Queen Anne's Bounty Research Articles

Gregory King's analysis of clerical livings for John Chamberlayne and the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty

This paper places before the reader a document by Gregory King. The document is an analysis of the value of clerical livings in England and Wales and is dated I 5 November I 7 I 0. King prepared the document for the secretary to the governors of the bounty of Queen Anne for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy. The document is of considerable value for the light that it throws upon the affairs of the bounty in i 71O. The document is also of value as a late example of King's political arithmetic. For these reasons the document deserves to be more widely known by historians. King's work on clerical livings is a piece of political arithmetic. The phrase 'political arithmetic' was in general use in Britain by the early eighteenth century.' The phrase was of seventeenth-century origin, but the idea that statesmen should make wise use of arithmetic was a very old commonplace. The seventeenth-century phrase 'political arithmetic' denoted a conduct of policy by statesmen who took care to know the numbers of people and of wealth.2 The phrase meant the policy itself, the work of statesmen, and not the collection of data. That last was the work of lesser hands. The distinction between policy, on the one hand, and the collection of data, on the other, was important to Gregory King and was reflected in his remark in the present document that policy is not his province, but the distinction is seldom made by later writers. Twentieth-century writers do not usually retain the distinction between policy and discourse. 'Political arithmetic' names now the writing or discourse produced by those who collected data on wealth and population. In this later sense, Gregory King was one of the most important British practitioners of political arithmetic. King was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, in i648 and died in London in I 7I 2. He was a herald and government servant. He assisted Robert Harley in a number of capacities in the early I 6gos, and in I 696 King produced for Harley the now famous Natural and political observations on the state and condition of England. This document was an attempt at a comprehensive estimate of the numbers of people and of wealth in England in i 688. King did not publish his work. Some of King's data were

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England, by G. F. A. Best.

<i>Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England</i>, by G. F. A. Best.

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, The Ecclesiastical Commissioners. and the Church of England. By G. F. A. Best. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. xiv, 582 pp. $12.50.

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, The Ecclesiastical Commissioners. and the Church of England. By G. F. A. Best. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. xiv, 582 pp. $12.50.

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England. G. F. A. Best

<i>Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England</i>. G. F. A. Best

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England

REVIEWS

Journal Article REVIEWS Get access Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England. By G. F. A. BEST. Pp. xvi+582, 2 maps, 4 tables. Cambridge: University Press, 1964. 65s. OWEN CHADWICK OWEN CHADWICK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume XVI, Issue 2, October 1965, Pages 544–548, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/XVI.2.544 Published: 01 October 1965

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England. By G. F. A. Best. Pp. xvi + 582 + 2 maps. London: Cambridge University Press, 1964. 65s.

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England. By G. F. A. Best. Pp. xvi + 582 + 2 maps. London: Cambridge University Press, 1964. 65s.

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, The Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Church of England.

Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, The Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Church of England.

Book Review: The Foundation and Early Years of Queen Anne's Bounty

Book Review: The Foundation and Early Years of Queen Anne's Bounty

Queen Anne's Bounty

Queen Anne's Bounty

Queen Anne's Bounty

Queen Anne's Bounty