en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Wedgwood_II
1 correction found
with the condition he discontinued in the ministry.
Sources on the Wedgwoods’ annuity to Coleridge describe it as unconditional, not contingent on his leaving the ministry.
Full reasoning
The evidence I found contradicts the claim that the annuity was accepted "with the condition" that Coleridge leave the ministry.
A source quoting the Wedgwoods' 1798 offer letter gives the terms as: "an annuity for life of £150, to be regularly paid by us, no condition whatever being annexed to it. Thus your liberty will remain entire." That is the opposite of an explicit condition requiring him to discontinue in the ministry.
Modern Coleridge scholarship also describes the offer as unconditional. A recent Coleridge Bulletin article summarizes the brothers' offer as "a £150 annuity for life, 'no condition whatever being annexed'". Likewise, a historical article in Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society says Coleridge did not take the Shrewsbury post because he was offered "an unconditional annuity of £150" by Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood.
Coleridge was indeed on the verge of a Unitarian ministry, and the annuity effectively freed him from pursuing that career. But the available sources do not support saying the annuity came with a condition that he leave the ministry; they describe the offer as unconditional.
3 sources
- The poetical works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The terms of their offer ... were contained in these sentences: '... you shall accept an annuity for life of £150, to be regularly paid by us, no condition whatever being annexed to it. Thus your liberty will remain entire.'
- From The Coleridge Bulletin | The Journal of
Wedgwood, along with his brother Tom, responded with the offer of a £150 annuity for life, ‘no condition whatever being annexed’ (CL I 370).
- Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society, vol. 87
He did not accept the post at High Street, being offered an unconditional annuity of £150 by his friends Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood, to devote himself to poetry.