Peter's Pence - Post-Reformation Practice in England

Post-Reformation Practice in England

Despite the unequivocal abolition called for by the 1559 Act, payments termed Peter's Pence undoubtedly continued in England in the succeeding centuries. In one Devon parish, there is a record that in 1609–10, "besides 2s. for Peter's farthings there is a payment of 2s. for Peter's pence". In Gloucestershire, a survey of the then royal manor of Cheltenham in 1617 asked tenants "whether is there not duly continued and paid certain moneys called peter pence; if not when did they discontinue and what was the sum of them and to whom was it paid?", as if there was known to be varying practices in the land. The reply given was "and the moneys called Peter Pence are commonly every year paid unto the Bailiff and are not discontinued to their knowledge, and the sum of them by the year is 5s. or thereabouts, as they think". This suggests that originally some 60 households contributed annually. The survey makes no mention of when in the year the payment was made, and whether the bailiff passed the money on or retained it on the lord's behalf. In Cheltenham manorial records, occasional references to properties being liable for Peter's pence are seen until as late as 1802, but there is no direct evidence of any actual payment.

An Act of Parliament obtained in 1625 to clarify manorial customs in Cheltenham acknowledges the continued existence of Peter Pence: "And be it enacted … that the said copyholders … shall … hold the said customary messuages and lands of the said manors severally and respectively, by copies of court-roll to them and their heirs, by suit of court, and by the yearly rents, worksilver, Peter-pence, and Bead Reap-money, to be paid severally and respectively as heretofore…."

It is uncertain how exceptional the situation in Cheltenham may have been. It is possible that the label Peter's Pence had been transferred to some other type of household or hearth tax. Some evidence for this comes from references in Minchinhampton (Gloucestershire) churchwardens' accounts of 1575 to "Peter-pence or smoke-farthings" expended at the time of the bishop’s visitation in the summer. Smoke-farthings are glossed as a composition for offerings made in Whitsun week by every man who occupied a house with a chimney, to the cathedral of the diocese in which he lived; and that though Peter's pence was abolished in 1534, "on the grant of those monasteries to whom they had by custom become payable, they continued payable as appendant to the manors etc of the persons to whom granted". Before the Reformation, the lordship of the manor of Cheltenham had been held by the Abbess of Syon. It is plausible therefore that as both the pious payment of Peter's Pence and the secular manorial fees had once gone to the same institution, the former came over time to be regarded as part of the latter.