alteration of them, or any of them, or any matter or thing relating thereunto, which were in force at the time of making this Act, shall be, remain, and continue in their full force and effect, and be observed and put in due execution according to the tenors and purports of the same, and every of them, for such intents and purposes nevertheless, as shall be contained or directed in or by the said Letters Patents. III. Provided also, that this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to avoid, or any way to impeach or affect any grant, exchange, alienation, or incumbrance, at any time heretofore made, of or upon the said revenues of First Fruits and Tenths, or any part thereof; but that the same shall, during the continuance of such grant, exchange, alienation, or incumbrance respectively, be and remain of and in such force and virtue, and no other, to all intents and purposes, as if this Act had not been made. IV. And for the encouragement of such well-disposed persons as shall, by her Majesty's royal example, be moved to contribute to so pious and charitable a purpose, and that such their charity may be rightly applied; be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and every person and persons, having in his or their own right any estate or interest in possession, reversion, or contingency, of or in any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any property of or in any goods or chattels, shall have full power, licence, and authority, at his, her, and their will and pleasure, by deed inrolled, in such manner, and within such time, as is directed by the statute made in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, for inrolment of bargains and sales, or by his, her, or their last will or testament in writing, duly executed according to law, to give and grant to, and vest in the said Corporation, and their successors, all such his, her, or their estate, interest, or property, in such lands, tenements, and hereditaments, goods and chattels, or any part or parts thereof, for and towards the augmentation of the maintenance of such Ministers as aforesaid, officiating in such Church or Chapel, where the liturgy and rites of the said Church are or shall be so used or observed as aforesaid, and having no settled competent provision belonging to the same, and to be for that purpose applied according to the will of the said benefactor, in and by such deed inrolled, or by such will or testament executed as aforesaid, expressed and in default of such direction, limitation, or appointment, in such manner as by her Majesty's Letters Patents shall be directed or appointed as aforesaid. And such Corporation, and their successors, shall have full capacity and ability to purchase, receive, take, hold, and enjoy, for the purposes aforesaid, as well from such persons as shall be so charitably disposed to give the Proviso for all grants, &c. hereto. fore made. 27 H. 8. c. sons may said corpo- any ma nors, &c. or sell, &c. same, as from all other persons as shall be willing to sell or aliene to the said Corporation any manors, lands, tenements, goods, or chattels, without any licence or writ of ad quod damnum; the statute of mortmain, or any other statute or law to the contrary notwithstanding. Persons excepted from making such gifts, &c. V. Provided always, that this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to enable any person or persons, being within age or of non sane memory, or women covert, without their husbands, to make any such gift, grant, or alienation; any thing in this Act contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. VI. And whereas four bonds for four half yearly payments of the First Fruits, as the same are rated, and also a fifth bond for a further value or payment, in respect of the same First Fruits, have been required and taken from the Clergy, to their great and unnecessary burden and grievance;' for remedy thereof be it enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and four, one bond only shall in such case be given or required for the four payments of the said First Fruits; which said First Fruits, as well as the Tenths payable by the Clergy, shall hereafter be answered and paid by them according to such rates and proportions only as the same have heretofore been usually rated and paid; and no such fifth bond already given shall, from and of the First after the said twenty-fifth day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and four, be sued or recovered. One bond only to be taken for the four payments Fruits. 1 GEO. 1. ch. 10. An Act for making more effectual her late Majesty's gracious WHEREAS it is necessary for the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy, in order to the more regular making proper augmentations, to be informed, as exactly as may be, of the clear improved yearly value of the maintenance of all such Parsons, Vicars, Curates and Ministers, officiating in any Church or Chapel within that part of Great Britain called England, the dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, where the liturgy, and rights of the Church of England, as now by law established, are or shall be used and ob served, whose maintenance is intended to be augmented:' Be it en form them selves of yearly Va &c. acted 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 of every Diocese, and the guardians of Bishops the spiritualities sede vacante, shall be and are hereby impowered shall inand required, from time to time, as they shall see occasion, and as may best serve the purposes of the said Bounty to the poor Clergy, Jue of every as well by the oath of two or more credible witnesses, (which they Benefice, or others commissioned by them under their hands and seals, are hereby impowered to administer) as by all other lawful ways and means, to inform themselves 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 aforesaid, within their several Dioceses, or within any Peculiars or places of exempt jurisdiction within the bounds and limits of their respective Dioceses, or adjoining and contiguous thereunto, 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 under their respective hands, and seal or seals of their respective offices, to the said Gover- and certify nors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the same. maintenance of the poor Clergy, for their better information in the premises. 24. II. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, Proviso. that where by certificates duly returned into Her Majesty's Court of Exchequer at Westminster, pursuant to an Act made in the Parliament held in the fifth year of the reign of Her said late Majesty, intituled, "An Act for discharging small livings from their First Fruits 5 Ann. c. and Tenths, and all arrears thereof," and one other Act made in the sixth year of the reign of her said late Majesty, intituled, “An Act to 6 Ann. c. enlarge the time for returning the certificates of all ecclesiastical Liv- 87. ings, not exceding the yearly value of fifty pounds: as also for discharging all livings of that value from the payment of First Fruist; and for allowing time to Archbishops and Bishops, and other Dignitaries for payment of their First Fruits," or either of them, or made good by this Act, the yearly value of any livings, not exceeding the clear yearly value of fifty pounds, are particularly and duly expressed and specified, such certificates shall ascertain the yearly values of such Certifilivings, in order to their being augmented by the said Governors, and no new or different valuation thereof shall be returned to the said Governors by virtue of this present Act. cates. Letters Pa tent. III. And whereas by her late Majesty's Letters Patent under her Great Seal, bearing date the third day of November in the third year of her reign, incorporating the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy, the said Governors were authorized to consider, consult, advise, agree upon, draw up, prepare, and propose in writing to her said Majesty, her heirs and successors, such proper and necessary rules, methods, directions, orders and constitutions, as the said Governors, or any seven or more of them, with such quorum as is therein directed, should in their discretions judge most convenient to be observed, for and towards the better rule and government of the said Corporation, and the members thereof, and the receiving, accounting for, and managing all and every the revenues thereby granted or mentioned to be granted, and all arrears thereof, and also for and concerning the distributing, paying and disposing of the same, and all other gifts and benevolences that should or might be given or bequeathed to the said Corporation for the charitable ends in the said Letters Patent mentioned, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy aforesaid; and such rules, methods, orders, directions and constitutions, as should be so proposed and should be approved, altered or amended by her said late Majesty, her heirs or successors, and such as should be made by her said Majesty, her heirs and successors, and so signified and declared by her, her heirs, or successors, under her or their Great Seal, her said late Majesty thereby willed should be the rules, methods, directions, orders and constitutions, by which the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy and their successors, should receive, manage, govern, apply and dispose her said late Majesty's royal Bounty, and other gifts and benevolences which should or might after that time be given or bequeathed to the said Corporation (where the Donors thereof shall not particularly direct the application thereof) to and for the increase of the maintenance of such Parsons, Vicars, Curates, and Ministers officiating in any Church or Chapel within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, where the liturgy and rites of the Church of England, as then by Law established, were and should be used and observed, for whom a maintenance was not then sufficiently provided: And whereas pursuant to the said Letters Patent of Incorporation, the said Governors did agree upon, prepare, and proposed to her said late Majesty, certain rules and constitutions for the better rule and Government of Letters Pa- the said Corporation, and her said late Majesty, by Letters Patent under her Great Seal, bearing date the fifth day of March in the twelfth year of her reign, did establish the said rules and constitutions, reserving to herself, her heirs and successors, power from time tent. to time, under her or their Great Seal, to alter the same, and to give rules, &c. King's under the Sign Man ual shall be valid. IV. And whereas her said late Majesty's Royal Bounty to the poor Clergy was intended to extend not only to Parsons and Vicars who come in by presentation or collation, institution, and induction, but likewise to such Ministers who come in by donation, or are only Stipendiary Preachers or Curates, officiating in any Church or Chapel where the liturgy and rights of the Church of England is now by Law established, are and shall be used and observed, most of which are not Corporations, nor have a legal succession, and therefore are incapable of taking a grant or conveyance of such perpetual augmentation as is agreeable to her said late Majesty's gracious intentions, and in many places it would be in the power of thel m propriator, Donor, Parson or Vicar, to withdraw the allowance now or heretofore paid to the Curate or Minister serving the Cure, or in case of a Chapelry, the Incumbent of the Mother-Church might refuse to employ a Curate, or permit a Minister duly nominated or licensed to officiate in such augmented Chapel, and might officiate there himself, and take the benefit of the augmentation, though his Living be above the value of those which are intended to be first augmented, and the maintenance of the Curate or Minister would thus be sunk instead of being augmented: Be it All augtherefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all such Churches, Churches, Curacies, or Chapels, which shall at any time hereafter be augment- &c. shall be ed by the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne for the augmenta- perpetual Benefices, tion of the maintenance of the poor Clergy, shall be, and are hereby and Minisdeclared and established to be, from the time of such augmentations, ters, Bodies Perpetual Cures and Benefices, and the Ministers duly nominated and licensed thereunto, and their successors respectively, shall be, and be esteemed in law, bodies politic and corporate, and shall mented Politic. |