1340 (1866) 91 (MED) Þe loue of herte, þet is þe godes peny huer-mide me bayþ alle þe guodes of þe wordle.
1490 in J. D. Marwick (1869) I. 59 That the thesaurer of the towne..proffer a goddis penny and bye the same [vittaillis or tymmer] vpoun a competent pryce.
1530 J. Palsgrave 586/2 Holde forthe thy hande, take an ernest penny or a Goddes penny [Fr. vng denier en arres or vng denier a Dieu].
1603 G. Owen (1891) 190 Savinge onelie in earnest peny at the bargaine makinge wch the plaine men called a gods penie.
1609 J. Skene tr. Stat. Gild in 144 Gif any man buyes Hering..and hes given Gods pennie, or silver in arles [etc.].
1625 in (N. Riding Rec. Soc.) (1885) III. 254 His wife had formerly hired the said woman and given her a Godes penny.
1662 S. Pepys 23 Sept. (1970) III. 204 In both which places, at the making all contracts and bargains they give so much, which they call God's-penny.
1774 T. West vi. 122 The tenants who paid provisions to the abbey, paid no fine upon their admittance, except only the God's-penny.
1808 (new ed.) 4 Ah'd a Gods-penny at Stowseley market.
1855 F. K. Robinson 73 Godspenny, earnest money, generally half-a-crown given to a servant when hired.
1885 54 136/1 The legal effect was to be as if the whole was paid down and a portion thrown back as a God's-penny.
1928 A. E. Pease God's penny, earnest-money, the actual coin which the master pays on concluding the hiring of a servant.
1933 8 287 Besides the primo costo there were God's penny, transportation charges..storage, tips, and so on.
1983 27 336 A defendant had accepted a god's penny or was party to a bond of indenture.
2002 A. Kellett (ed. 2) God's penny, small sum paid at a hiring fair.