Reading the Regency

Gentlemen's occupations - The Church and the State

A Clergyman in the Established Church

"I understand that he intends to take orders. Will you be so good as to tell him that the living of Delaford, now just vacant, as I am informed by this day's post, is his, if he think it worth his acceptance ... I only wish it were more valuable. It is a rectory, but a small one; the late incumbent, I believe, did not make more than 200l. per annum; and though it is certainly capable of improvement, I fear not to such an amount as to afford him a very comfortable income."
[Chapter 39, Sense & Sensibility, by Jane Austen]

Becoming a clergyman was a popular occupation for younger sons of the peerage and gentry. It was less dangerous than being an officer in the army or navy, and provided a regular income for a relatively small amount of effort.

The main qualification to be ordained as a priest was not a strong belief in God, but a degree from one of the universities. This meant that even a vicar with a small annual income was considered a gentleman. Once you had your degree, you could become a Deacon - a priest-in-training - from the age of twenty-three. Deacons trained alongside ordained clergymen, although you didn't have to be a deacon before you were ordained.

The minimum age for ordination into the priesthood was twenty-four years.

"Once in orders, and he might sit down upon his fat living, or lie down content, all his days, only taking care to have some poor devil of a curate up and about, doing duty for him."
[Chapter 3, Patronage, by Maria Edgeworth]

Once a man was ordained he could find a post as a Curate. Curates were poorly paid assistant priests, who often received an income of £50 per year or less. They were paid directly by the parish priest to take on some or all of the responsibilities of the parish.

In many cases, curates were employed to service the needs of a parish while the clergyman lived elsewhere, or took care of a second parish. It wasn't unusual for a priest to have two, three or four livings, and pay curates to take care of the other parishes on his behalf.

Given the choice, a gentleman's son would not choose to be a curate, as the income was too low and prospects were uncertain. However, if a gentleman's son was in financial difficulties, obtaining a curate's position was better than having no income at all. When Henry Austen's bank collapsed in 1816 he was ordained and took a curate's position at Chawton in Hampshire, close to where his mother, sisters and brother were living, which paid only fifty-two guineas a year.

The hope of all ordained clergymen was to obtain a good living; meaning a church of his own to look after that provided him with an income.

Once you had a parish to look after you would either become a Rector or a Vicar; which one depended on whether that parish was a rectory or a vicarage.

Clergymen's income came from different sources. Some received tithes from locally grown produce. This was a form of income tax on local parishioners. Rectories received all the tithes from their parish, while vicarages only received the lesser tithes. Many parishes had glebe land attached, which could either be farmed by the priest or rented out for someone else to farm. A parish priest also received fees for performing baptisms, marriage and burials.

Sadly, church livings were not equal in size or income. While the average income of a clergyman in 1814 was £720, that didn't reflect the large number of livings with a pitifully small income, or the small number of clergymen that received thousands a year.

If the income from one parish was insufficient it was possible to have two or even three parishes in the care of one priest. In 1808 The Reverend J. Randolph died (aged 68) and he was vicar of Petham and Waltham, and rector of Saltwood and Hythe. So he would have received the incomes from all four parishes and probably paid out for at least three curates.