plough-almsplow-almsn.
/ˈplaʊˌɑːmz/, U.S. /ˈplaʊˌɑ(l)mz/ historical in later use.
A tax payable to the Church in Anglo-Saxon and feudal times, consisting of one penny per annum for each plough or ploughland.
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society > faith > worship > benefice > other financial matters > [noun] > church dues > payment on land > on ploughed land or plough-land
plough-alms1251
plough pence1547
1251 in W. H. Hart & P. A. Lyons Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia (1884) I. 282 De qualibet caruca juncta inter Pascha et Pentecosten unum denarium, qui dicitur Ploualmes.
1587 J. Bridges Def. Govt. Church of Eng. xvi. 1360 For payment of tithes, for the money hat then was payde to Rome, called the Peter pence; for the Church lightes: for the plowe almes.
1647 N. Bacon Hist. Disc. Govt. 32 Another Income arose from the Plough, and under the name of Plough-almes.
1795 J. Nichols Hist. Leicester I. Appendix 87 Antiently every plow-land paid a penny to the church, under the denomination of plow-alms.
1845 J. Lingard Hist. & Antiq. Anglo-Saxon Church (ed. 3) I. iv. 191 Plough-alms, a penny from every plough-land, which was yearly offered to God.
1892 C. M. Andrews Old Eng. Manor ii. 129 Besides the kirkshot the thegn paid to the Church alms fee, a due which may have corresponded to the plough alms.
1959 R. Lennard Rural Eng. x. 315 The yield of other dues such as plough-alms and burial fees would also depend upon these factors [sc. the extent and resources of the parish].
1978 W. M. Spackman Armful of Warm Girl 34 His own..yeoman forebears hadn't been amerced with a blacker set of relief and merchets, church-scot and plough-alms and smoke-farthings and hearthpenny on Holy Thursday.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1251