Regium Donum (Lat., 'royal gift'), an annual grant of public money formerly received by the Presbyterian and other Nonconformist ministers in England, Scotland, and Ireland. It began in 1672, when Charles II. gave £600 of secret-service money to be distributed annually among the Presbyterian clergy in Ireland, on hearing that they had been loyal to him, and had even suffered on his account. The grant was discontinued in the latter part of the reign of that monarch, as well as in the time of James II., but was renewed in Ireland by William III. in 1690, who increased it to £1200 a year. It was further augmented in 1723 by George I., in consequence of the Presbyterians having supported the House of Brunswick, and raised by £2200 in 1784, and again by £5000 in 1792. The amount of the Irish grant for 1868 was £45,000. The propriety of receiving the Regium Donum was of late years much disputed by those of the same persuasion in England and Scotland. The Irish Regium Donum was withdrawn by the Act of 1869, which came into force in 1871, disendowing the Irish Episcopal Church. Compensation was made of life interests; and the ministers were allowed to commute on the same terms as the clergy of the Church. In 1874 it was reported that the commutation money paid had amounted to £579,762. The Regium Donum in England was enjoyed by the three denominations, Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, from 1723 till 1851. The amount required, £1695 per annum, was annually voted by parliament till July 17, 1857. The Scotch Episcopalians also enjoyed for a time a small part.
See Reid's History of the Irish Presbyterian Church; and for the English Regium Donum, Stoughton's History of Religion in England, Skeat's Free Churches, and Dr Edmund Calamy's Account of his own Life.