What is "chimney money"

Hearth \Hearth\ (h[aum]rth), n. [OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS. heor[eth]; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. h["a]rd, G. herd; cf. Goth. ha['u]ri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare to burn.]

1. The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.

   There was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
   --Jer. xxxvi. 2

2. Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept. There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry.
   --Shak.

   2. The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.

   Household talk and phrases of the hearth.
   --Tennyson.

3. (Metal. & Manuf.) The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles; as, an open-hearth smelting furnace.

   Hearth ends (Metal.), fragments of lead ore ejected from the furnace by the blast.

   Hearth money, Hearth penny [AS. heor[eth]pening], a tax formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at two shillings; -- called also chimney money, etc.

   He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the . . . burden of the hearth money.
   --Macaulay.