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 statute 2 and 3 Anne, c. 11, first formed them into a perpetual fund for the augmen tation of poor livings, and advancing money to incumbents for rebuilding parsonages, The archbishops, bishops, deans, speaker of the house of commons, master of the rolls, privy-councilors, lieutenants, and custodes rotulorum of the counties, the judges, queen's serjeants-at-lnw, 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 character the officers of the board of green cloth. the queen's council, and the four clerks of tile privy council, were made a cor
poration by the mum of " the governors of the bounty of queen Anne, fbr the augmen tation of the maintenance of the poor clergy;" and to this corporation was granted the revenue of firsttruits and tenths. Queen Anne's charter has been regulated and supple mented by a number of statutes, the latest being 33 and 34 Viet, c. 89. According to the rules e,tablished by the trustees, the sum allowed for each augmentation is £200, to be laid out land to be annexed to the living; this donation to be made: 1. To all livings below £10 a year; 2. To all livings below £20; and so in'order, while any remain under £50. But when any private benefactor advances £200 for the augmen tation of any living not above £43 a year, the trustees give another £200, though it may not belong to the class of livings which they. are then augmenting.