[1] The charity exists to provide financial and wellbeing support to serving and retired clergy of the Anglican Communion.

The Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy was established in 1655 in response to the distress of the large number of clergymen who were dispossessed of their livings under the regime of Oliver Cromwell.

[2] The first fundraising events were on 8 November 1655, when a Festival Service was held in Old St Paul's Cathedral, followed by a dinner in the Merchant Taylors' Hall.

The corporation's president was John Dolben, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, whilst the Vice-President was Sir Christopher Wren.

In 1749, a society formed for the purpose of founding both a boys' and girls' school for the maintenance and education of the orphans of Anglican clergyman in England and Wales.

[3] This society was incorporated in 1809 as The Governors of the Society for Clothing, Maintaining, and Educating Poor Orphans of Clergymen of the Established Church in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain called England, until of Age to be put to Apprentice by the Clergy Orphan Corporation Act 1809 (49 Geo.

Initially the boys were educated under a master in Thirsk in Yorkshire and the girls in a school-house in Chapel Street, Lisson Grove, Marylebone, London.

The girls, after a temporary stay in Windsor, moved to a purpose built school at St Merry Hill Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire, named for Saint Margaret of Scotland.

[12][13] The significant risk in the 18th and 19th centuries, that a clerical family would lose the main breadwinner before all of the children were launched into the world led to the founding of the Clergy Orphan Schools.

Founded by Phyllis Peyton and the writer Mary Lamb, the "Clothing Society for the Benefit of Poor Pious Clergymen" grew rapidly, and following several changes of name (and amalgamations with smaller charities, culminating in the Friends of the Clergy Corporation Act 1972), became the Friends of the Clergy Corporation.

In 2007, the two corporations moved into a single headquarters together, with a totally unified staff, remaining separate entities only in a legal and accountancy sense.

[22] The charity's objects, enshrined in its 1678 royal charter, as subsequently amended by Orders in Council in 1971, 2012, 2017 and 2020, are to support eligible beneficiaries in: ...the relief or prevention of poverty or hardship or for the relief of illness and the promotion of health, whether physical or mental"Beneficiaries" are defined as follows: ...members of the clergy, ordinands and the spouses, former spouses, children and dependants of living or deceased members or former members of the clergy or of ordinands.During the 1970s and 1980s, the charity maintained and operated Chatsworth Gardens in Eastbourne as a clergy holiday home.

This large house, donated by the elderly owner during her lifetime, was converted into a series of apartments, and whilst the donor continued to live in one herself, the others were maintained by the charity as clergy holiday flats.

The charity is based in a Grade 2 listed building at 1 Dean Trench Street, Westminster, which address was for a while after WW1 the home of Winston Churchill.

2022 also saw them launch their series of Wellbeing Workshops - free, specialist programmes, facilitated by expert and trusted partner organisations, allowing dioceses to book their clergy on sessions ranging from Mental Health First Aid to leadership training, stress and resilience to trauma-informed ministry.