A house belonging to the (or a) church, or used for church purposes: formerly, a house adjoining the church, where church-ales, etc., were held, a ‘parish-room.’
1484. in Glasscock, Rec. St. Michael’s, Bp. Stortford (1882), 25. For tyling of the cherch howsse.
1580. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 118. The receipts of the rent of the church houses.
1636. Divine Tragedie lately Acted, 28. They kept their feast in the Church-house joyning to the Church.
a. 1697. Aubrey, Nat. Hist. N. Wilts (Brand). In every parish is (or was) a church house, to which belonged spits, crocks, &c., utensils for dressing provision.
1887. Hazell’s Ann. Cycl., 93/2. The proposal to raise a fund for building a Church House [in London] for the manifold requirements of the Church [of England] as an organic body.
