The ''Clerical Guide or Ecclesiastical Directory'' was the earliest ever specialist directory to cover the clergy of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

. In its initial format it appeared just four times – in 1817, 1822, 1829 and 1836, under the editorial direction of Richard Gilbert. Another edition was actually advertised for 1838,

Church Times The ''Church Times'' is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper based in London and published in the United Kingdom on Fridays. History The ''Church Times'' was founded on 7 February 1863 by George Josiah Palmer, a printer. It fought for the ...

: two-part article ''Shop-talk and mordant wit'', by Christopher Currie & Glyn Paflin, describing the background to Crockford's Clerical Directory's first hundred editions, 6–13 December 2007 but no copies have in fact been found within the main academic libraries. The title was briefly revived by Thomas Bosworth & Company during the 1880s.

Contents of the Clerical Guide

The main alphabetical section of the directory included: *A list of benefices together with their populations, counties, dioceses and archdeaconries *Their incumbents with the year of his institution *Their values (up to the 1829 edition) in the

Valor Ecclesiasticus The ''Valor Ecclesiasticus'' (Latin: "church valuation") was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts of Ireland made in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII. It was colloquially called the Kings books, a s ...

or King's Books *The names of their patrons. *The 1836 edition additionally gave the income of the benefice during the year 1831, the available capacity or "church room" for the congregation, and the name of any

impropriator In law and government, appropriation (from Latin ''appropriare'', "to make one's own", later "to set aside") is the act of setting apart something for its application to a particular usage, to the exclusion of all other uses. It typically refers ...

. The preliminary pages included: *Current lists of

bishops A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, members of

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

, and other dignitaries, showing the values of their

first fruits First Fruits is a religious offering of the first agricultural produce of the harvest. In classical Greek, Roman, and Hebrew religions, the first fruits were given to priests as an offering to deity. In Christian faiths, the tithe is similarly g ...

*A section on the Doctors of Laws, the

canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...

specialists *A section on the

Chapel Royal The Chapel Royal is an establishment in the Royal Household serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the British Royal Family. Historically it was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also applie ...

together with the king's preachers and chaplains *Sections on

Sion College Sion College, in London, is an institution founded by Royal Charter in 1630 as a college, guild of parochial clergy and almshouse, under the 1623 will of Thomas White, vicar of St Dunstan's in the West. The clergy who benefit by the foundation ...

and

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...

*Sections on the two English universities (

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

) *Sections on the fellows and schoolmasters of

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, Harrow,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and St Paul's. The alphabetical list of benefices was also followed by an alphabetical list of the prelates, dignitaries and beneficed clergy of the Church of England (generally omitting the unbeneficed clergy). The directories concluded with lists of ecclesiastical patronage, giving the names of those benefices within the gift of the king and also those of the lord chancellor, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, the various archbishops and bishops, and the two universities.

The publishers

The 1817 edition stated that it was "printed for J. C. & F. Rivington, 62 St Paul's Churchyard, by R. & R. Gilbert, St John's Square,

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

". Richard Gilbert was a printer and an accountant with the

SPCK The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world. The SPCK is th ...

. Although he appeared in the 1817 edition merely as the "printer" (alongside his brother Robert, who died the following year), he thereafter seems to have taken a more prominent role in its production. The 1822 edition was "corrected by Richard Gilbert", as though he had been engaged in putting right someone else's mistakes. He similarly wrote the prefaces for subsequent editions, and the 1836 edition still bore the names "Gilbert and Rivington, printers, St John's Square". Gilbert, an industrious compiler who was additionally very active in the religious life of Clerkenwell, also produced a pocket-sized ''Clergyman's Almanack'' in 1819

The Clerical Guide after 1836

The failure of the directory to appear after 1836 left open an opportunity for a rival publication. This was filled after 1841 by the ''

Clergy List The ''Clergy List'' was a professional directory of the Church of England which appeared between 1841–1917. From the start it also covered Wales, together with more limited information relating to Scotland, Ireland, and other churches within the ...

''. After lying dormant for fifty years, the title ''Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory'' was briefly revived in 1886 by Thomas Bosworth & Company, 65

Great Russell Street Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, best known for being the location of the British Museum. It runs between Tottenham Court Road (part of the A400 route) in the west, and Southampton Row (part of the A4200 route) in the east ...

. Once again the volume offered alternative listings of the clergy and the benefices, together with other "valuable information … from the office of the Ecclesiastical Commission. However the relaunched title was very quickly acquired by Hamilton Adams of

Paternoster Row Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area cal ...

, who in 1889 merged it with their other recent acquisition, the aforementioned ''Clergy List''. In the issue for 1918/19 the ''Clergy List'' was merged in its turn with '' Crockford's Clerical Directory''. Thereafter until the 1930s the latter title still continued to advertise on its preliminary pages that it "incorporated the Clergy List", together with the "Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory". A microfiche version of the 1829 directory was produced during the 1980s by the

Society of Genealogists The Society of Genealogists (SoG) is a UK-based educational charity, founded in 1911Fowler, S School of Advanced Study, University of London. Date unknown. Retrieved 2011-10-30. to "promote, encourage and foster the study, science and knowledge ...

. In more recent years scanned copies of the early editions have also appeared on the World Wide Web.All four editions of the ''Clerical Guide'' from 1817–1836 may be downloaded free of charge from the Google eBookstor

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References

{{reflist Directories Church of England Church in Wales Scottish Episcopal Church Anglicanism

Contents of the Clerical Guide

The publishers

The Clerical Guide after 1836

See also

References