2308 Subscription List for relief of families of soldiers 2309 Subscription List for suppression of rebellion 2310 Subscription List for repairing St. Margaret's Churchyard and erecting Watch House 2311 Subscription List for enlisting men (2 books) Subscription for immediate relief of poor (2 books) 2312 List of persons relieved (2 books) Subscription for poor 2313 Relief List (2 books) 1814 1827 1856 to 1860 1861 to 1866 1867 to 1876 1877 to 1881 1856 to 1860 47 2314 Subscription for poor, accounts and proceedings (parcel) 2318 Paving works Ledgers, District Board of Works 2319 2320 Sewerage works Ledgers, District Board of Works ... 1861 to 1865 1856 to 1860 2327 Paving Committee, 1s. Rate Account, Cash Book 2330 Collectors' Irrecoverables, St. Margaret's Ward 3 2331 Kensington Trust Accounts 1763 to 1786 2343 2344 2340 Paving Commissioners, list of streets paved ... 1772 to 1776 1869 to 1871 2355 Register of Mortgages, District Board of Works 2356 Register of Contracts, District Board of Works 2357 Liability Book, District Board of Works 2358 Wages or Pay Book, Vestry 1856 to 1867 1867 to 1883 ... 1884 to 1888 ... 1888 to 1891 2359 License Account, Vestry 2360 Collectors' Payments to Bank 1888 to 1894 1891 to 1894 2361 Clerk's Petty Cash Account, District Board of Works ... 2363 Clerk's Cash Account, Wages, General, and Petty Cash, District Board of Works 2365 Vestry Petty Cash 2366 Clerk's Cash Book, District Board Just as the churchwardens' accounts afford an insight into the management of the affairs of the church, and the overseers' accounts reveal the development of the poor laws, so the Vestry minutes exhibit the unfolding of the present system of local self-government. This important series commences in 1585-91, so that three centuries of parochial self-government are disclosed. In these simple annals may be traced the gradual formation of a system of local management which, however its imperfections in minor details may be magnified, may claim to be without a parallel. A large share of attention was given by the Vestry in its early days to matters relating to the fabric and the services of the church. The precise seat which a parishioner should occupy would be the subject of a protracted debate, the hours at which Divine service should be held would be appointed by the Vestry, ministers would be chosen or displaced, the chimes would be regulated, the precise position of a sconce for the candles would be settled by a resolution, the refreshment to be provided for the preacher would be deliberately discussed, not to speak of countless other details in the same connection. But besides all this, almost every branch of the civil administration in its early stages, if not in its origin, may be traced to these annals. Here are to be found the germs which, under the fostering care of the ancient vestry, have grown into the water supply, the drainage, the preservation of the peace, the highway maintenance, the public lighting, and the charity administration of to-day; and here, too, the forefathers of the present system may be found enforcing the observance of the Sabbath, suppressing drunkenness, promoting the national defence, guiding the electorate in the choice of Parliamentary representatives, issuing dietary regulations in times of scarceness, and concerning themselves in a multiplicity of matters which would to-day be resented as a usurpation of the rights and privileges of the people. As illustrations of the diversity of the powers the Vestry exercised at different times, extracts have been made and prefixed to the catalogue of the minutes. The majority will be found to require but little explanation, so that only occasional annotations are added. The first extract, dated in the year of the Spanish Armada, relates to the national defence, and is from the fly-leaf of the volume dated 1591 1588. A note of money received by the Churchwardens to the payment of Robt. Carre, High Constable, for money wh. he laid out about the Setting forth Soldiers, Received first of Mr. Ffyscher, which remayned in his iijl. xijs. vjd. xxixs. ijd. ... iiijs. xiiijs. xd. Recd of certen Constabulls wch remayned of a some * * Paid at the mustering in tutell field the xxjth April for powder xxj li. xxjs. Pd more for mache the same tyme v li. at iiijd. the pound... xxd. ... ... ... xxs. vd. iiijs. staving of too blacke bills xxd. and for Armyng of xi pickes ... Pd for fyfe ould daggers The "better government and benefyte of the church," particularly in reference to the choice of churchwardens, was among the earliest subjects to engage attention: Articles of Agreement made and concluded upon the Seventhe daye of Ffebruarie, Anno Dmi, 1591, by the general assent and consent of the vestrie men and churchwardens for the tyme now beinge for better government and benefyte for the Churche as followeth, vizt. :— 1. Imprimis that noe Churchwarden hereafter shall make election or bringe in anye man to be Churchwarden but by the generall choyse and election of the vestrie men or the moste pte of them for the tyme beinge. The said Churchwardens for the tyme being to be allwaies of the said Electors. Then follow a number of orders relating to burials, of which the subjoined is a specimen : 8th May, 1593.-At a Vestrie the Day and yere abovesaid we the prte of the Vestriemen whose names are hereunder written it was agreed and ordeyd that whatsoever Inhabitants of this parrishe who shall happen to burrye his wife shall not claim chalendge or have any right unto his wife's pewe after hir death, but to be dysposed by the Churchwardens for the Tyme being except any such pson soe burrienge his wife be or have bene high Constable burgesse or vestrieman and it is further ordered that any such man shall reserve to himself soe that his next wife hir pewe paying within vj wekes after hir death xijd. and yerely also xijd. to the churchwardens for the same. And that whoesoever heretofore hath burried his wife and not paide xijd. according to a former order Shall alsoe lose the beneffitt of there wives pewe and the churchwardens to place whome they shall think good notwithstanding any custom or order to the contrarye confirmed by or. handes the day and yere abovesaid. The letting of pews and charges for bells is shortly afterwards taken in hand : : An order taken in the vestry for the prises and rates of the belles and certayne pewes the xij day of January, 1594, in the xxxvij yere of quene Elizabeth. This order was extended at great length to various other matters relating to the letting of the said pews to women and regulating the "knylls of the grete and seconde belles." Other orders were passed in the same year, directing the sale of the "smaller payre of organes," defining the duties of the sextons, and laying down a scale of charges for interments. The provision of an isolation hospital, then called 'pest-house,' is undertaken by a resolution passed in 1642. At a Vestrie holden the 24th day of July, 1642, It was ordered that the |
