Back before about 1850, here in England, tithes were expected by the Church of England.  They had tithe barns to receive the gifts. There were maps to show what the tithes were based upon. Tithe maps were the most accurate ancient maps of some towns and villages.  I have referred more than once to the 1851 religious census where every religious organisation had to complete.  Some CofE ministers complained that people were no longer paying their tithes. They sometimes recorded their ministry as a "living" and worth a certain amount of pounds.  Some had more than one living and recorded the value of each.  They also had pew rents.  By that I assume that a family would rent a pew, often with a gate to it, and have a plaque with their name on it and woe betide any one who was not of the family who sat in it.  The census required the name of the minister, the number attending the previous weeks services, total number of seats and the number of free seats and various other information. The same was true of other denominations.  One near here said they had 300 seats* of which 150 were free,  (I have been in the building which is no longer a church but a club, and I cannot see how the could net 300 seats in there.  They had to extend the room outward to fit a full size snooker table in there .)  There is a plaque on the wall that says it was a baptist church then a Calvinistic Weslean Church but I researched it carefully and found no evidence of the latter.  It seemed to have been mostly funded by a local coal merchant, who died in 1852, and also a tea dealer.  In 1859 in a trade directory it is listed a Baptist and Ministers: Various. In 1867 when the current Baptist church was formed their minutes said that they could not use the former Baptist building as it was now a Plymouth Brethren. Later when that had their first baptism they used that building and thanked Mrs Wilson for its use.  Mrs Wilson's former husband was the coal merchant. It seems from snippets I found, there was a small Baptist church in the town from about 1860, called Noah's Ark,  The last I found of that was going through old baptist magazines in a library in London a letter from the pastor or elder? in 1866, welcoming everyone to the Ark on Sundays.  Not sure if that was incorporated into the present Baptist Church which was opened by Spurgeon and the first pastor was from Spurgeon's college. I don't think Spurgeon would have anything to do with them today.

Sorry I have digressed as usual.  The Anglican church was the only church that I found that required tithes.  The RCC may have as well but they charge for everything anyway.  

I haveordered a book by a minister named John Harvey Grime published 1934, copyright Library of Congress, Washington DC. (Should be here toward the end of the week)  

The book is very interesting from what I was able to read online, and relates the History of the Tennessee Baptist Church.  At the time of its printing, Grime stated that tithes were not a Baptist Doctrine, and that should the Baptist Church begin teaching tithing, it would cease being Baptist.

The book arrived this morning.  Following is just a sample of what is  in the book:

               But as to the method of execution, we do not endorse the tithe system for the following reasons:

1.  It violates the divine plan laid down in the New Testament Scriptures.

2.  It violates every principle of Church polity upon which all our churches stand.

3.  If the Scriptures require our churches to tithe, we have not a single Scriptural church in our association. 

4.  It changes our giving from the realm of voluntary worship to that of slavish obedience to Law.

5.  It makes our churches tax gatherers.

6.  No Baptist Church has ever adopted it.  Should a church adopt it, they would cease to be Baptist.

7.  So far as History goes, it was never mentioned as a Christian or Church obligation until after the “great apostasy” in 250 A.D., and then only by the apostate church, and not by Baptists.  The agitation among Baptists, of this question, is of recent date.

8.  No Baptist Confession of Faith has ever mentioned it.

9.  It screens the rich, and oppresses the poor.

10.  Not one syllable in all the Bible that connects the tithe system with the churches of Jesus Christ.  When Baptists leave the Bible, they get into trouble.
-- John Harvey Grime; The Bible and History on the Tithe System, p.4; ©1934

The passage below in scripture has been abused by many Pastors and bible teachers alike who teach that this is a lesson about tithing; however, nothing in that context suggests that is the case. That passage is dealing with a woman who is trying to "earn" her way to heaven through works -- which is what the scribes and Pharisees taught. This widow gave all that she had (two mites -- 1/8 of a cent) believing that she would attain a right standing with God.

Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; [Which devour widows' houses], and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation. (Luke 20:45-47)

God Bless!