Definition of "ship-money" []

• In old English law, a charge or tax imposed by the king upon seaports and trading-towns, requiring them to provide and furnish war-ships, or to pay money for that purpose. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "I shall not now enter into the justness of this character of Mr. Hampden, to whose brave stand against the illegal demand of ship-money we owe our present liberties; but I mention it to you as the character, which with the alteration of one single word, GOOD, instead of MISCHIEF, I would have you aspire to, and use your utmost endeavors to deserve."
• "The tax that focused hatred on Charles was ship-money, by which a writ issued in 1635 extended to the whole country a tax hitherto levied only on seaboard towns."
• "They might assert that Hampden would have done better if he had paid the ship-money and had taught the Stuarts their lesson peaceably; that William of Orange committed a crime when he did not put his life and his sword into the hands of"