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7912.

། ། ། ་། །།

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

MC.O. 885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

แ

MY LORD,

No. 653.

(JAMAICA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Temple, July 23, 1870.

We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified to us in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 15th instant stating:

1870.

1st. That he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the accompanying No. 17. 14 May copy of a Despatch from the Acting Governor of Jamaica, forwarding a letter from the Bishop of Kingston to Earl Granville with other enclosures.

2nd. That he was to state that the Church of England was established in Jamaica in the reign of Charles II.; that it became partially endowed with churches, parsonages, and globes, and that the clergy, under the titles of "rectors, ""island curates," and

stipendiary curates," had received stipends from the public revenue provided under

a series of temporary Acts of the Colonial Legislature, of which the latest expired on the 31st of December 1869.

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3rd. That by a Colonial Act, 8 Vict. cap. 38., a fund for the benefit of the widows and orphans of "island curates was established by compulsory annual deductions from their salaries.

4th. That by another Act, 11 Vict. cap. 16, the trustees of the "Island Curates" Fund were authorised to make advances from the fund as follows:-(1) not exceeding 6001. for the purchase of parsonages for island curacies which had no parsonages, section 4; (2) not exceeding 2001. for the repair of any parsonage so purchased, provided the whole sum due from any one curacy to the fund never exceeded 600l., section 7; (3) not exceeding 2001. for the repair of any parsonage attached to an island curacy before the passing of the Act, section 8.

5th. That for the repayment of those advances, with interest, the Government was required to deduct annually from the stipend, for a period of 20 years, a given per centage on the sum borrowed from the fund, section 5.

6th. That the trustees were required, before making any advance for the purchase of a parsonage, to satisfy themselves on the subject of title, and it was provided "that the titles or title for any property so to be acquired or purchased shall be "taken in the name of the bishop for the time being, and his successors the bishops. "of this island, or trustees upon trust for the sole use, benefit, and accommodation of "the incumbent of the island curacy for the time being for which such purchase was "made, and to be attached to such island curacy accordingly for ever," section 4.

7th. That the 10th section of the Act contained the following provision, viz., "that no island curacy which shall at any time contract a debt to the Taland Curates Fund "under the provisions of this Act shall be thereafter converted into any other than the "atation of an island curate until this debt shall have been fully discharged."

8th. That in 1866-7 it appeared probable that from the 31st of December 1869, the Church establishment in Jamaica would have to be reorganised, and, as far as it was supported from public funds, reduced; and in order to diminish the number of claims, it was resolved not to fill up benefices falling vacant in the interval. That decision was carried out by Law No. 12 of 1868.

9th. That the stipends of certain island curacies which had received advances from the Island Curates Fund under the Act 11 Vict. cap. 16. having thus become suppressed before those advances were wholly repaid, a law, No. 21 of 1869, was passed authorising the Government to pay up the balances, due to the fund in respect of island curacies, already suppressed or to be thereafter suppressed on receiving conveyance of the premises for the purchase or repair of which the advances had been made, and requiring the parties in whom the title was vested to match conveyance in con- sideration of such payment.

10th. That later in the year 1869 Her Majesty's Government decided that the provision for the Church of England in Jamaica should not be renewed and that the Church should he disestablished and disendowed, subject to a life interest in existing incumbents. The disendowment had been carried out in Law No. 19 of 1870.

11th. That enclosed in the Bishop of Kingston's letter was a list of curacies which had received advances from the Island Curates Fund under the Act 11 Vict. cap. 16., showing the amounts advanced and the amounts due to the fund.

o 16978.-29. 25.-5/86.