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Archiver > SOG-UK > 2000-01 > 0947715093


From: "Ian Wegg" <>
Subject: Re: [SOG] King's Bounty
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 22:11:33 -0000


> I may have this completely wrong - but I seem to remember reading an
article
> a couple of years ago (Family Tree Magazine?) which gave information on
some
> strange C19th custom of the Crown making a small cash payment to the
parents
> of triplets. Might this be the 'Kings Bounty'? - thought doubt whether it
> was still the custom in 1929.

Des is correct. I've delved into my collection of Family Tree magazines and
found the original article in the Tom Wood column (Dec 1997)

To summarise:

The bounty was £3 of triplets and £4 for quads.

The grants were begun by Queen Victoria in 1849, after a visit to Ireland,
"to enable the parents to meet sudden expenses thrown upon them".

To qualify, the births had to be live and in wedlock, and the parents
British subjects. Until 1938, a further condition was that the parents had
to be "in nesessitous circumstances".

The payment of the bounty lasted until 1957, by which time the amount had
greatly declined in value.

Between 1936 and 1957, payments from the privy purse were made to 19 sets of
quads and 1,451 sets of triplets.

In a follow up article in the March 1998 edition, Tom Wood notes that in
1909 £3 was equivalent to £135 in todays money.

Ian Wegg.
().

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