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Queen Anne's Bounty

{{short description|Scheme for assisting poorer clergy of the Church of England}}

Queen Anne's Bounty was a scheme established in 1704 to augment the incomes of the poorer clergy of the Church of England and by extension the organisation ("The Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the Poor Clergy") that administered the bounty (and eventually a number of other forms of assistance to poor livings).

Original structure

The bounty was originally funded by the annates monies: 'first fruits' (the first year's income of a cleric newly appointed to a benefice){{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Annates |volume=2 |page=64}} and 'tenths' – a tenth of the income in subsequent years traditionally paid by English clergy to the pope until the Reformation and thereafter to the Crown. Henry VIII, on becoming the recipient of these monies had had them carefully valued and specified as sums of money. This valuation was never revised, and in 1920 the income from First Fruits and Tenths was between £15,000 and £16,000.{{cite book|last1=Le Fanu|first1=William Richard|title=Queen Anne's bounty, a short account of its history and work|date=1921|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/queenannesbounty00lefauoft|access-date=4 November 2015}}{{rp|17}}

The bounty money was to be used to increase the income of livings yielding less than £80 a year. It was not paid directly to incumbents but instead used to purchase land (generally £200-worth), the income from which augmented the living. The livings to be augmented were selected by lot from those with an annual income less than £10, or (in the early years of the bounty) those where augmentation by a third party was offered conditional upon augmentation by bounty funds. Parishes worth less than £20 a year were included in the ballot in 1747, those worth less than £30 a year in 1788 and those under £50 in 1810.{{rp|38–9}}

Many of the fine Georgian and Victorian parsonages still in existence were funded by mortgages drawing on the fund after the Clergy Residence Repair Act 1776{{Cite web | title=The Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the Poor Clergy - Archives Hub | url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/2055259f-e312-3103-9967-750296cf8547 | access-date=2025-02-15 | website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}} (17 Geo. 3. c. 53) was passed 'to promote the residence of the parochial clergy, by making provision for the more speedy and effectual building, rebuilding, repairing or purchasing houses and other necessary buildings and tenements for the use of their benefices'. Known as the Gilbert Act, it enabled the lending of up to three years' income of all benefices for the building or repair of a parsonage house.

Later developments

Augmented parishes came to find it more convenient to not actually purchase land, but to leave the purchase money deposited with the bounty, which paid a guaranteed but moderate rate of interest. The money held by the bounty was invested at higher rates of interest, the difference between interest paid the bounty on their investments, and that paid by the bounty to parishes going to meet the running costs of the bounty and to increase the funds available for augmentation.{{rp|22}} In 1829 the purchase money deposited with the bounty amounted to over £1m, which was invested in bank annuities (financial instruments of fluctuating value, then worth over £1.3m);{{rp|24}} by 1900 the bounty was holding over £7m credited to various augmented livings.{{rp|31}}

The original (first fruits and tenths) income and that from interest rate differences on money on deposit with the bounty, had by 1815 allowed the allocation of nearly £1.5m of capital (securing nearly £0.5m of third-party benefactions) to augment the income of 3,300 livings.{{rp|43}} To accelerate augmentation, between 1809 and 1820 Parliament made annual grants to the bounty of £100,000; £1.1m in total. As a result, by 1824 all livings under £30 a year had been augmented and there were funds in hand to permit the augmentation of all livings worth under £50 a year. By 1841, it was estimated, the operations of the bounty (discounting the effects of the Parliamentary grants of 1809-20) had secured additional church income over ten times that of the first fruits and tenths.{{rp|45}}

The Ecclesiastical Commission reported (1836) the following data on low-income livings:{{cite journal|title=First Fruits|journal=Hansard House of Commons Debates|date=4 May 1837|volume=38|pages=cc530-9|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1837/may/04/first-fruits#S3V0038P0_18370504_HOC_17|access-date=17 November 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304102915/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1837/may/04/first-fruits#S3V0038P0_18370504_HOC_17|url-status=live}}

class="wikitable"
Annual income of livingLess than £50£50–100£100–150£150–200
Number of livings2971,6281,6021,354

(As a rough comparison, in Queen Anne's reign, 3,800 livings had been worth less than £50 a year and therefore excused (in perpetuity) payment of first fruits and tenths.){{rp|12}}

After 1836, bounty augmentations were generally to match third party benefactions to livings worth less than £200 a year. In 1890, the total amount distributed was £176,896.

On 2 April 1947, by the Church Commissioners Measure 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. No. 2), the functions and assets of Queen Anne's Bounty were merged with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to form the Church Commissioners.{{cite web

| url = http://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/churchcommissioners.aspx

| title = The Church Commissioners

| work = The Church Commissioners Measure 1947

| access-date = 19 April 2006

| archive-date = 12 January 2011

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110112125234/http://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/churchcommissioners.aspx

| url-status = live

}}

The archives of Queen Anne's Bounty are now held by the Church of England Record Centre; specific documents may be consulted by appointment.

On 16 June 2022 the Church Commissioners published an interim report on research into links between Queen Anne's Bounty and the Atlantic slave trade. The report said that Queen Anne's Bounty had invested significant sums in the South Sea Company, which transported 34,000 slaves to the Spanish Americas in the 18th century and had received benefactions from people with links to slavery, including Edward Colston. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, apologised for the links with slavery identified in the report.{{cite news |last=Sherwood |first=Harriet |date=16 June 2022 |title=C of E paid poor 18th-century clergy with 'abominable' slave trade funds |work=The Guardian |publisher= |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/16/church-of-england-paid-poor-18th-century-clergy-with-abominable-slave-trade-funds-justin-welby |access-date=18 June 2022 |archive-date=18 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618141618/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/16/church-of-england-paid-poor-18th-century-clergy-with-abominable-slave-trade-funds-justin-welby |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Hattie |date=16 June 2022 |title=Church Commissioners acknowledge that slave trade boosted early funds |work=Church Times |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/17-june/news/uk/church-commissioners-acknowledge-that-slave-trade-boosted-early-funds |access-date=18 June 2022}} In January 2023 the Church Commissioners announced that they were setting up a fund of £100 million to be spent over the next nine years on addressing historic links with slavery,{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64228673 |title=Church of England announces £100m fund after slavery links |work=BBC |date=10 January 2023}} a figure increased to £1B in March 2024 following a report commissioned by the Church Commissioners{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/04/church-of-england-told-to-boost-size-of-fund-to-address-legacy-of-slavery|title=C of E hoping to create £1bn fund to address legacy of slavery|first=Harriet|last=Sherwood|work=The Guardian|date=4 March 2024}}.

Legislation

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Queen Anne's Bounty (Superannuation) Act 1870

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An Act to enable the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty to provide Superannuation Allowances for their Officers.

| year = 1870

| citation = 33 & 34 Vict. c. 89

| introduced_commons =

| introduced_lords =

| territorial_extent =

| royal_assent = 9 August 1870

| commencement =

| expiry_date =

| repeal_date =

| amends =

| replaces =

| amendments =

| repealing_legislation =

| related_legislation =

| status =

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| theyworkforyou =

| millbankhansard =

| original_text =

| revised_text =

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| collapsed = yes

}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Queen Anne's Bounty (Powers) Measure 1937

| type = church measure

| parliament = National Assembly of the Church of England

| long_title = To establish a system of quarterly payments of income payable by Queen Anne’s Bounty to incumbents of benefices, and to provide for the transfer to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of funds held by Queen Anne’s Bounty for the benefit of ecclesiastical corporations, and for purposes connected therewith.

| year = 1870

| citation = 1 Edw. 8. & 1 Geo. 6. No. 1

| introduced_commons =

| introduced_lords =

| territorial_extent =

| royal_assent = 18 February 1937

| commencement =

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| amends =

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| related_legislation =

| status =

| legislation_history =

| theyworkforyou =

| millbankhansard =

| original_text =

| revised_text =

| use_new_UK-LEG = yes

| UK-LEG_title = Queen Anne's Bounty (Powers) Measure 1937

| collapsed = yes

}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Queen Anne's Bounty (Powers) Measure 1939

| type = church measure

| parliament = National Assembly of the Church of England

| long_title = To confer upon Queen Anne’s Bounty additional powers relating to the application of augmentation moneys and securities, the abatement and extinguishment of charges upon benefices, and other matters connected therewith.

| year = 1870

| citation = 2 & 3 Geo. 6 No. 1

| introduced_commons =

| introduced_lords =

| territorial_extent =

| royal_assent = 28 April 1939

| commencement =

| expiry_date =

| repeal_date =

| amends =

| replaces =

| amendments =

| repealing_legislation =

| related_legislation =

| status =

| legislation_history =

| theyworkforyou =

| millbankhansard =

| original_text =

| revised_text =

| use_new_UK-LEG = yes

| UK-LEG_title = Queen Anne's Bounty (Powers) Measure 1939

| collapsed = yes

}}

The Queen Anne's Bounty Acts 1706 to 1870 is the collective title of the following Acts:The Short Titles Act 1896, section 2(1) and Schedule 2

{{anchor|Queen Anne's Bounty (Superannuation) Act 1870}}

  • The Queen Anne's Bounty (Superannuation) Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 89)

See also

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/churchcommissioners/ccorigins/qabbooklet.pdf Queen Anne's Bounty Tercentenary Commemorative Booklet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705042525/http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/churchcommissioners/ccorigins/qabbooklet.pdf |date=5 July 2008 }}

{{Nuttall|title=Queen Anne's Bounty}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}

Category:1704 establishments in England

Category:1947 disestablishments in England

Category:History of the Church of England

Category:Economic history of England