The Probert Encyclopaedia of Money

TITHE

Originally a tithe was the tenth part of an income payable for the maintenance of the parish priest. The practice was commanded by Moses, but it seems not to have been continued by Christians of the Apostolic Age. In Great Britain the earliest record of tithes seems to be that of Bede. In 750 Egbert, archbishop of York, directed his clergy to teach their people to pay tithes. Tithes were of three kinds: predial tithes, the produce of the soil; personal tithes, the profits of handicraft or merchandise; and mixed tithes, often included in predial tithes, the produce of animals, including butter and eggs.

Where the income from tithes was more than sufficient for local needs, the tithes were often impropriated to cathedrals and monasteries. The greater tithes impropriated to monasteries often found their way into secular hands, as shown by the existence today of lay vicars and rectors. With the rise of Nonconformity in the 18th and 19th centuries there arose an agitation against the payment of tithes, and, refusing to pay, many persons were imprisoned.

By the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836, and subsequent amending Acts, tithes were commuted to an annual tithe rent charge. The par value of the tithes was fixed according to their amount at the time, and on the assumption that a certain number of bushels of corn were worth 100 pounds. But the real value was to vary each year, according to the average price of corn during the preceding seven years, and this was periodically determined by rather involved tables. The agricultural depression of the 19th century reduced the amount of the tithe rent, and in many years it fell much below 100 pounds. In 1911 it was 71 pounds 4 shillings 1.75 pennies, but after that year it rose steadily, until in 1917 it was 92 pounds 1 shilling and 0.75 pennies. The changes in price occasioned by the Great War led to the introduction in 1918 of a bill which fixed the tithe rent charge at 109 pounds and 3 shillings and 0.75 pennies for the seven years ending January the 1st 1926. Tithe rent charge may be redeemed by arrangement with the board of agriculture on payment of 25 years' purchase. In 1920 471,094 pounds was paid to the ecclesiastical authorities for the redemption of tithe. Tithes in Great Britain were terminated by the Finance Act 1977.
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