Quoad sacra translates from Latin as "concerning sacred matters".
The term appears from around 1800 in cities where rapid expansion created a demand for more church seats, without the creation of new civil parishes.
Unlike a chapel of ease which served a similar function, a quoad sacra church had no obligation to bury its congregation, and so these churches lack burial grounds.
With the expansion of other rival denominations, especially the United Presbyterian Church and (from the Disruption of 1843) the Free Church of Scotland, the distinction became less and less critical, and by 1900 was used only in legal documents.
Civil parishes had the duty of setting church rates, in addition to their civil roles in the provision of education, sanitation and the poor law.