The Costs of Pew-renting: Church Management, Church-going and Social Class in Nineteenth-century Glasgow
The letting of pews was virtually a universal practice in the churches of nineteenth-century Britain. Although letting and private ownership of seats were well known before the 1700s and have continued in the present century, the renting of fixed seats for use during divine service reached its heigh...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
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Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1987
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In: |
The journal of ecclesiastical history
Year: 1987, Volume: 38, Issue: 3, Pages: 347-361 |
Online Access: |
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Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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Summary: | The letting of pews was virtually a universal practice in the churches of nineteenth-century Britain. Although letting and private ownership of seats were well known before the 1700s and have continued in the present century, the renting of fixed seats for use during divine service reached its height in the Victorian period. Worshippers paid anything from one shilling to thirty shillings or more to reserve a seat for one person for a year. It thus became a considerable expense to accommodate a large family. By its ubiquity it is clear that the practice was accepted by church-goers as a facet of ecclesiastical life and was accepted by church authorities as a necessary feature of congregational management. But the fact that the system was generally introduced and operated at the discretion of individual congregations or their owners and patrons, with little or no interference from denominational authorities, has meant that comparatively meagre attention has been paid to how it worked in practice and to what its effects were on congregational life. |
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ISSN: | 1469-7637 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of ecclesiastical history
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0022046900024957 |