Fees in the American Colonies. 
Ill 
first the idea, that the minister should be supported by volun¬ 
tary contributions, was tried. But the force of custom was not 
strong enough to make everyone pay these voluntary contri¬ 
butions, so legal compulsion was resorted to. In the South, 
however, this method was not even tried. The laws 1 here pro¬ 
vided, that the ministers should receive a twentieth of all the pro¬ 
duce, a charge corresponding to the old church tithes in England, 
and the "centiemes” in France. These laws were, however, soon 
repealed. 
In almost all of the colonies, the ministers of the Gospel ob¬ 
tained a large portion of their remuneration from fees, collec¬ 
ted for both ecclesiastical and political services. They acted as 
registers of births, 2 marriages and deaths, and were given fees 
for each registry; and, in so far as they acted in this capacity, 
they were public officers. In some provinces they had power 
to issue marriage licenses, 3 and everywhere they were entitled 
to the fees, fixed by law, for performing the marriage cere¬ 
mony 4 and other purely ecclesiastical functions. One law even 
went so far as to provide a fine, in case a larger fee was charged 
than the law allowed. 
The colonial schools, which existed only in the North, were 
also largely supported by fees, 5 6 paid by the pupils. It was a t 
times found necessary to appropriate money to make up t he 
1 “The minister shall have the twentieth calf, pigge, and kidd,” etc. 
Statutes at Large , Virginia 1632, I. 
2 Statutes at Large , Virginia, II, 54. Laws , New Hampshire, 1791, p. 
297. Johns Hopkins University Studies, Vol. I, Parish Institutions in 
Maryland. 
In Massachusetts the clerk of court received 3 d. for each birth, death, 
or marriage which he recorded. Colonial Laws , 1639, p. 188. 
3 In North Carolina a fine of 5£ was imposed on any layman who per¬ 
formed the marriage ceremony in a parish where there was a clergyman, 
one-half of which fine went to the clergy. Francis L. Hawks, History 
of North Carolina , II, 170. 
4 Fees fixed for performing a marriage ceremony, preaching a funeral 
sermon, etc. Henning’s Statutes at Large , II, 55. 
6 History of Taxation in Connecticut , Vol. 14, p. 66. Boone’s Edu¬ 
cation in the United States, p. 19. “They, (the schools) were not free, 
tuition was paid for all.” 
Wickhershain’s History of Education in Pennsylvania , p. 182. 
