Brewer's: Smoke Farthings

An offering given to the priest at Whitsuntide, according to the number of chimneys in his parish.

“The Bishop of Elie hath out of everie parish in Cambridgeshire a certain tribute called ... smoke-farthings, which the churchwardens do levie according to the number of chimneys that be in a parish” —MSS. Baker, xxxix. 326.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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