raleigh Rem. (1644) 101 He used David's Law of Capitation or Head-money, and had of every Duke ten marks. a 1716 Politia United Prov. in Somers Tracts (1810) III. 632 All the people of the land..pay yearly for head money..x{supd}. 1794 J. Gifford Louis XVI 119 An ancient custom..by which a kind of poll-tax was levied upon the subjects of either nation in the other, called, in England, head-money; in France, argent du chef. 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v. Head, Capitation..called also poll and head-money. |
2. A sum paid for each prisoner taken at sea, for each slave recovered, or for each person brought in certain circumstances.
| 1713 Lond. Gaz. No. 5099/3 Her Majesty's Bounty for the Head-Money of the Prisoners taken in the..St. Francis. 1868 Every Boy's Ann. (Rtldg.) 219 The freed Africans were made over to the civil authorities, and the ship's company..received the head money allowed by government. 1893 W. T. Wawn S. Sea Islanders 67 A small sum per head for all recruits [Polynesian labourers] brought to Queensland..The practice of paying ‘head-money’ was stopped 10th March, 1884. |
† 3. Payment for redemption from death. Obs.
| a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xlii. 142 To pay me for a knowlege euery yere .iiii. drams of gold for thy hed money. |