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1 G. I. c.

10.

5 Anne, c. 24.

6 Anne, c. 27.

Act 45 GEO. 3, ch. 84.

An Act for making more effectual the gracious Intentions of
her late Majesty Queen Anne, for the Augmentation of the
Maintenance of the Poor Clergy, so far as relates to the
Returns of Certificates into the Exchequer, and Gifts of
Personal Property.

WHEREAS by an Act passed in the first year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the First, intituled, " An Act for making more effectual her late Majesty's gracious intentions for augmenting the maintenance of the poor Clergy," the respective Bishops of every Diocese were empowered from time to time, as they should see occasion, and as might best serve the purposes of the said Bounty to the poor Clergy, to inform themselves by such means as in the said Act are mentioned, of the clear improved yearly value of every Benefice with Cure of Souls, Living, and Curacy, and of the true and clear improved yearly value of the maintenance of every Parson, Vicar, Curate, and Minister officiating in any such Churches or Chapels as are therein mentioned, and how such yearly values arose, with the other circumstances thereof, and the same to certify to the said Governors, for their better information in the premises; in which said Act is contained a proviso, that where by certificates returned into her said Majesty's Court of Exchequer at Westminster, pursuant to an Act made in the fifth year of her reign, intituled, "An Act for discharging small Livings from their First Fruits and Tenths, and all arrears thereof;" and one other Act made in the sixth year of her reign, intituled, “An Act to enlarge the time for returning the certificates of all ecclesiastical livings not exceeding the yearly value of fifty pounds, and for other purposes," or either of them, or made good by the said recited Act of the first year of King George the First, the yearly value of any Livings not exceeding the clear yearly value of fifty pounds, were particularly and duly expressed and specified, such certificates should ascertain the yearly values of such Livings, in order to their being augmented by the said Governors, and no new or different valuation thereof should be returned to the said Governors by virtue of the said recited Act: and whereas since the time that such certificates were returned into the Exchequer, in pursuance of the said Acts of the fifth and sixth of her said late Majesty Queen Anne, many livings in such certificates mentioned, and thereby

and Guar

dians to inquire into

value of

benefices

into the Exchequer, and certify

returned as not exceeding the clear yearly value of fifty pounds, for the purpose of being discharged from First Fruits and Tenths, are by subsequent improvement of their glebes and tithes, and by inclosures and other means, become of much greater value; and in order that the Bounty of her said late Majesty may be applied as was originally intended, for the augmentation of small livings, in places where the same are not already sufficiently provided for, and that her Majesty's gracious intentions for the relief of the poor Clergy may be more speedily and effectually carried into execution, it is become expedient that the Governors of the said Bounty should be empowered to receive new valuations of such livings as were so returned into the Exchequer: may it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the respective Bishops Bishops of every Diocese, and the Guardians of Spiritualities sede vacante, shall be and are hereby empowered from time to time, as they shall see occasion, and as may best serve the purposes of the said Bounty to the poor Clergy, by such ways and means as in the returned said Act of the first year of his Majesty King George the First, are mentioned in that behalf, to inform themselves of the clear improved yearly value of such Benefices with Cure of Souls, Livings, and Curacies, as were returned into the Exchequer in pursuance of the said Acts of the fifth and sixth years of the reign of her said Queen late Majesty Queen Anne, within their several Dioceses, or within Bounty, any peculiars or places of exempt jurisdiction within the bounds who shall be empowand limits of their respective Dioceses, or adjoining or contiguous thereto, although the same be exempt from the jurisdiction of any Bishop in other cases, and how such yearly values arise, with the other circumstances thereof; and the same or such of them, whereof they shall have fully informed themselves, from time to time, with all convenient speed to certify to the said Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy, for their better information in the premises; and the said Governors are hereby authorized and empowered, with respect to the augmentation of such Livings, so formerly certified into the Exchequer. Exchequer as aforesaid, to act upon and be guided by such new certificates of the value and other circumstances thereof, made in pursuance of this Act, as fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as they are in and by the said first hereinbefore mentioned and in part recited Act enabled to do with regard to such Livings as were not so certified into the Exchequer, and as if the restraint of the said proviso therein had not been made, the same proviso or

the same to the Gover

nors of

Anne's

ered

upon such new certi

ficate as

they are

now en

abled to do with respect to Livings not returned

into the

Not to affect Livings with

respect to their discharge from First Fruits and Tenths. For facili.

any thing in the said recited Act to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.

II. Provided always, and be it enacted, that such certificates as were returned into the Exchequer for the purpose of ascertaining what Livings were to be discharged from First Fruits and Tenths, shall not, so far as the same relate to the First Fruits and Tenths, be affected or altered in any manner whatsoever by any thing in this Act contained.

III. And in order to facilitate the intentions of all such persons tating the as may be disposed to contribute to the augmentation of such Livintentious ings and Curacies as are within the meaning of the laws now in of persons disposed to force, respecting the said Bounty; be it further enacted, that it contribute shall be lawful for any person or persons having in his, her, or their towards own right, any money, goods, chattels, or other personal effects, at augmentation of liv- his, her, or their will and pleasure, to give or grant to, or vest in ings. the said Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne and their successors, to be by them disposed of according to law, all or any part of such money, goods, chattels, or other personal effects, without any deed or deeds, either enrolled or not enrolled, in like manner as he, she, or they could or might have done, either by deed or deeds enrolled or otherwise, before the passing of this Act, any statute or law to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

Not to affect the laws respecting

IV. Provided nevertheless, that nothing herein contained shall in any manner alter or affect the law now in force respecting the gift or conveyance of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, by any deed or deeds, or the disposition thereof, or of any goods, chattels, of lands, or other personal property, by will or testament.

the gift or conveyance

&c.

The First

November,

3 Anne.

THE FIRST CHARTER,

Sealed with the Great Seal of England.
3d November, 3 Anne.

ANNE, by the grace of God of England, Scotland, France, and Charter, 3d Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c. to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. As the welfare and support of the Church of England, as by law established, have been always our greatest care, so we have, since our accession to the Crown, frequently reflected on the miserable condition of a very great number of the Clergy of this our kingdom, by reason of the mean and insufficient provision for their maintenance in several places, which number of tends very much to the ruin of this Church: and in regard that the the Clergy,

Her Majesty, re

flecting on the mean condition

of a great

the arrears

small Liv

ings not exceeding 30%. per

annum.

message to

the Com

arrears of Tenths due to our Exchequer upon small Rectories and discharges Vicarages could not be answered without great difficulties and of Tenths hardships to the poor Incumbents, and that several of those due on Churches, for fear of incurring the full payment of such arrears, were held in sequestration by temporary Curates, without being regularly filled with institution and induction, we were resolved to do as much as in us lay towards easing of the Clergy, and were graciously inclined to think, that the Ministers who served those Cures might, in respect of their poverty, be true objects of our royal compassion, and that it would tend to the honour and good discipline of the Established Church, if those benefices were filled with able clerks, legally instituted and inducted; and to the charitable purpose aforesaid, we signed a warrant to authorise our Lord High Treasurer to discharge the arrears of Tenths due upon the small Rectories and Vicarages not exceeding thirty pounds per annum, by the most improved valuations of the same, on condition that the respective Churches were first filled with institution and induction; and our Lord High Treasurer signified our said bountiful intention by letters directed to our Archbishops and Bishops accordingly; Her Maand in order to settle a fund for increasing the maintenances of the jesty's poor Clergy, we commanded our right trusty and well-beloved counsellor Sir Charles Hedges, knight, one of our principal Secretaries of State, to deliver a message in writing, signed by us, to our most dutiful and loyal Commons of England in Parliament assembled, declaring, that we having taken into our serious consideration the mean and insufficient maintenance belonging to the poor Clergy in divers parts of this kingdom, to give them some ease had been pleased to remit the arrears of the Tenths to the poor Clergy; that, for augmentation of their maintenance, we would make a nue of First grant of our whole revenue arising out of First Fruits and Tenths, as far as it then was or should become free from incumbrances, to an augbe applied to this purpose; and if the House of Commons could mentation find any proper method by which our good intentions to the poor Clergy might be made more effectual, it would be a great advantage to the public and very acceptable to us. And whereas, by an Act of Parliament made in the second year of our reign, intituled, “An Act for the making more effectual her Majesty's gracious intentions for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy, by enabling her Majesty to grant in perpetuity the revenues of the First Fruits and Tenths; and also for enabling any other persons to make grants for the same purpose," reciting, that whereas, at a Parliament holden in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King First Fruits Henry the Eighth, the First Fruits, Revenues, and Profits for one Tenths,

and

mons, signifying she was pleased to remit the arrears of Tenths, and would make a

grant of her reve

Fruits and Tenths for

of the

maintenance of the poor Clergy.

An Act to

enable her Majesty to grant in perpetuity

the reve

nues of

and

able any person to make grants.

Settled provision not being made, a temptation to preach

ers.

and to en- year, upon every nomination or appointment to any dignity, benefice, office, or promotion spiritual, within this realm or elsewhere within the said King's dominions, and also a perpetual yearly rent er pension amounting to the value of the tenth part of all the revenues and profits belonging to any dignity, benefice, or promotion spiritual whatsoever, within any diocese of this realm or in Wales, were granted to the said King Henry the Eighth, his heirs and successors; and divers other statutes have since been made touching the First Fruits and annual Tenths of the Clergy, and the ordering thereof; and whereas a sufficient settled provision for the Clergy in many parts of this realm hath never yet been made, by reason whereof divers mean and stipendiary Preachers are in manyTM places entertained to serve the Cures and officiate there, who, depending for their necessary maintenance upon the good-will and liking of their hearers, have been and are thereby under temptation of too much complying and suiting their doctrines and teachings to the humours rather than the good of their hearers, which hath been great occasion of faction and schism and contempt of the ministry and further mentioning, that forasmuch as we, taking into our princely and serious consideration the mean and insufficient maintenance belonging to the Clergy in divers parts of this our kingdom, have been most graciously pleased, out of our most religious and tender concern for the Church of England (whereof ourself is the only supreme head on earth,) and for the poor Clergy thereof, not only to remit the arrears of our Tenths due from our poor Clergy, but also to declare unto our most dutiful and loyal Commons, our royal pleasure and pious desire that the whole revenue arising from the First Fruits and Tenths of the Clergy Inight be settled for a perpetual augmentation of the maintenance of the said poor Clergy in places where the same is not already sufficiently provided for: (to the end that our most gracious intentions may be made effectual, and that the Church may receive so great and lasting an advantage from our parting with so great a branch of our revenue towards the better provision for the Clergy not sufficiently provided for, and to the intent our singular zeal for the support of the Clergy, and the honour, interest, and future security of the church as by law established, may be perpetuated to Queen may all ages,) it is enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for us, by our incorpoLetters Patent under the Great Seal of England, to incorporate such rate persons, and persons as we shall therein nominate or appoint to be one body grant to politic and corporate, and to have a common seal and perpetual them her revenue of succession; and also at our will and pleasure, by the same or any Firs Fruits other Letters Patent, to grant, limit, or settle to or upon the said for ever, to Corporation and their successors for ever, all the revenue of First

and Tenths

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