It is a notable fact that throughout the whole seventeenth century the ideal shown by the General Assembly was to provide for the clergy an adequate salary for the comfortable home of an educated man. In 1695 when the question of increase in clerical salaries was raised, the House of Burgesses made a report to Governor Andros upon the purchasing value of salaries paid in tobacco, and stated, "They have duly weighed the present provision made for the ministers of this country in their respective parishes together with their other considerable perquisites by marriages, burials, etc., and glebes,----that most if not all the ministers of this country are in as good a condition in point of livelihood as a gentleman that is well seated and hath twelve or fourteen servants." They had previously stated that the tobacco salary of the parson would in normal years in the past yield eighty pounds sterling when sold. In contrast with this salary of the clergymen in Virginia attention may be called to the statement made in England in 1714, that there were in England at that time "5,082 livings under eighty pounds in annual value, of which more than 3,000 were under forty pounds, and 471 under ten pounds. This report was made to show the importance of the fund established by Queen Anne, called Queen Anne's Bounty, for increasing the endowment of these weak parishes." * * * * * Transcriber's Notes Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. copyright on this publication was renewed. The Table of Contents was added for convenience. Page 3: Guilt is an obsolete form of gilt (a plate of silver guilt). Page 16: Changed ecclestiastical to ecclesiastical (after an ecclestiastical trial by the bishop). Page 23: Changed cattel to cattle (great plenty of cattel and hogs). Page 50: Changed priviliged to privileged (youth of a lesser priviliged family).