Ancestry Daily News, dated 9/17/2002 - (reprinted with prior permission of Juliana Smith, Editor of Ancestry Daily News) What is a Vestry? by Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) The word 'vestry' refers to both a room in the parish church and a meeting of parish officials. It was where the minister kept his vestments and prepared for divine service. The name of the room came to signify the group of men who governed a parish because it was where they met. The name did not change even if the location did, which happened frequently particularly on cold winter nights. In this example the proprietor of the inn had recently joined the vestry. ". . . We the undersigned, being the officers of this parish who have met at the church to settle last month's accounts, having gone through part of the business do unanimously agree to adjourn this Vestry to the Bell, the inclemency of the weather making it hardly possible to transact the whole here . . ." (Vestry Minutes, Upminster, Essex, 4th February 1799, quoted in A History of Upminster and Cranham, by John Drury, 1986) Evolution of the Vestry The dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII left a vacuum in social assistance. Times of severe hardship towards the end of the 1500s led the government of Elizabeth I to assign to the parishes an increasing amount of secular parochial responsibility. It was easy to do because parish churches already had the authority to levy a rate for the maintenance of the church buildings and fittings. Acts of Parliament added the powers to assess and collect rates for the support of the poor and maintenance of roads within the parish. The assignment of new authority was happening at a time when the influence of the manor courts was in decline. There was overlap for a time but eventually the manor courts lost their authority, their duties going to the vestries and the courts of quarter sessions. The vestry took one of two forms, either open or select. An open vestry was comprised of all the male ratepayers, a form that worked in smaller parishes but became a problem in populated areas. Members of a select vestry might be appointed or elected, generally from the more important men of the parish In some parishes the same people served over and over again. In others there was a sort of rotation every few years and some managed to change officers yearly. It was customary for the incumbent minister to sit as chairman of the vestry. The vestry appointed the local officers, usually the following: churchwardens, sexton, parish clerk, overseers of the poor, surveyor of the highways and constable. Sometimes the minister appointed one of the churchwardens. Appointments of the overseers of the poor, surveyor of the highways and constable would be endorsed at the court of quarter sessions. Duties were onerous and it is not surprising that someone wrote a handbook, The Compleat Parish Officer, (1734 and rep. 1996 by the Wiltshire Family History Society). There are detailed descriptions for each official; a good way to catch some of the flavor of parish life. Population growth and industrialization strained the old system. In the 1800s, due to huge rises in parish poor rates, the authority of select vestries was challenged and by the end of the century parish administration was completely different. Legislation in 1834 changed the poor laws and in 1894 created a new form of local government. Records of the Vestry The vestry and its officers kept records of parish business collectively referred to as the parish chest. Vestry minutes and accounts were among these. Today those that survive are deposited in county record offices. Some have been filmed for the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and are cataloged by town or parish. The vestry was the principal authority in the parish because of its role in the appointment of other officers and its ability to make rules or policies for the entire parish. Parish officers presented their reports and accounts to the vestry for acceptance. The broad responsibilities of the vestry led to a great variety of parish information being recorded in the minutes, including permission for the minister to keep pigeons and approval for the expenditure of funds on a quart of gin for an expectant mother (see Tate, W. E., The Parish Chest, 1983). Parishioners names appear frequently in vestry minutes and accounts. The records are therefore genealogically valuable as well as a remarkable account of the social life of a parish. SHERRY IRVINE, Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) has been researching her British ancestry for thirty years. She is an instructor and study tour leader for Samford University's IGHR, and teaches for the online family history program of Vermont College. Sherry is President of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Sally Rolls Pavia Sun City, AZ [email protected] "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." .