Family Historian User Group

I have come across names of ancestors in churchwardens' accounts of the 17c where the names appear in the 'Ceass' (sometimes spelled 'Cease'). This appears to be a collection of some sort as in 'Receved by one cease made the Xth of Feabruarye 1617 by the greater part of the p’ishe the sum of xxiiii li. viii s. I d.' I have been unable to find any use of this word in a similar context elsewhere. The amounts contributed varied in one Ceass from 30 shillings down to 2 pence. Can anyone explain what the Ceass/Cease was?. Was it a voluntary collection or were people assessed?

ID:2831

Cess, cease or sesse is a (possibly) obsolete word for a tax or rate. It is a corruption of the word assess.

Thanks Patrick. It seems that 'cess' is a more common spelling and the church cess was a tax for the upkeep of the church buildings.