The ''Clergy List'' was a professional directory 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 ...

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

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

Background and early contents

An opportunity to compile and issue a new directory had been created by the effective disappearance of the earlier

Clerical Guide or Ecclesiastical Directory The ''Clerical Guide or Ecclesiastical Directory'' was the earliest ever specialist directory to cover the clergy of the Church of England. In its initial format it appeared just four times – in 1817, 1822, 1829 and 1836, under the editorial dir ...

, edited by Richard Gilbert, and also by the introduction of the much improved system of the

Penny Post The Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny. Five such schemes existed in the United Kingdom while the United States initiated at least three such simple fixed rate postal arrangements. U ...

. The basic contents of the ''Clergy List''s earlier editions was summarised on their title pages: *an alphabetical list of the clergy (or at least of those who held benefices) *an alphabetical list of the benefices, with their post towns *lists of the cathedral establishments *benefices arranged under their ecclesiastical divisions *lists of ecclesiastical preferments variously under the patronage of the Crown, the bishops, and the deans & chapters, etc. The directory was always a bit less expensive than its later rival, Crockford's Clerical Directory, but not surprisingly it consequently offered considerably less in the way of biographical detail. This was especially true in the earlier editions which offered little or no information as to previous appointments, universities attended, or lists of publications by the clergy.

Publishers and later history

The directory was initially published by Charles Cox at the Ecclesiastical Directory Office,

Southampton Street Southampton Street is a street in central London, running north from the Strand to Covent Garden Market. There are restaurants in the street such as Bistro 1 and Wagamama. There are also shops such as The North Face outdoor clothing shop. ...

Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ...

. Cox – who in 1839 had taken over a periodical called the ''Ecclesiastical Gazette'', originating during the previous year – was able to produce two separate editions during the Clergy List's inaugural year of 1841.

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 Thereafter, it managed to maintain annual publication right up until adverse trading conditions forced its closure as a separate volume in 1917. Cox remained as the ''Clergy List''s publisher for many years, but by 1881 the title had been taken over by John Hall of Parliament Street, In 1888 it was further taken over by Hamilton, Adams & Company, of London's

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 ...

. They had earlier acquired Thomas Bosworth's ''

Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory The ''Clerical Guide or Ecclesiastical Directory'' was the earliest ever specialist directory to cover the clergy of the Church of England. In its initial format it appeared just four times – in 1817, 1822, 1829 and 1836, under the editorial dir ...

'', merging the two titles in 1889. During the following year the combined directory was still further transferred to Kelly & Company, the publishers of

Kelly's Directories Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in England that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses o ...

. The later volumes were considerably expanded to include much greater biographical detail – broadly comparable with Crockford – but this was not sufficient to sustain the publication in the longer term. Over the years the number of pages also increased – ranging from around 300 in 1841 to around 700 by the 1890s. After 1917 the Clergy List finally merged with its long-time rival, ''Crockford's Clerical Directory''. At least as late as 1932 the latter continued to advertise on its preliminary pages that it "incorporated the ''Clergy List, the Clerical Guide and the Ecclesiastical Directory''". In recent years certain of the earlier editions of the ''Clergy List'' (including the first edition The 1841 first edition of the ''Clergy List'' may be downloaded free of charge from the Google eBookstor

/) have been reissued by various publishers – either on CD-ROM or in scanned format on the Internet.

References

Directories Church of England Church in Wales Scottish Episcopal Church Anglicanism {{italic title