Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland. The term is found in common use mainly during the first half of the 19th century. The legal status of perpetual curate originated as an administrative anomaly in the 16th century. Unlike ancient rectories and vicarages, perpetual curacies were supported by a cash stipend, usually maintained by an endowment fund, and had no ancient right to income from tithe or glebe.
Charles Dodgson, perpetual curate of All Saints' Church, Daresbury in Cheshire; and father of C. L. Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll. All Saints had been created as a perpetual curacy in 1536 out of a chapel-of-ease of nearby Norton Priory.
Cheltenham Minster, St Mary's an ancient parish church appropriated with a vicarage by Cirencester Abbey and, because unbeneficed at the dissolution in 1539, then continuing with a perpetual curacy until reunited with its rectory in 1863
Haworth Parsonage built in 1774 as the parsonage house for the ancient chapelry of Haworth in the parish of Bradford, established as a perpetual curacy in 1820, at the appointment of Patrick Brontë
Parish (Church of England)
The parish with its parish church(es) is the basic territorial unit of the Church of England. The parish has its roots in the Roman Catholic Church and survived the English Reformation largely untouched. Each is within one of 42 dioceses: divided between the thirty of the Canterbury and the twelve of that of York. There are around 12,500 Church of England parishes. Historically, in England and Wales, the parish was the principal unit of local administration for both church and civil purposes; that changed in the 19th century when separate civil parishes were established. Many Church of England parishes still align, fully or in part, with civil parishes boundaries.
All Saints Bakewell, a parish church in Derbyshire
Escomb Church County Durham Saxon c.670-675
A parish boundary marker commemorating the ancient custom of Beating the bounds
A window commemorating a priest who served his parish for 47 years