Glebe

For other uses, see Glebe (disambiguation).

Conjectural map of a mediaeval manor. The method of "strip farming" was in use under the open field system. The brown areas are part of the demesne, the shaded areas part of the glebe. The manor house, residence of the lord, can be seen in the mid-southern part of the manor, near the parish church and parsonage

Glebe (also known as Church furlong or parson's closes is an area of land within a manor and parish used to support a parish priest.

Medieval origins

In the Roman Catholic and Anglican church traditions, a glebe was an area of land belonging to a benefice. This was property (in addition to the parsonage house and grounds) which was assigned to support the priest. Glebe included a wide variety of properties including strips in the open field system or could be grouped together into a compact plot of land. Tithes were in early times the main means of support for the parish clergy but glebe land was either granted by the lord of the manor of the manor in which the church was situated, often with co-terminous boundaries as the parish, or accumulated from other donations of particular pieces of land and was rarely sold. The amount of such land varied from parish to parish, occasionally forming a complete glebe farm. Information about the glebe would be recorded at ecclesiastical visitations in a glebe "terrier" (Latin terra, land). It could also entail complete farms, individual fields, shops, houses, or factories.^{[citation needed]} A holder of a benefice could retain the glebe for his own use, usually for agricultural exploitation, or he could "farm" it (i.e. lease it) to others and retain the rent as the income.

British Isles

Church of England

Glebe associated with the Church of England ceased to belong to individual incumbents as from 1 April 1978, by virtue of the Endowments and Glebe Measure 1976. It became vested on that date, "without any conveyance or other assurance," in the Diocesan Board of Finance of the diocese to which the benefice owning the glebe belonged, even if the glebe was in another diocese. From 1571 onwards, Church of England glebe was listed in a document called a glebe terrier, compiled by the incumbent of the benefice.

Scotland

Glebe land in Scotland was subject to an Act of Parliament in 1925 which meant that it would be transferred little by little to the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland.

United States

In the American colonies of Great Britain where the Church of England was the established church, glebe land was distributed by the colonial government, and was often farmed or rented out by the church rector to cover living expenses.^{[citation needed]} The Reformed Church also provided glebes for the benefit of the pastor. The Reformed Church continued this practice through at least the 1850s. The many roads in the eastern United States and other former British colonial possessions that bear this name once ran past a church glebe property.^{[citation needed]}

References

• Coredon, Christopher (2007). A Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases (Reprint ed.). Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer. ISBN 978-1-74384-138-8. 
• Ellis, Franklin (1878). The Reformed Church of Linlithgo Livingston Columbia County New York. 
• Heisler, D. Y. (1872). The Fathers of the German Reformed Church in Europe and America. 3. 
• McGurk, J. J. N. (1970). A Dictionary of Medieval Terms: For the Use of History Students. Reigate, UK: Reigate Press for St Mary's College of Education. OCLC 138858. 

Further reading

• Beresford, M. W. (1948) "Glebe terriers in open field Leicestershire", in: Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society; vol. 24