Archbishop of Canterbury - KU ScholarWorks - The University of ...

92 The Autobiography of Archbishop Thomas Seeker
four per month. They received no salary, but nomination to a royal
chaplaincy was "accounted traditionally, a sure and certain way to great
preferment' " (Sykes, Church and State in XVIIIth Century, p. 151).
before the Queen: Caroline of Anspach (1683-1737) was a firm
supporter of Sir Robert Walpole and in ecclesiastical matters favoured
the "low-church" party. She was regent in 1732 during George IFs
absence.
Mr Butler: in 1736 he was appointed clerk of the closet to the queen.
ABp Blackburne: Lancelot Blackburne (1658-1743), who was archbishop
of York 1724-43. He rose rapidly in the church, and his
advancement was generally helped by his marriage to Catherine, sister
to William Talbot, bishop of Durham. His episcopal preferment was
based on the "novel method of qualification," having accompanied
George I to Hanover in 1716 (Sykes, Church and State in XVIIIth Century,
p. 151). He had the reputation of a wit as Seeker's anecdote illustrates.
FOLIO 20 (1732-33)
St James's Chapel: the Chapel Royal, built for Henry VIII. After
Whitehall burned down in 1698, St. James's Palace became the
sovereign's official London residence. Seeker as a royal chaplain
preached there regularly.
Dr Tyrwhit: Robert Tyrwhitt (1698-1742), who had been rector of St.
James's since 1729, for which he had been recommended by his fatherin-law,
Edmund Gibson, bishop of London, as "a man that I can answer
for in all respects" [Gibson to Townshend, 8 July, 1729 in William
Coxe, Memoirs of. . . Sir Robert Walpole (London, 1798), II, p. 647].
Bp Gibson: Edmund Gibson (1669-1748), bishop of London after 1720
and formerly of Lincoln (1716-20). He was Walpole's ecclesiastical
advisor until he broke with him over the Quakers' Relief Bill in 1736.
Known as "Codex" Gibson for his Codex Juris Ecclesiae Anglicanae, he was
to refuse the archbishopric of Canterbury in 1747 (D.N.B.).
instituted rector: in the Church of England institution is the establishment
of a clergyman in the office of the cure of souls by the bishop or his
commissary, which is followed by the induction, admitting to the
possession of the temporalities of the benefice.
Ax Ludbey: John Ludbey (d. 1751), who on going out of office was
raised for his work and made a vestryman (St. James's Vestry Minutes, 2