SALE OF CHURCH LIVING IN ENGLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), 22 February 1883, Page 4

SALE OF CHURCH LIVING IN ENGLAND.

A correspondent of the Manchester (England) Examiner and Times, tells a story which, as it is published in that prominent and always well-informed journal without contradiction, may be accepted as literally true. A r cry briefly told it is as follows : Two of the pleasantest livings in the Church of England aro now for sale at a reasonable price foa cash or approved paper; the agents for the sale of one being Messrs Lumfey and Co., auctioneers, kc, St, James-street, -London, and tho other Messrs AA'atson and Digby, Fakenham, Norfolk. The first and most important is the rectory of Vimbish, Essex. Three years ago Lumlcy and Co., put it up at auction, but as only £5000 was bid it was withdrawn. In reply to a recent inquiry the agents \\ rll. thus : "Sometime ago you were good enough to inquire about this property (AVimbish), which we then offered for auction but did not sell. It has not changed hands since, and our client is desirous of meeting a purchaser. If you are inclined to make a bid for it we shall be very pleased to forward it to the proper quarter. To save time, our price now is £5600, ou the last occasion it was £7000.—Yours truly, Lumleys. At the auction mentioned the firm stated as a strong inducement to purchasers that AVimbish was a genuine sinecure; " there is no rectory house, no residence is required, not any duty whatever on the part of the holder of the living." Of course, the same is true now, and has been for four hundred years, during which period the living " has been in main bought and sold for purely domestic purposes." Moreover, the law regulating these matters is such that "any buyer of the rectory of AVimbish could institute any clergyman—however disreputable his ecclesiastical or moral character might be—in spite of and in defiance of all the bishops in the realm of England." Any clergyman may buy it and institute himself as incumbent. It is worth £650 per annum net, therefore tho investment will return about 12 per cent, and the wonder is that AVimbish remains so long in the market. Bayfield, near Hoit, Norfolk, is the other living, which the agents thus describe: AVo beg to state that there is no church, no house and no glebe attached to the living, and, of course, no services are performed ; the population is about forty, and the present rector, who docs not reside in the county, pays the curate of an adjoining parish £20 a year to do the visiting. The average net income, after paying curate, synodals and poor rates is £150 a year. The price asked for the next presentation is £700, but we cannot give you a definite otter of it, as we have several applications for terms of sale, and we are to-day replying to the other applicants in the same way as we arc to you, and shall accept the first offer of £700 that reaches us. Yours faithfully, AVatson and Dig_y. Rev. Mr Moore is the present incumbent; that is, he draws the revenues—and spends them at Crook, Kendal, where he " lives in pleasant retirement," knowing as little of his spiritual flock of forty as he does of the North Pole. As Bayfield, at £700, pays 21 per cent ou the investment, it is surprising some sharp shepherd has not snapped it up before this time, the incumbent being allowed to live anywhere, and hold two other places of the same sort, if he is lucky enough to get them.