Explanations. (1)

The name of the Pluralist comes first. After the name comes the first living of the Pluralist in italic, and an initial letter denoting its title—namely, r. for rectory, v. for vicarage, c. for chapelry, p. c. for perpetual curacy, d. for donative, d. r. for district rectory, and d. c. for district chapelry. The name of the Patron is put after the living or livings, supposing more than one living, of which the same person is patron. Abp. is put for archbishop, bp. for bishop, archd. for archdeacon, dn. for dean, ch. for chapter. When a living is in the gift of the University of Oxford, Oxon is put; when of the University of Cambridge, Camb. When a nobleman, as the duke of Newcastle, or the marquis of Exeter, is patron, the of in the title is omitted both for brevity and propriety. The “of” expresses territorial jurisdiction, but as peers do not possess such authority at the present day, the term by which it is implied may be properly dropped.

In the language of churchmen a living or benefice, which are synonymous, is a rectory or vicarage only; but many chapelries are equally entitled to fall under this denomination, and have been so considered. There are free chapels perpetually maintained, and provided with a minister, without charge to the rector or parish. In some places chapels of ease are endowed with lands and tithes; they have by custom a right to a distinct minister, to baptize, to administer sacraments and burial: such parochial chapelries differ only in name from parish churches. Parish is a vague term. In the north, parishes comprise thirty or forty square miles, which is seven or eight times the area of parishes in the south. Under 13th Charles II. certain townships and villages are allowed to maintain their own poor; hence these townships became so many distinct parishes. There are 200 extra-parochial places, many of which are as large as parishes; these are exempt from poor-rate, because there is no overseer on whom the magistrate can serve an order;—from militia, because no constable to make a return; from repairing highways, because no surveyor. The 37 Hen. VIII. c. 31, (also 4 and 5 Will. & Mary,) allows the union of churches, when not more than one mile apart, and under value of £6. Under these acts churches have been united: the city of London reckons 108 parishes, forming no more than 78 benefices; in Norwich, 70 parishes have been compressed into 37 benefices. Contrary to the rule of ecclesiastics, we have considered all parishes held cum, or with another, distinct benefices; the only reason for an opposite course is, that they form only one presentation, though such presentation is often held by two patrons, who present alternately; and many of such consolidated parishes (Upham cum Durley, for instance,) have two churches, and two sets of overseers and churchwardens.

The district rectories and district chapelries, established in such parishes as have been divided into ecclesiastical districts by the Royal Commissioners for Building New Churches, under the authority of powers granted to them by Parliament, form so many distinct livings or benefices, each having a separate maintenance for a minister, independent of the mother church.

Apart, then, from the corruptions and mystification of the Church, we have deemed every parochial preferment, chapelry, vicarage, or rectory, a living; and we consider every clergyman a pluralist who holds two such preferments, whether separate or united. A curacy, without any great impropriety, might be styled a living, as a stipend is, or ought to be, annexed to the office, adequate to the maintenance of at least one individual: but as curates are removable at the pleasure of incumbents, they are excluded from our List, which includes only beneficed clergymen.

The abuse of holding two livings or more is so prevalent, that to have enumerated all the transgressors (about 2880 in number,) would have extended our List to an inconvenient length, without corresponding utility; our object has been to exhibit the more flagrant breaches of ecclesiastical discipline; and with this view, we have restricted ourselves to such shameful monopolists among the parochial clergy as hold three or more preferments. We have also included the bishops and principal dignitaries of the church.

The 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13, prohibits a person holding a second benefice when the first is worth eight pounds in the King’s Book. But a man, by dispensation, may hold as many benefices, without cure, as he can get; and, likewise, so many with cure as he can get, all of them, or all but the last, being under the value of eight pounds; provided the person to be dispensed withal be not otherwise incapable thereof. By the 41st Canon, however, of 1603, the two benefices must not be farther distant than thirty miles; and persons obtaining dispensation, must at least be M.A. But the provisions of this canon are not regarded or enforced in the courts of law; and the privileges, ex officio, entitling to grants of dispensation, are so numerous, and the facilities for obtaining them, through favour or evasion, so easy, that there can hardly be said to exist a practical check to the most aggravated cases of plurality.

In the disposal of every living, three parties are principally concerned: first, the patron; second, the incumbent; third, the bishop. The patron is the person in whom the right of presenting to a living is vested. The person nominated by the patron is the incumbent. The office of the bishop is to grant institution to the living to which the incumbent is presented. By refusing institution, the bishops have a veto on appointments by patrons; this veto, however, is rarely exercised, and it is seldom that the patron and the diocesan are at issue. The most important personage in the affair is the patron. It will be seen from the List that the patronage is sometimes in individuals—sometimes in public bodies. Sometimes the incumbent is his own patron, and presents himself; sometimes the incumbent’s wife is patron, and presents her husband; sometimes the husband and wife are co-patrons. In some instances the patronage is divided, the nomination being in one party and the appointment in another. Many ladies are patrons, and though otherwise ineligible to the exercise of civil rights, no doubt they are well qualified to select spiritual persons for the cure of souls.

Nearly all the livings in the metropolis, and the most valuable livings in the large towns in the country, are in the gift of the crown, which adds enormously to its influence. The patronage not in the crown is chiefly in the aristocracy and gentry, the universities, and the bishops. The patronage of the aristocracy and gentry is chiefly bestowed on the members of their own families; the patronage of the universities on the members of those places; the patronage of the bishops on their connexions and relations to the hundredth degree. A great mass of patronage, however, remains, which cannot be disposed of in any of these ways; for though the families of the aristocracy have been recently proved to be, on the average, more prolific than those of the democracy, they are not sufficiently so to fill all offices in the army, navy, law, church, and public departments; and, consequently, there is a surplus patronage to be brought into the market, which is disposed of, like other commodities, to the highest bidder.

It would have been more satisfactory, had we been able to state the present value of livings; but there is no authentic data for the purpose: parliamentary returns, it is true, have been made of the poor livings, but none of the rich ones; and there have been returns of the number of all livings above and below the value of £300, having non-resident incumbents: returns were also ordered in the session of 1830 of the value of livings in the gift of the crown. These last returns have not yet been made, or at least printed: they would add something to our knowledge of the present value of church-property; but what the public wants is the separate value of every see, dignity, benefice, and ecclesiastical preferment, and the proportion in which, and number of individuals among whom, they are shared. By such data would be shown what the Church of England really is, and indisputably prove the existence of those enormous abuses, which, in our preliminary article, we have fully proved to pervade the ecclesiastical establishment.

We have only one more remark to make, and that refers to our accuracy. The movements that are daily and almost hourly occurring in the Church, from deaths, translations, resignations, and exchanges, render it probable that alterations have intervened since our List was sent to the press. But this does not defeat our object. If one pluralist has been removed another has succeeded. So that our List will continue to exhibit a correct picture of ecclesiastical patronage as long as the present system of church discipline is tolerated.

The pluralist is senior minister of the episcopal chapel, Canongate, Edinburgh, and a native of Scotland; being related to the late bishop Douglas, that prelate gave him a stall in his cathedral, and procured for him the vicarage of High Ercall, in Shropshire, to which was afterwards added the rectory of Roddington, in the same county. Mr. Alison is the author of a work on Taste.

Uncle of earl of Lichfield, master of the buckhounds. Another uncle is rector of Longford, and rector of Sudbury, of which benefices Mr. Coke of Norfolk, and lord Vernon, both connected with the family by marriage, are respectively the patrons.

The grandfather of this gentleman was a merchant at Boston, in America. His father was rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, and had the valuable prebend of Finsbury, in St. Paul’s. His brother-in-law, Dr. Cory, is master of Emanuel College, Cambridge. Another brother-in-law is master of Shrewsbury grammar-school.

Brother of lord Bagot and of sir C. Bagot, ambassador to the Netherlands, who married a daughter of lord Maryborough.

Son-in-law of lord Eldon. The inhabitants of Corfe Castle must feel greatly indebted to the late member for Dorsetshire: he appoints one of his sons to watch over their spiritual welfare, and sends another into the house of commons to take care of their temporal affairs.

The small collegiate church of Southwell has attached to, in the gift of the chapter and prebendaries, twenty-seven livings, amongst them several of the large and populous parishes: of these there are four resident incumbents, very few of them have any resident officiating minister, and almost all, if not all, of the parsonage houses have been suffered to fall into decay. The following particulars will exemplify the state of ecclesiastical discipline.

In the gift of the Chapter:—

In the gift of Prebendaries:—

Many of these are held by clergymen living in Southwell, who are pluralists, and several of the curates also live in Southwell, so that the people of the parishes never see their ministers except on a Sunday in the pulpit. That they find Southwell more agreeable than living in a retired village is possible; but ought they not to remember that their duty is to visit the sick and afflicted, and to go about doing good. They are thus suffered to neglect their duty, and to let fall down their houses, because they are in the gift of the church, and yet they expect to be esteemed and their delinquencies overlooked.

Chancellor and canon res. of Wells. Several other Beadons are in the church, who are indebted for their preferments to the late bishop of Bath and Wells, who had been tutor to the duke of Gloucester.

As this gentleman is one of the Gresham professors, a short notice of the present state of the college may not be out of place. Sir Thomas Gresham, the munificent founder of the Royal Exchange, for the convenience of commerce, was also the founder of a college for the advancement of learning; the rents of the former were bequeathed for the maintenance of the college; seven learned men were perpetually to reside there, for the cultivation of science; and during term time—every day—they were to deliver, in English and Latin, gratuitous lectures to the public, on astronomy, civil law, music, rhetoric, geometry, divinity, and medicine. All the remains of this endowment are the professors, their salaries of £100 per annum each, and an obscure nook in the south-east angle of the Exchange, adjoining the premises of our publisher; no lectures are delivered, or none that the public think worth hearing. An attempt was lately made to revive the college by removing the lectures to the London Institution. It failed, we believe, from the reluctance of the professors to concur in the new arrangement. The fact is, the Gresham lectures have degenerated into a city job; the professors had received their appointments as sinecures, through personal favour or relationship, and had not sufficiently devoted themselves to scientific pursuits to be prepared to convert their professorships, as the founder intended, into chairs of efficient popular instruction. It is not pleasant to be always reverting to abuses; but there is such a principle of vitality in them that it is only by repeated exposures they can be rooted out.

Father-in-law of the rev. Gilbert Beresford, rector of St. Andrew’s, Holborn, by whom Ayleston was resigned on account of the distance.

A relation of the bishop of Salisbury and of the duke of St. Alban’s. The bishop is the son of a grocer at Odiham, Hants, where he was born, about 1755. His first patron was the bishop of Durham, who gave him a prebend, first in the cathedral of Salisbury, and afterwards at Durham. At Durham he continued till the administration of Mr. Addington (now Sidmouth), who had been his companion at Winchester College, conferred on him, in 1802, the See of St. David’s. In 1796, the bishop married a Miss Bright of Durham, half-sister of the marchioness of Winchester.

This pluralist is also a magistrate and a king’s chaplain. He is brother to sir H. Burrard Neale and to lady Rook, who has a pension, and son-in-law to admiral Bingham.

Several more Butlers are in the church. Dr. Butler is head master of Shrewsbury grammar-school. He married a daughter of Dr. Apthorpe, a pluralist. His son, W. Butler, is author of a pamphlet on the French Revolution.

The prelate is brother of sir H. W. Carr, the gentleman who married Perceval’s widow alluded to in the Pension List.

Several more Chaplins in the church; they are cousins of the late archbishop Sutton.

Son of the late rev. Edward Clarke, rector of Buxted, Sussex; he was formerly a chaplain in the navy, and owed his appointment in the royal household to his intimacy with admiral Payne. He is author of a Life of Nelson, and established the periodical miscellany the Naval Chronicle.

This gentleman is a native of Leeds, Yorkshire, where he was educated. He was first patronized by lord Loughborough, then lord chancellor, who presented him to the living of Great Ouseborn. As a remuneration for his Abridgement of the Bishop of Winchester’s (Pretyman) Elements of Christian Theology, that prelate obtained for him the vicarage of Christchurch and the rectory of Gussage. He is an acting magistrate for the county, and compiled an Index to Burn’s and Williams’s Justice, Blackstone’s, Hawkins’, &c. law-books.

The pluralists owe their preferments to their father, the bishop of St. Asaph, who died in 1815. The bishop was tutor to the marquis of Buckingham, with whom he went to Ireland during his viceroyship. His brother was first made bishop of Ferns, then archbishop of Dublin. He himself first obtained a prebend of Westminster, was next elevated to the see of Chester, and, after one or two more moves, to the see of St. Asaph. He married a Miss Asheton, sister of Wm. A. of Lancashire, from whom the present are descended.

There are three more Cobbolds in the church, one vicar of Selbourne, and a witness at the Winchester trials under the special commission; a riotous assemblage of farmers and labourers had endeavoured to compel the reverend gentleman to consent to reduce his tithes from £600 to 400 a-year, the last—four pounds a week—being deemed sufficient remuneration to a parish priest in the opinions of the rural logicians. In the existing state of popular feeling, how is it possible for the tithe system to be upheld? it does not answer a single good purpose; and its compulsory exaction is wholly impracticable. The ends of religion can never be furthered by an impost which generates social animosity, and tends to exhibit ministers and parishioners more in the relation of wolves and sheep than pastors and their flocks.

Last year the parishioners of Surlingham gave to the rector the alternative of either accepting a compensation for tithes, or gathering them in kind; the reverend pluralist dexterously endeavoured to ward off this blow, by sowing division in the enemy’s camp; and in a hand-bill, signified his intention to distribute, as a gift, among the “poor and deserving families of his parish, all the eggs, milk, pigs, poultry, and fruit, which would in future belong to him, as small tithes, on the occupations of certain of the rebels whose names were mentioned.” A very adroit stratagem this! but it is a pity the worthy rector did not think of the “poor and deserving families” before the fires, and the union of the labourers and farmers. Other parsons have endeavoured to conciliate their parishioners, by circulating hand-bills, in which they try to prove that tithes are good things for the labourers—that they do not oppress the farmer, being only part of his rent, which if not paid to the incumbent, would be exacted by the landlord—and that the average incomes of the beneficed clergy are so small that it is impossible they should be objects of cupidity with any reasonable person. All these sophistries we have exposed; it is not the average income of the clergy, but the total amount of the revenues of the church and the unequal distribution of them that are objected to; neither is it meant that tithe should be simply abolished—that would certainly only add to the rents of the landlords—but that it should be commuted for an equivalent and less objectionable assessment, levied on the landed interest, and this commutation be available to the relief of the productive classes.—On these matters, see p. 53, 55, and p. 88.

Professor of natural philosophy, and keeper of the archives in the University of Oxford.

A popular poet, who was chaplain to the late duke of Rutland, from whom he obtained his preferments, and whose funeral sermon he preached at Belvoir.

Married a daughter of the late archbishop Sutton.

Chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, and christian advocate in the University of Cambridge.

See a chronological statement of the progress of this gentleman in the church, p. 25.

Nine Finches in the church, with eighteen livings, besides dignities. Most of them are honourables, and branches of the family of lord Winchelsea.

Thirteen more Fishers with benefices and offices. They are all, we suspect, relations of the late bishop of Salisbury, and are an instance of that monopoly which is the disgrace of the establishment. The bishop was preceptor to the princess Charlotte of Wales and the Duke of Kent. Having obtained a prebend of Windsor and the archdeaconry of Exeter, he was, in 1803, promoted to that see; and, in 1808, translated to Salisbury. The patronage of the diocese is forty livings and thirty-five prebends, from which fund he made a comfortable provision for his family. P. Fisher, beside his three livings, has a prebend at Norwich, and another at Salisbury, and is head master of the Charter-house. This man is really insatiable. His salary at the Charter-house is £800 a year, with a house, candles, vegetables, and an allowance for linen. He had a nephew lately on the foundation, and two sons exhibitioners at the Universities, with allowances of £80 a year from the charity.

The patronage of the church is an excellent resource for comfortable marriage-settlements. A son of the pluralist married a daughter of Brownlow North, late bishop of Winchester, and was portioned off with the rectory of Droxford, a prebend of Winchester, and the mastership of St. Cross’s Hospital, which has great patronage. A daughter married Thomas, second son of the late lord Walsingham, who is archdeacon of Surrey, prebendary of Winchester, rector of Colbourne, and king’s chaplain. A son of this last is prebendary of Winchester, and rector of Alverstoke and of Havant. The Norths, who are numerous in the church, are relations of the former bishop of Winchester, and had more than thirty livings shared among them.

The rev. pluralist being the head of a great public school, we shall give a brief account of one of these foundations, the boasted nursery of our legislators and statesmen. They are receptacles of abuse, and present a singular contrast to similar institutions in a neighbouring country; while the latter produce philosophers, heroes, and patriots, the former send forth a plentiful crop of exquisites, air-gun shooters, and at best pedants and Payleyean politicians. From the seed sown such fruit may be expected; the scholar’s time is misspent in grammatical and metrical trifling, and little is read or studied but Horace, Virgil, and Homer. Leaving these matters, let us come to the foundation of Eton and its management.

Eton college is situated near Windsor, and was founded by Henry VI. for the education of seventy poor and indigent scholars, who were enjoined by the founder to swear they had not £3: 6s. a year to spend. The exact amount of the revenues it is not easy to ascertain, as it is a fact carefully concealed by the heads of the college; but, according to the evidence of Mr. Hinde, they amount to considerably more than £10,000 a year, and arise from various manors, estates, rectories, and tenements belonging to the foundation. The government of the college, and the management of this large income, is vested in the provost and seven fellows; the salaries of the latter, according to the statutes, are £10 a year, and of the former double that sum. The bishop of Lincoln is visitor. Besides the foundation scholars there are more than 400 oppidens, or town scholars, who pay for their education; though, like the rest of the boys, they are entitled to gratuitous instruction. The scholars are instructed by masters and assistants, who in fact do all the business of the college, and, as is usual in such cases, get the worst paid; the head master receives only £63 a year; the under master fares still worse and is paid in a trifling “allowance of bread and beer.”

The more interesting subject for inquiry is, what becomes of the revenue when all the work is done at such a cheap rate? Nearly the whole of this, at the present, appears to be divided betwixt the provost and the fellows; the share of the former in good years has amounted to £2500; but the incomes of the latter are made up of such variety of items, they are not easily estimated. It is certain, however, their incomes are enormous. Besides the total income of the college, thirty-seven livings, some of which, worth £800 per annum, are in the gift of the fellows; they have the power of presenting themselves to one of these livings, which of course would not be the worst. They receive about £550 in money annually from the fines; a yearly stipend of £50; and a liberal allowance for gowns, coals, candles, &c. Moreover, they generally confer some office on themselves in the college, as bursar, precentor, sacrist, or librarian; for which they receive a salary. These are the principal items; but it is impossible to discover exactly what the fellows receive in all: their gross incomes cannot be much less than £1000 a year each.

After Dr. Goodall has taken the lion’s share, and the fellows nearly as much as they please, the remainder is applied to support the establishment. According to the statutes, the scholars ought to be fed, clothed, educated, and lodged, free from expense; they have reduced their meals to two, namely, dinner and supper; clothing they have none; for their education they pay a gratuity of six guineas to the master, and their other yearly expenses amount to about sixty pounds; while, at the same time, they swear, or ought to swear, they have not three pounds six shillings a year to spend!

These exactions are, however, so shameless, unjustifiable, and so directly in the teeth of the statutes, that when any person ventures to object to their payment, to prevent enquiry, the charges are remitted. The indulgence is extended to a very small number; and to prevent such a dangerous example spreading through the school, the fact is carefully concealed from the rest of the boys. That this illegal demand for teaching may excite as little notice as possible, it is always thrust into the bill of the person with whom the boys board.

Such is a brief account of the royal college of Eton. It only now remains to point out the more flagrant abuses which prevail in its management, and the manner the poor have been robbed of their rights and interests in this celebrated foundation.

First, instead of the revenues being expended in feeding, educating, and clothing, “seventy poor and indigent scholars,” they are divided among eight clerical sinecurists; and children of opulent persons, who can afford to pay £70 a-year for their education, are alone admitted to the benefits of the foundation. The statutes provide, that one-third part of the yearly saving shall be placed in the treasury, for the use of the college; although there has been annually a surplus revenue to a very considerable amount, instead of being applied to the enlargement of the college, or any other laudable object, it has been divided and pocketed by the reverend fellows and the provost; one hundred marks, too, piously left to clothe the “poor and indigent scholars,” have, in like manner, been shared as lawful plunder by the same reverend persons. In consequence of the spoliation of Edward the IVth. the number of fellows was reduced from ten to seven; but although the revenues have increased so enormously, that they would very well support the old statutable number, yet they have for centuries been kept at the present amount, contrary to the intentions of the founder. Finally, the reverend fellows have all sworn not to obtain a dispensation for the holding of livings; or, if obtained, not to use it; yet, notwithstanding their oaths, notwithstanding the dreadful maledictions of the founder, such has been their greediness for the emoluments of the church, that they have obtained a dispensation to hold church preferment; and the right reverend visitor has sanctioned this infringement of the ordinances of Henry VI.

Three more Goodenoughs; they are of the family of the late Bishop of Carlisle. The prelate obtained the deanery of Rochester in 1802, and in 1808 was promoted to the See of Carlisle, through the interest of lord Sidmouth, his brother having married the sister of the letter-of-thanks-man.

The honourable, venerable, and reverend pluralist is, also, a king’s chaplain, and prebendary of Winchester. He is uncle of lord Walsingham, and related to the Norths and Garniers, whom see. Three more Greys are in the church; one of them is brother of the earl of Stamford, and is rector of Wickham and prebendary of Durham. Another relation of the earl has a living worth £1500 a-year.

Youngest brother of earl Grey, who married, firstly, Miss Croft, by whom he had a family of ten children, nine of whom survive; secondly, Miss Adair, the daughter of Sir R. Adair, the minister to Belgium, by whom he had also a family; and, thirdly, the very reverend dean married Miss Innes, the daughter of an opulent merchant, formerly M.P. for Grampound.—A bishop, lord chancellor, or first lord of the treasury, with vast patronage and a host of expectants about him, always appears to our mind like the man at the head of the table with a fine turkey before him, which he is prepared to carve for the benefit of his family and guests. “Which part do you prefer—here is a leg—the wing or the apron.” Just so in the distribution of public offices and preferments; there is a benefice for one, a dignity for another, and an embassy, secretaryship, or commissionership for a third. We do not in this place complain; earl Grey has certainly lost no time in moving his brother nearer to Durham or Winchester; but it is not the advancement of the meritorious—though they be relatives—but the worthless that excites indignation. With the exception of the dispute about the payment of the stipend of the minister of the new church, the dean, like his predecessor in the parish of St. Botolph, bears an exemplary character, and the public is gratified rather than otherwise by his promotion.

The family, of which his lordship is the head, was some years since widely ramified in the church, engrossing upwards of thirty livings and dignities. These numerous preferments were derived through Brownlow North, uncle of the present lord Guildford and former bishop of Winchester. The bishop was a younger brother of lord North, the minister under whose administration the inglorious war was waged against the independence of North America. The bishop owed his promotion to his brother, and his advancement to the bench was much resisted by the minister’s colleagues, on account of his youth. Lord North, however, observed—“that when he should become of more matured age, he would not have a brother prime minister.” Under such powerful auspices the bishop rose rapidly in the church. He was first preferred to a canonry of Christ Church, Oxford. A few months afterwards he was pushed into the deanery of Canterbury, and the following year advanced to the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry. Soon after he was translated to Worcester, and in 1781 to the rich See of Winchester, which he held more than forty years, and must have netted from the revenue of his diocese upwards of one million and a half principal money.

Three rectories, a vicarage, and two chapelries, are not enough for this reverend pluralist. He is prebendary and vicar choral of Lincoln, and chaplain to the marquis of Stafford. His recommendation to all these good things are—The Genuine Tree of Liberty, or the Royal Oak of Great Britain; a political squib of 1793; a Fast-day Sermon; Letter upon Restrictions on Dissenting Teachers, &c.

Several other Hills in the church. The pluralist is uncle of lord Hill, commander of the forces, and of Rowland Hill, the well known dissenting preacher.

This hon. and very reverend pluralist has two deaneries, that of Windsor, the other of Wolverhampton. A brother is canon of Hereford, and rector of Beer Ferrers; of which rectory, his nephew, the duke of Buckingham, is patron. Another Hobart, a son, we suspect, of the plural dean, has a valuable rectory, and prebend of Wolverhampton.

Nephew of Porteus, late bishop of London. Many other Hodgsons, with livings, offices, and dignities.

This is a remarkable instance of the secular uses to which church property is applied by those who have the disposal of it. The reverend pluralist was originally a physician; but, happening to marry a daughter of lord Erskine, while his lordship held the great seal, he took holy orders, with a view to qualify himself for a share of the good things in the gift of his father-in-law. Erskine gave him the three rectories, worth about £2000 a-year, during the short period of his chancellorship. Doctor Holland has written a book to vindicate the clergy from the charge of neglecting their duties. Who may the preceding pluralist of this name be?

We have nothing to add to our notice, page 24, of this prelate. It may be inferred, from the strictness with which the preserves are watched at Addington, and the severe persecution of poachers, that his grace is very fond of game.

Brother-in-law of lord Gambier, who has a nephew with three livings.

Third son of lord Albemarle, master of the horse, and brother-in-law of Mr. Coke, of Norfolk.

See Bishop Sumner for an account of Winton College.

Three more Luxmores in the church. They are sons and nephews of the late bishop of St. Asaph. The prelate owed his promotion to his connexion with the family of the duke of Buccleugh. He first obtained the living of St. George the Martyr, Queen’s-square, which he vacated upon being presented to the neighbouring rectory of St. Andrew’s, Holborn, which he held, in commendam, with the see of Hereford. To the last see he was translated from the diocese of Bristol, before which he held the deanery of Gloucester. He was translated to St. Asaph in 1815. The progress of the bishop, like most of his brethren, may be generally traced from the number of relations and dependents which they leave behind them in possession of the most valuable preferments in their gift.

Son of the late bishop of Peterborough, nephew of the late bishop of Lichfield, and cousin of the marquis Cornwallis. Except a fast-day sermon or two, we do not know any other claim of this reverend pluralist to his appointments. His uncle, the bishop, to whom he is chiefly indebted for his preferments, was, at first, intended for the bar, and, with that view, entered himself a student of the Temple; but the elevation of his uncle to the archbishopric, on the death of Dr. Secker, opened a more lucrative prospect, and he devoted himself, without any particular call that way, to the church. His first preferment was the rich rectory of Wrotham, in Kent, soon after which he obtained a prebend of Westminster, and shortly after succeeded Dr. Moore in the deanery of Canterbury. On the translation of bishop Hurd, he was raised to the throne of Lichfield and Coventry; and, on the death of bishop Douglas, he succeeded him as dean of Windsor, which he vacated for the richer deanery of Durham.

Canon of Windsor, prebend of Bath and Wells, v. dn. and ch. of Rochester. Brother of lord Romney.

This is the well-known compiler of useful books, and a native of Aberdeen. He was, at first, a schoolmaster, and being employed by the duke of Marlborough to instruct the junior branches of the family in writing, he obtained such favour as to get a title for holy orders. Soon after he was rewarded with the livings of Hurley and Woodstock.

Third son of the noble patron. Another son is vicar of Trant, in Sussex, and rector of Birling, in Kent.

This gentleman has been for a long time missing; should this meet his eye, we beg to inform him, that the parishioners of Woodchurch are very desirous of seeing him, and they wish to know where he may be found; they have been served with notices for the payment of tithes by the solicitor of the reverend pluralist, who has only been once in the parish during the whole of last reign, and that for a day only.

The venerable archdeacon is son of the late dean of Worcester, whose father was a lieutenant-general, and brother of the famous Arthur Onslow, who was forty years speaker of the Collective Wisdom. A. C. Onslow, rector of St. Mary, Newington-butts, of which benefice the bishop of Worcester is patron, is a brother of the archdeacon.

257 livings are in the gift of the University of Oxford, and 292 in the gift of Cambridge. The livings are situate in different parts of the country; many of them in the metropolis. Some of the livings are annexed to the provostships and professorships of the different colleges, but for the most part they are in the gift of the fellows. By the statutes of the universities the holding of a fellowship is incompatible with the holding of a college living. When, however, a living is more valuable than a fellowship, a fellowship is vacated for the sake of being eligible to the living.

This honourable and very reverend dignitary is son of lord Exmouth, who has a pension of £2000 a-year, and son-in-law of lord Sidmouth, who has a pension of £3000 a-year. He was originally intended for the legal profession, but his abilities not lying that way, he was, after eating a few terms, turned over to the church. His progress in this line has been very successful: in 1819 he was presented to the vicarage of Naseing, worth £1200 a-year; next year he was presented to the rectory of Sutton, said to be worth £4000 a-year; and, within a few months after he had a prebend’s stall in St. Paul’s: these appear to have been subsequently resigned or negotiated for his present preferments.

The honest retraction of an error does credit to the heart and understanding; but if a man from mercenary motives suppresses or disguises—for he cannot abandon them—his convictions, he is a traitor to truth, and merits the most ignominious brand that public opinion can inflict. The most charitable cannot put a favourable construction on the conduct of Dr. Phillpotts, and he is given up, by all parties, as one guilty of unpardonable crimes. The first exploit we remember of this spiritual adventurer was a pamphlet imputed to him in defence of the Manchester massacre, in which 800 poor creatures, men. women, and children, were killed, cut-down, and maimed, under the sabres of a ferocious yeomanry. He next signalized himself by his writings against catholic emancipation, and finally astonished people by voting for a minister, at Oxford, who was favourable to the catholic relief bill. Thus he was all things to all men, and at last receives his reward—universal contempt and a mitre! As the political bishop had succeeded in fastening on the See of Exeter, we would have suffered him to have held Stanhope rectory too, with the fine house to live in he had built at an expense of £12,000: there appeared a paltriness in the Whigs attempting to blink the transaction by suffering the prelate to exchange the rectory with Mr. Darnell for a stall at Durham.

Having, at page 27, noticed the numerous ecclesiastical emoluments of the Pretymans, we shall only give some account of the rise of the bishop, to whom the family is indebted for its preferments. Tomline, formerly Pretyman, the late bishop of Winchester, was the son of a tradesman at Bury St. Edmund’s, at the grammar-school of which town he and his brother, Dr. John Pretyman, the archdeacon of Lincoln, received the elements of their education; after which they removed to Cambridge. The bishop was distinguished at the university as a good classical scholar and expert arithmetician. Having the good fortune to become tutor to “the Heaven-born minister,” he soon experienced the patronage of his pupil, who appointed him his private secretary, and gave him a prebendal stall in the church of St. Peter, Westminster. In 1787 he was made bishop of Lincoln, to which preferment was added the deanery of St. Paul’s; and on the death of Dr. Randolph, he was offered the See of London, but that dignity he declined, from an expectation of something more substantial, in which calculation he was not disappointed; for, on the death of Brownlow North, he obtained the rich See of Winchester, the summum bonum of episcopal ambition.

The prebend was resigned to Dr. Rennell, by his father, on his obtaining a fellowship in the university. Having obtained the patronage of the Grenvilles, he was presented to a living in the city, and, in 1798, was made master of the Temple. On the death of Dr. Holmes he was presented to the deanery of Winchester. The dean married a daughter of judge Blackstone, by whom he has a son, who is also in the church. He was suspected of being concerned in a foolish book, called the Pursuits of Literature, but this charge he publicly disavowed. He is the author of several political sermons, one delivered in Winchester cathedral, in 1793, on the Violence and Blood Guiltiness of the French Revolution; another thanksgiving sermon for the success of his majesty’s arms, preached before the Collective Wisdom, 1798. We mention these forgotten squibs, thinking they may afford a hint to spiritual aspirants, who may seek to avail themselves of passing events, by serving up au rechauffé the labours of the venerable dean.

Brother of lord Dynevor, and brother-in-law of the Markhams.

Brother of lord Rodney, a pensioner; another brother vicar of Eye, of which the lord Chancellor is patron.

Brother of lord Harrowby, and uncle of lord Sandon, M.P. late secretary to the India Board. The prelate was raised to the see of Gloucester on the translation of Huntingford to the neighbouring bishopric of Hereford, from which Luxmore had been removed to St. Asaph. It is necessary to attend to these translations, as they afford an important key in the disposal of patronage; the successive removes of bishops and dignitaries generally being indicated by trails of relations left behind in possession of the most valuable preferments.

As Dr. Sleath is high master of St. Paul’s school, we cannot help adverting to the abuses in the management by the Mercer’s company of that munificent foundation of dean Colet. The landed revenues of the school amount to upwards of £6000 per annum; and by the aid of sundry outgoings in dinners, committees, pensions, repairs, gratuities, and medals, it is contrived that the expenditure shall nearly equal the income. It is now admitted, the charity was intended for all who could avail themselves of it, whether rich or poor; why then should the benefits of so wealthy a foundation, situated in the centre of the metropolis, be limited to the precise number of 153 scholars? The company are invested with full authority to modify the statutes of the school, as the changes of the times may require. When the number 153 was fixed, the income of the foundation was not one-fiftieth part of its present amount, and that number was fixed solely from a superstitious notion of the founder.

But if the company are scrupulous about violating the ordinances of dean Colet, it is strange they have already violated so many. The dean ordained that, every morning, the children should be at the school by seven o’clock; that, thrice every day, prostrate, they should say their prayers; that, at Childermas-day, they should “come to Paule Church and hear the Childe Bishop’s sermon, and after be at the high-mass.” Are these things observed?

The statutes of St. Paul’s school are venerated in the same way, we suspect, as those of the colleges of Eton and Winchester; just as much of them is observed as suits the interest of those having the management, the rest is given to the winds. On this principle the high-master’s salary of a mark a week is interpreted to mean £613 per annum, besides gratuities; and the surmaster’s salary of 6s. 8d. a week £300 per annum. From what part of the ordinances the annual gold medal to the accountant-surveyor, or the fee of one guinea for attendance on committees is derived, we have not been able to discover.

From the evidence of the high-master, Dr. Sleath, it appears, the children mostly belong to the clergy, the professional gentlemen, and medical men in the neighbourhood, and to gentlemen in Doctors’ Commons. It has been suggested the instruction of the school should embrace reading, writing, and mathematics, but we have not heard this plan has been adopted. There certainly appears no just reason why the education of the school should be limited to the acquirement of Latin and Greek. Dean Colet contemplated no such restriction when he said, “desiring nothynge more thanne education and bringing uppe children in good manners and literature.” Without deviating from the literal expression, education might be interpreted to include many other branches of knowledge beside an acquaintance with the learned languages.

The profusion in the expenditure of the school is wholly indefensible. There can be no doubt but the same number of boys might be taught Latin and Greek at a much less sum than was paid in pension to the late high-master; but it is mostly thus in foundations under the management of corporate bodies; no efforts to economize or to multiply the objects of the charity. If there be a surplus revenue it is sure to be exhausted in the expenses of committees, law-agency, and surveyors’ charges; in extra repairs and improvements; in ostentatious buildings; in luxurious feasting for the parties and their friends; and in pensions and gratuities. There is never too much—generally too little, and the charity in debt.

Son of the preceding; the father had the good fortune to become tutor to the duke of Rutland, and his advancement followed of course. From the deanery of Bristol he was raised to the see of Chester; and, on the death of Dr. Dampier, removed to the valuable see of Ely. Besides an immense revenue and numerous cathedral appointments, he has one hundred and eight livings in his gift. For an account of the preferments the rev. prelate has heaped on his family see p. 25.

The commissioners of woods and forests purchased of the duke of Portland the advowson of the opulent and populous parish of Mary-le-bone, out of the produce of the crown lands, for £40,000; this was considered less than the value, but his grace was content to make a sacrifice, rather than the patronage of so important a district should fall into the hands of dissenters.

The right rev. prelate being visitor of Winchester College it may not be improper to call the attention of his lordship to the abuses which have crept into the foundation, and which in the exercise of his power of inspection and super-intendence he may have authority to reform. The college was founded by William of Wykham, in the fourteenth century, and, like that of Eton, intended for the education of seventy “poor and iudigent scholars.” So careful was the founder to confine the benefits of his institution entirely to the poor, that the boys, when they attain the age of fifteen, solemnly swear they have not three pounds six shillings a year to spend; and it is expressly ordered, if ever any scholar come into the possession of property to the amount of five pounds a year, he shall be expelled. The management of the college is vested in the warden, the bishop of Hereford, and ten reverend divines, termed “fellows,” subject to the visitation of the bishop of Winchester. The warden, fellows, and scholars, all swear to observe the statutes, “according to their plain, literal, grammatical sense and understanding.” Peculiar privileges are secured to the founder’s kin, ten or twelve of whom were lately upon the foundation. The revenue of the college amounts to about £14,000, and the expenditure to £11,000. The value of a fellowship, according to the evidence of Mr. Williams, is four or five hundred pounds a year, with meat and drink gratis in the college; also the use of knives, forks, plates, and as many church livings as they can obtain. The emoluments of a warden are double those of a fellow, with travelling expenses, &c. The scholars are chosen yearly, by six electors; their ordinary fare is bread, and butter to breakfast: beef, bread, and cheese to dinner; mutton, bread, and cheese to supper, with beer at every meal. They have no spoons, knives, nor forks, nor vegetables of any sort, allowed by the statutes, but they have salt and wooden trenchers found, and one gown is given annually to each scholar for clothing. The allowance for the sustentation of the boys may be varied agreeably to the statutes, according to the price of corn and provisions.

Such we collect from the Third Report of the Education Committee, to be the history and nature of this foundation, which has been very strangely perverted and abused. First, instead of the scholars being “poor and indigent,” they are all children of opulent persons; some, we suspect, of noble families, who, at the time they solemnly swear they have not three pounds six shillings a year to spend, are paying ten guineas a year to the masters, and the average of their other expenses exceeds fifty. By a liberal translation of the warden, who has sworn to observe the statutes according to their literal and grammatical sense, one hundred shillings are considered equal to £66 : 13 : 4. It is strictly enjoined that no boy shall be admitted above twelve years of age. This is wholly disregarded. The incomes of the fellowships are augmented to four or five hundred pounds a year, by a liberal interpretation of the term describing their money payments: while the strictest construction is adopted towards the scholars and founder’s kin; the latter continuing only to receive their old statutable allowance of forty shillings a year. Thus, too, while the scholars are refused the convenience of knives, forks, spoons, plates, &c. on the ground that such articles of furniture were unknown in the time of William of Wykham, the fellows are allowed those accommodations, although the fellowships were endowed at the same early period: That a surplus revenue of three or four thousand pounds may be divided betwixt the warden and fellows, the parents of the scholars pay between sixty and seventy pounds a year for their education; although it was intended by the founder they should be instructed and maintained gratuitously.

During the inquiries of the Education Committee, a singular sort of delicacy was manifested by the heads of this college to screen the abuses of the institution from investigation. They affected to be extremely willing to give every possible information relative to the college; but unfortunately they had sworn, conformably to the statutes, not to disclose the private affairs of the college; and until their scruples relative to this moral and religious obligation were removed, they could not, forsooth, submit their concerns to the investigation of the committee. Now, this would have been all well enough, had it not been notorious that the warden and fellows, on every occasion, when it suited their interest, had shown the greatest contempt both for the oaths and ordinances of the founder; nay, with so little respect had these precious relics been treated by the reverend hypocrites, who affected to be suddenly seized with a profound veneration for them, that they had been left exposed to the boys of the school, who scrawled upon them whatever nonsense they pleased. But the truth is, they wished to avoid inquiry,—as well they might; and they attempted to play off the same artifice on the committee, in the construction of the statutes, which enabled them to deprive the scholars of knives, forks, vegetables, and the kinsmen of the founder of their yearly incomes.

Brother-in-law of lord Eldon. For another brother-in-law of the ex-chancellor see M. V. Surtees, List of Places.

Other Suttons are in the church, with one or two livings. Most of them, but we cannot discover how many, are related to the late primate Sutton, whose mode of disposing of church patronage has been described, page 26. The archbishop, like many other noble persons, was indebted for his education to the Charter House, which opulent foundation was intended only for the “maintenance and education of poore children,” and “the relief of poore, fatherless, decrepit, aged, sick, infirm, and impotent persons.” On entering holy orders, his grace obtained some ecclesiastical preferment, and soon after, by his affinity to the Rutland family, was raised to the see of Norwich, with which dignity he was permitted to hold the deanery of Windsor. On the death of archbishop Moore, in 1804, his lordship, by the special favour of George III., was elevated to the primacy. It is observable that a short time before the following panegyric on his grace appeared in the Pursuits of Literature, a work ascribed to Mr. Mathias, privy clerk to queen Charlotte:—“He is a prelate whose amiable demeanour, useful learning, and conciliating habits of life, particularly recommend his episcopal character. No man appears to me so peculiarly marked out for the highest dignity of the church, sede vacante, as Dr. Sutton.” This puff direct, and the writer, availing himself of those opportunites which his situation afforded, is supposed to have materially contributed to the sudden exaltation of the archbishop. The patronage of the archbishopric is 131 livings, an archdeaconry, and three prebends. Out of this fund his grace was enabled to provide comfortably for his numerous offspring.

Three more Thurlows in the church, one a pluralist. Houghton-le-Spring, next to Brentford, is the highest valuation in the king’s book, and rated at £124. The pedigree of these preferments will be seen by referring to Thurlow in our Place List.

Third son of the patron and son-in-law of the rev. C. C. Beresford.

Six more Vernons, with valuable preferments. They belong to the family of the archbishop of York. The Venables are also relations of the archbishop. The right rev. prelate is the younger son of the late lord Vernon by his third wife, the sister of the first lord Harcourt. He married a sister of the marquis of Stafford, by whom he has several children, all well provided in church and state. The first preferment of the bishop was a canonry in Christchurch; he was next advanced to the bishopric of Carlisle, on the removal of Douglas to Salisbury; and, in 1807, he succeeded Markham in the see of York. The patronage of his grace is 80 livings, 50 prebends, besides precentorships and sub-deaconries. We subjoin the following estimate of the gleanings of the archbishop and five sons during his primacy:—

Son of the late Dr. Vincent, head-master of Westminster school, dean of Westminster, King’s chaplain, and rector of Allhallows. The son has apparently succeeded to most of his father’s preferments. The doctor was patronized by lord Sidmouth, from whom he received a prebend in the collegiate church of Westminster. He preached and published several loyal sermons, which were carefully distributed by the Association for the “Protection of Property,” at the Crown and Anchor Tavern.

These Watsons are relicts of the late Dr. Watson, bishop of Landaff, archdeacon of Ely, rector of Knoptoft, professor of divinity in Cambridge, with the rectory of Somersham, in Huntingdonshire, annexed. The bishop had been tutor to the late duke of Rutland, who gave him the rectory of Knoptoft, and next exerted his influence for his advancement to the bishopric of Landaff. Here the prelate became stationary: his politics did not exactly accord with the Toryism of George III., and the doctrines advanced by him in the American war and during the French Revolution, prevented his translation to a richer see. Neither his ambition nor cupidity, however, appear to have been less than those of his brethren. In the Posthumous Memoirs published by his son, he complains bitterly that his “public services” had not been sufficiently rewarded, though possessed of the numerous preferments mentioned. He also declaims lustily against the statesmen of his time, declaring that they “sacrificed their public principles to private ends, and their honour to their ambition,” and that their “patriotism was merely a selfish struggle for power.” In the latter opinions all men had reason to concur, unless those blinded by prejudice or personal attachment.

One might exhibit a curious and authentic account of the private history of this minor canon of three churches; but we wish to avoid personal details relative to the clergy. First, because to enter into the private history of the clergy would far exceed our limits. Secondly, because we had not materials for so doing, unless we chose to rely on reports and statements which we had no means of verifying. Lastly, and this is our principal reason, the best authenticated private details serve only to expose individuals, not the system; whereas our object has constantly been to expose the system, not the individuals composing it. As a body, no doubt the clergy have improved in external demeanor as well as other classes of the community. Modern manners do not sanction the gross vices which were common forty or fifty years ago; and for sake of social intercourse the priesthood have found it necessary to conform to the altered fashion of the times. The clergy, therefore, do not frequently come intoxicated to church, nor reel into the streets in open day-light: still some of them, according to Mr. Beverly, continue addicted to hard drinking. “I have been acquainted,” says he, “with drunken clergymen at Cambridge, and the intoxication of one, in particular, was so remarkable, that I have often wondered how he was able to clear his head for the Sunday morning’s duty, after the Saturday night’s debauch. I state it also as a notorious fact, that at the present moment there are priests in that University remarkable for their intemperate habits. There was in existence, within these five years, a clerical club, consisting of not more than six members, who used to meet at a tavern every Sunday evening, after their days’ labours, and indulge in compotations worthy of the hard-drinking parsons of Queen Anne’s reign.”

Brother of lady Ann Culling Smith, and the Duke of Wellington, whom see in our Place List.

The hon. and rev. A. Wodehouse, who has four rectories and a vicarage, is the son of lord Wodehouse, the patron, and son-in-law of sir T. Beauchamp-Proctor. W. Wodehouse is another son of the noble lord. Several more of the family are well provided in church or state, but a notice of them does not belong to our present subject.

Several more Yonges in the church. They are, by marriage, relations of earl Nelson, prebendary of Canterbury, and a pensioner to the amount of £5000 per annum.