Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 67, § 35: Assessments on pews

Section 35. A corporation for religious purposes may assess upon the pews in a church or meeting house which it has erected or procured for public worship since March twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and forty-five, according to a valuation of said pews previously agreed upon, and recorded by the clerk, sums of money for the support of public worship and other parochial charges, and for the repairs of the house. Such assessments may be collected in the manner provided in sections thirty and thirty-one.