Easter offerings, or Easter dues, small sums of money paid to the parochial clergy by the parishio-ners of Easter as a compensation for personal tithes, or the tithe for personal labour; recoverable under 7 & 8 Wm. 3, c. 6, before justices of the peace, see Reg. v. Hall, (1868) LR 1 QB 632. In that case the vicar of Batley in Yorkshire was held entitled to recover, on evidence of a custom, for every communicant, 2d.; every cow, 2d.; every plough, 2d.; every foal, 1s.; every hive of bees, 1d.; every house, 3-1/2d.; and the question whether a payment of 2d. per head for every member of a family of or above the age of sixteen was left open. A Rubric at the end of the Communion Service of the Prayer Book to the effect that 'yearly at Easter every Parishioner shall reckon with the Parson, Vicar, or Curate, or his or their Deputy or Deputies, and pay to them or him all Ecclesiastical Duties accustomably due, then and at that time to be paid,' probably refers to such specific payments as those in Reg. v. Hall. General freewill offerings raised by churchwardens in pursuance of a Bishop's letter are assessable to Income Tax, under Schedule E of the Income Tax Act, 1842, as perquisites accruing by reason of office, Cooper v. Blakiston, 1909 AC 104.
Small sums of money paid as personal titles to the parochial clergy by the parishioners at Easter, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 529.
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