a municipal tax paid by burgesses and others that came to be regarded as a qualification for the borough franchise in parliamentary elections (until the Reform Act of 1832)
Word origin
C13 scot tax, from Germanic; compare Old Norse skot; related to Old French escot (French écot) + lot (in the obsolete sense: tax)
scot and lot in American English
1.
an old parish tax in Great Britain, assessed according to ability to pay