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.
Jane Austen's father had two parishes: Deane and Steventon in Hampshire. They were both provided to him through the patronage of his uncle. Deane on its own was only worth £110 per year when he acquired it but he had improved its income to around £300 by the end of the 18th century, while Steventon was worth around £600 a year when he retired. To supplement his income, he also educated up to four young boys, charging parents £35 per boy.
The clergymen mentioned in Jane Austen's books reflected the middle income bracket for the church. The parish of Delaford, offered to Edward Ferrars in Sense & Sensibility was worth £200 per year, which could be added to the money they both brought to the marriage:
"Edward had two thousand pounds, and Elinor one, which, with the Delaford living, was all that they could call their own; for it was impossible that Mrs. Dashwood should advance anything; and they were neither of them quite enough in love to think that three hundred and fifty pounds a year would supply them with the comforts of life."
[Chapter 49, Sense & Sensibility, by Jane Austen]
In Northanger Abbey, James Morland was promised a living worth £400 a year, once he was old enough for ordination, while Edmund Bertram in Mansfield Park was provided with a living worth £700 per annum:
"I am glad to hear Bertram will be so well off. He will have a very pretty income to make ducks and drakes with, and earned without much trouble. I apprehend he will not have less than seven hundred a year. Seven hundred a year is a fine thing for a younger brother."
[Chapter 23, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen]
As well as income, clergymen often had access to rent-free housing. The quality of the accommodation varied, but many were large enough to be considered equal to a gentleman's house. George Austen's house in Steventon, Hampshire, was described as having seven bedrooms and three garret rooms, or rooms in the attic.
Once you held the living the property was yours to either live in or rent out. The only thing you couldn't do was sell it, because it formed part of the living. If a clergyman had two livings he might live in one parish while renting out the other house to make a bit more money.
For most gentlemen entering the clergy, this was as far as they would aspire in the church. A clergyman's living would often be held for life, as few had an independent income that allowed them to retire. The best they could hope for was enough money to afford a curate to assist in their later years.
The Civil Service
"SIXTY GUINEAS will be given to any Lady or Gentleman who can procure the advertiser a SITUATION in ANY DEPARTMENT UNDER THE GOVERNMENT, or in any of the Public Offices, which may meet his approbation. Letters addressed (post paid) to C. D. at the Post Office, No. 49 Oxford Street, will meet with due attention. The greatest secrecy will be observed. The advertiser will not mind a few pounds more, should the situation prove advantageous."
[Morning Post, 3rd July 1804]
The British Government was a large and often generous employer. Those looking for well-paid employment would not baulk at a greasing the wheels to secure a position. A gentleman's son would happily take a paid position with the government to supplement a modest income, and even some peers held more than one lucrative sinecure, while paying a subordinate to do any actual work required.
These situations were not given to the most qualified or knowledgeable applicant, but the one best connected through nepotism, patronage or bribery. Many examples of this are revealed in "The Black Book", published in 1820, which highlighted the shocking state of the Government and the money it wasted paying wages for jobs where little or no work was done.
There were so many different positions, with different salaries, that it's impossible to list them all. However, some of the positions available in the Civil Service included:
The Commissioner of the Lottery Office who received £200 per year, and the Commissioner of Bankrupts who received £250 per year. The Clerk of the Signet received £368 per year.
The Keeper of the Lions in the Tower was paid £450 per year, while the Keeper of the Records in the Tower received £1,435 a year.
The Examiner of Plays received £400 per year. This was the Regency equivalent of today's film censor, who verified there was nothing objectionable before the play was licenced.
A Clerk in the Exchequer Bills Office received £400 per year, as did the post of Assistant Clerk at the War Office. Cashier in the Stationary Office was paid £500 per year.
Inspector of the Audit office received £600 per year, while an examiner at the Audit office received £260 per year.
The Vice-Chamberlain in the Lord Chamberlain's office received £600 per year. The Auditor of the Civil List was paid £1,500 per year.
As these examples show, a position in a Government office was often better paid than a clergyman's living, and was a perfect opportunity for a younger son, particularly if the family had connections or could call on patronage in the government.
Even some of the country's highest-ranking peers and their families were happy to supplement their incomes with money from the public purse for positions, many of which were purely ceremonial:
The Duke of St. Albans held two positions; Master of the King's Hawks and Registrar of the Court of Chancery, which gave him a combined income of £2, 012, while the Marquess Cornwallis was Master of the Dogs, with a salary of £2,000 a year. The Duke of Gordon received £3,000 a year for his position as Keeper of the Great Seal, while Viscount Lowther, (son of the Earl of Lonsdale) received a total of £3,100 a year for his two roles of Commissioner for Affairs of India and Lord of the Treasury.
The Government
"Lord Oldborough empowers me to say, that it is his wish to see his government supported and strengthened by men of Mr. Percy's talents and character; that he is persuaded that Mr. Percy would speak well in parliament; that if Mr. Percy will join us, his lordship will bring him into parliament, and give him thus an opportunity of at once distinguishing himself, advancing his family, repairing the injustice of fortune, and serving his country."
[Chapter 12, Patronage, by Maria Edgeworth]
There were a few ways a younger son could obtain a seat in the Commons and become a Member of Parliament. (M.P.)
Many wealthy families had a constituency under their control, and they would choose either a family member to become the M.P. or someone else they might wish to patronise. In return for this favour, the candidate usually agreed to cast their votes in line with the family's wishes.
Nearly two-thirds of the available seats were controlled in this way by peers or gentry families. The reason they could reliably instruct the voters who to vote for was usually because there were only a few voters- sometimes less than fifty- and they were either paid or otherwise encouraged to vote in the manner their landlord directed.
If they had no family or friend who needed the seat they could sell it, for the length of one parliament. (a maximum of seven years) In the elections of 1796, Lord Edward Bentinck, second son of the Duke of Portland, agreed to buy the seat of Clitheroe in Lancashire from the local Lister family for £4,000. When later he could not afford to pay what he owed he instead arranged for Thomas Lister to be compensated with the Barony of Ribblesdale.
A small number of boroughs were controlled not by families but by government departments. Candidates for these boroughs were chosen by the departments themselves. The Secretaries of State, the Treasury and the Admiralty all had parliamentary boroughs under their control.
Anyone who could afford to run a campaign could stand in the other constituency seats, and if no one else decided to run for election, their candidacy was accepted without any need for a vote at all.
However, if two or more people were standing for election in one constituency it could become costly, as the expense of campaigning was borne by each parliamentary candidate, rather than any political party. The candidates, and their wives if they were married, were expected to entertain lavishly, and distribute campaign leaflets at their own expense. Bribing the voters was also a feature of British politics at this time, and some men spent their entire fortunes trying to win elections.
If an M.P. wasn't paid, why would anyone go to all that trouble to obtain a seat in the House of Commons?
"In former times these Forresters were a respectable, good old English family, till the second wife, pretty and silly, took a fancy for figuring in London, where of course she was nobody. Then, to make herself somebody, she forced her husband to stand for the county. A contested election-bribery-a petition-another election-ruinous expense."
[Chapter 9, Helen, by Maria Edgeworth]
Although being a Member of Parliament did not come with a salary, many peers and wealthy gentlemen helped their younger sons or brothers to obtain a parliamentary seat because the government was an excellent place to improve a man's status and social standing.
James Stuart-Wortley was the second son of a father who himself was the second son of the Earl of Bute. After spending some time in the army, in 1797 James became the MP for Bossiney in Cornwall, which was partially under the control of the Wortley family. After serving as an M.P. until 1826 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Wharncliffe, in recognition of his service to his country.
There were many positions of state within the Government that also came with a generous annual income and were usually given to M.P.s and Lords who supported the Government.
The Secretaries of State received £6,000 per year, while the Under Secretaries earned £2,000 per annum each. The Speaker of the House of Commons also received £6,000, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was paid £1,800, while the Paymaster of the Forces and Treasurer of the Navy both received £2,000 per year.
When Charles Bagot, second son of Lord Bagot, was chosen to be the Ambassador to the United States of America, he was given a knighthood and received £6,500 per year. At the same time, one of the previous holders of that office, Sir Robert Liston, was receiving a pension of £2,000 per year as a former envoy to the US, while pocketing a further £8,600 per year as Ambassador to Constantinople.
[Image: Portrait of Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, by Thomas Heaphy, 1802, (four years before he entered Parliament) via Wikimedia Commons. [Public Domain]]