Smoke Money

I do not know whether any additional information on *smoke money* is required but the following extracts may be interesting to your Querist:— "At this daie the Bp. of Elie hath out of everie parish in Cambridgeshire a certeine tribute called Elie Farthings, or *Smoke Farthings*, which the church-wardens do levie, according to the number of houses or else of chimneys that be in a parish."—MSS, Baker, xxix. 326. The date of this impost is given in the next extract:— "By the records of the Church of Elie, it appears that in the year 1154, every person who kept a fire in the several parishes withi…