A Clerk of the Closet is a member of the clergy within the United Kingdom who is appointed to minister to the monarch of the United Kingdom.
The College of Chaplains of the Ecclesiastical Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom is under the Clerk of the Closet, an office dating from 1437. It is normally held by a diocesan bishop of the Church of England, who may, however, remain in office after leaving his see. In 2025 the current Clerk is Richard Jackson, Bishop of Hereford.
The term ‘closet’ referred originally to a private oratory set aside for the king or queen, where the Clerk would be in attendance.
Historically, other senior members of the royal family would sometimes appoint their own Clerk of the Closet.
Contents
Duties
The Clerk of the Closet is responsible for advising the Private Secretary to the Sovereign on the names for candidates to fill vacancies in the Roll of Chaplains to the Sovereign. The Clerk manages 36 royal chaplains and preaches annually in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace. He also presents bishops for homage to the Sovereign and examines any theological books to be presented to the Sovereign. He receives a salary of £7 a year.
The Clerk is assisted in his duties by the Deputy Clerk of the Closet (an office dating from 1677). Since 1931, the Deputy Clerk has also served as Sub-Almoner, Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal and Domestic Chaplain at Buckingham Palace, and is the sole full-time clerical member of the Household.
History
The closet was in origin a private oratory, with its own altar, set aside for the use of the monarch within the private apartments of a palace. At the king's Palace of Westminster a closet was created in the 14th century at an upper level next to the south side of the altar of St Stephen's Chapel, to enable Edward III to observe the mass. By the 16th century, the closets in the larger palaces routinely provided access to a gallery, within the adjacent Chapel Royal, containing the monarch's private pew (as can still be seen in Hampton Court Palace). Queens consort often had their own closet, separated by a screen from that of their husband. Though adjacent to the Chapel Royal, the closet was still one of the monarch's private apartments, and administratively its Clerk was considered an officer of the Chamber (later the Privy Chamber), rather than of the Chapel Royal.
The earliest recorded evidence for the existence of a Clerk of the Closet dates from 1437, when one of the king's Chaplains, Edward Atherton (on being appointed Warden of the Bethlehem Hospital) was described as holding this office. Initially responsible for the ornaments and furnishings of the closet, the Clerk was also expected to be in close attendance to the monarch. On Sundays and holy days the king attended the Chapel Royal in state and his Clerk would stand directly behind him in the closet, ready to offer guidance or advice; thus, over time, the position of Clerk came to be one of significant influence. In the 15th and 16th centuries the Clerk had a co-ordinating role in relation to the royal chaplains, 'warning' them of the weeks when they were due to be in attendance at the royal court. (Like the Clerk, the chaplains were appointed by the monarch, not by the Dean of the chapel.) In the early 20th century, this relationship was revived when the Clerk of the Closet was formally recognised as head of what came to be termed the College of Chaplains. Otherwise, over the centuries, the Clerk has functioned primarily as a close confidant and ecclesiastical adviser to the sovereign.
List of Clerks of the Closet
Clerks of the Closet in the Sovereign's Household
Richard Jackson, Bishop of Hereford, 2023–
James Newcome, Bishop of Carlisle 2014–2023
Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford 2005–2014
Jonathan Bailey, Bishop of Derby 1997–2005
John Waine, Bishop of Chelmsford 1989–1997
John Bickersteth, Bishop of Bath and Wells 1979–1989
Gordon Fallows, Bishop of Sheffield 1975–1979
Roger Wilson, Bishop of Chichester 1963–1975
Percy Herbert, Bishop of Norwich 1942–1963
Cyril Garbett, GCVO Bishop of Winchester 1937–1942
Thomas Banks Strong, Bishop of Oxford 1925–1937
Hubert Murray Burge, Bishop of Oxford 1918–1925
William Boyd-Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon 1903–1918
Randall Davidson, Bishop of Rochester 1891–1903
Henry Philpott, Bishop of Worcester 1865–1892
John Graham, Bishop of Chester 1849–1865
Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich 1837–1849
Robert James Carr, Bishop of Chichester 1827–1837
Clerks of the Closet in other Households
Joseph Butler, Clerk of the Closet to Caroline of Ansbach 1736–37
Isaac Maddox, Clerk of the Closet to Caroline of Ansbach 1729–1736
Lancelot Blackburne, Clerk of the Closet to Caroline of Ansbach
Thomas Patten, Clerk of the Closet to Anne of Denmark
Frederick William Blomberg, Clerk of the Closet to George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales 1808–1820
Rev Dr John Lockman, Clerk of the Closet to George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales 1787–1807
Samuel Squire, Clerk of the Closet to George William Frederick, Prince of Wales 1756–1760
Francis Ayscough, Clerk of the Closet to Frederick, Prince of Wales 1736–51
John Harris, Clerk of the Closet to George Augustus, Prince of Wales by 1724
Henry Burton, Clerk of the Closet to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales 1612
Cutts Barton, Clerk of the Closet to Augusta, Princess Dowager of Wales 1766–1772
Edward Young, Clerk of the Closet to Augusta, Princess Dowager of Wales 1761–1765
Stephen Hales, Clerk of the Closet to Augusta, Princess Dowager of Wales 1752–1761