Queen Anne's Bounty,

Queen Anne's Bounty, the name given to a fund appropriated to increase the incomes of the poorer clergy of England, created out of the first-fruits and tenths, which before the Reformation formed part of the papal exactions from the clergy. The first-fruits are the first whole year's profit of all spiritual preferments, and the tenths are one-tenth of their annual profits, both chargeable according to the ancient declared value of the benefice; but the poorer livings are now exempted from the tax. Henry VIII., on abolishing the papal authority, annexed both first-fruits and tenths to the crown; and, by an act passed in 1703, these revenues were set aside, with the consent of Queen Anne, to form a perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings. The Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Speaker of the House of Commons, Master of the Rolls, Privy-councillors, Lieutenants and custodes rotulorum of the counties, the Judges, Queen's Serjeants-at-law, Attorney and Solicitor-general, Advocate-general, Chancellors and Vice-chancellors of the two Universities, Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and mayors of the several cities, and by supplemental charter the officers of the Board of Green Cloth, the Queen's Council, and the four Clerks of the Privy-council were made a corporation by the name of 'The Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the Maintenance of the Poor Clergy;' and to this corporation was granted the revenue of first-fruits and tenths. The governors' grants consist of capital sums of £200 to meet benefactions of money, land, tithes, rent-charges, stipends, &c., of equal value, offered on behalf of benefices not exceeding £200 in net annual income. A benefaction may be offered and a grant sought either for the augmentation of the endowment of a benefice, or towards the cost of providing or improving a parsonage-house, &c. The application of the funds at the disposal of the governors is now made subject to a long series of statutory provisions. The annual revenue in 1890 was £176,896. See Cripps, Laws of the Church and Clergy.