Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a cash payment claimed by bailiffs for discharging their duty in a courteous manner.

1707		Harleian Mss XI (1810) 49: The bailiff demands two shillings and four pence of the defendant at the time he arrests him, as the sheriff’s fee, and always takes much more for waiting and civility- money.
1721		State Trials 199/1: After came another man Reason, and said they arrested him [...] My Master said, Let me see your Warrant: Reason show’d it him, and he said, wipe your Arse with it, and throw'd it down upon the Ground. Reason ask’d for Civility Money ; my Master said, No, be would give him none, for he had not used him well.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue .
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.