The English Anglican Practice of Pew-Renting, 1800-1960
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THE ENGLISH ANGLICAN PRACTICE OF PEW-RENTING, 1800-1960 by JOHN CHARLES BENNETT A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology School of Historical Studies College of Arts and Law i University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This study indicates that several common assumptions about Anglican pew-renting are unrealistic. Although many critics writing in the nineteenth century, and some historians since, believe that rented sittings in Anglican churches were filled by the very rich and the upper-middle class, the evidence strongly indicates that the primary renters were from the middle-middle and lower-middle classes, particularly small business owners. Also contrary to popular belief, pew-letting continued in many churches well into the twentieth century, in some instances into the 1950s and 1960s, and one Anglican church in the British Isles has continued to rent sittings into the twenty-first century. This is qualified, though, by the finding that those churches that rented sittings persisted in the practice for longer than was expected, but the number of new churches which instituted seat-letting systems dwindled, particularly in the last three decades of the nineteenth century. Pew-renting is also seen to have been most often practiced in large urban churches of low-church orientation. The findings further suggest that most churches abolished pew-rents in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, not for philosophical or charitable reasons, but because profits diminished to the point at which the cost and trouble of administering a system of pew-rents could not economically justify the revenue produced. Finally, this study has uncovered some evidence both of private pew-renting in addition to proprietary chapels, and of informal pew-renting in the form of tips paid to pew-openers and other officials for preferred seating for a single church service. Examples of dishonest behaviour by church officials are also given. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... iv List of Tables, Graphs and Charts ............................................................................................ v Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. vi Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One: Prologue ........................................................................................................... 24 Chapter Two: The Essential Law of Pew-renting .................................................................. 52 Chapter Three: The Rise of Pew-rents ................................................................................... 75 Chapter Four: Characteristics of Anglican Churches that Levied Pew-rents from 1800 to 1960 ......................................................................... 92 Chapter Five: The Terms on Which Churches Let Pews to Congregants ............................ 113 Chapter Six: The Mechanics of Pew-renting ........................................................................ 139 Chapter Seven: The Sorts of People who Rented Anglican Pews ........................................ 149 Chapter Eight: Private Pew-renting ...................................................................................... 178 Chapter Nine: Informal Pew-renting .................................................................................... 190 Chapter Ten: The Debate on the Propriety of Pew-renting .................................................. 196 Chapter Eleven: The Demise of Pew-renting ....................................................................... 226 Chapter Twelve: Conclusions ............................................................................................... 247 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 256 iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations indicate the research centres noted: BLARS: Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Record Service BLSAC: Bexley Local Studies & Archive Centre BLSA: Bromley Local Studies & Archives BRO: Berkshire Record Office BRRO: Bristol Record Office CCA: Canterbury Cathedral Archives CCALSS: Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies Service CERC: Church of England Record Centre CKS: Centre for Kentish Studies CLSAC: Camden Local Studies & Archives Centre CRO: Cornwall Record Office CROC: Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle CROK: Cumbria Record Office, Kendal CROW: Cumbria Record Office & Local Studies Library, Whitehaven CWAC: City of Westminster Archive Centre DALHC: Dudley Archives & Local History Centre DHC: Dorset History Centre DRO: Devon Record Office DuRO: Durham Record Office EKAC: East Kent Archives Centre ERYARS: East Riding of Yorkshire Archives & Record Service ESRO: East Sussex Record Office GA: Gloucestershire Archives HFA: Hammersmith & Fulham Archives & Local History Centre LA: Lincolnshire Archives LAD: Lambeth Archives Department LaRO: Lancashire Record Office LLSA: Lewisham Local Studies and Archives LMA: London Metropolitan Archives LPL: Lambeth Palace Library MALS: Manchester Archives and Local Studies MALSC: Medway Area Local Studies Centre NAK: National Archives, Kew NDRO: North Devon Record Office NCS: Northumberland Collections Service NRO: Norfolk Record Office NA: Nottinghamshire Archives ORO: Oxfordshire Record Office PMR: Portsmouth Museums and Records Service PWDRO: Plymouth and West Devon Record Office SRO: Somerset Archive and Record Office SSTAS: Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service SROBSE: Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds branch TA: Teesside Archives WA: Wigan Archives Service WSRO: West Sussex Record Office WYASK: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Kirklees WYASW: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield iv LIST OF TABLES, GRAPHS AND CHARTS TABLE 1. All Kentish Anglican Churches Found to have Rented Sittings (or in 1886 to have Rentable Sittings), 1800-1960 ............................................ 79 TABLE 2. All Bristol Anglican Churches (under Bristol‘s 1851 Boundaries) Found to have Rented Sittings (or in 1886 to have Rentable Sittings), 1800-1960 .......................................................................................................... 84 TABLE 3. Bristol Anglican Churches for Which Information of Fund-raising Survives, But Which were Not Found to Have Rented Sittings from 1800 to 1960 .................................................................................................... 109 TABLE 4. Percentages of Anglican Churches in England and Wales with Rentable Sittings in 1886, Broken Down by Old Parish Churches versus New Parish and District Churches .......................................................... 97 TABLE 5. Percentages of Anglican Churches in the Archdeaconry of Rochester Renting Sittings in 1881, with Particular Characteristics of the Population, Numbers of Sittings, and Numbers of Communicants of those Churches ................................................................................................... 98 TABLE 6. Percentages of Kentish Anglican Churches Found to have Rented Sittings in 1893, which also had Particular High-church Characteristics ................................................................................................. 100 CHART 1. Bristol Churches, Pew-renting versus Not Pew-renting, by Theological Orientation ....................................................................................................... 102 GRAPH 1. Numbers of Kentish Anglican Churches Found to Have Rented Sittings (or in 1886 to Have Had Pews for Rent) in Various Eras from 1800 to 1960, showing Total Overall Kentish Anglican Pew-Renting Churches, and Broken Down by Urban versus Rural Churches ....................................... 103 CHART 2. The Numbers of Kentish Anglican Churches Found to have Rented Pews (or in 1886 to have had Pews for Rent) in the Period 1800 to 1960, by the Era of those Churches‘ Consecration ......................................... 105 GRAPH 2. The Percentage of Pew-renting Anglican Churches in Various Eras in Bristol under the 1951 City Boundaries .......................................................... 107 TABLE 7. Receipts Self-reported by Kentish Anglican Churches with Totals from Pew-rents and Totals from Other Sources per Annum, 1851 .......................... 107 CHART 3. Anglican Churches in England and Wales with Pews Available for Rent in 1886 – Responses to ‗Whether Largely Composed of the Poorer Classes‘ ...............................................................................................