By Fiona Fitzsimons
Between 1536 and 1870 the Church of Ireland was the established State church. It provided sacraments and religious services for the faithful, and local government in the parish. It levied tithes for the support of its clergy, and parish cess to fund the church’s ecclesiastical and secular functions. The cess was collected and administered by the parish vestry, the assembly of ratepayers. Although every householder was liable, for most of the eighteenth century vestry membership was limited to the Anglican faith community—one in eight, or less, of the population.
The parish vestry administered the cess to pay for church expenses, supplying everything required for divine service, including bread and wine for communion, and maintaining the church buildings and graveyard. The cess was supposed to pay for public utilities in the district, defined modestly at first: parish schools to teach the English language and poor relief in the community. After 1615 the Highways Act transferred responsibility for main roads from local manors to the parish vestries. From that time, and for the next two centuries, the parish vestries began to accumulate a diverse range of services, including lighting and paving, waste removal, policing and firefighting. Parish officers were elected every year and employed as revenue collectors, road and land surveyors, and from 1813 to 1831 as census enumerators.
Like all manuscript collections, the parish vestry records are unique. As they document the day-to-day administration of the parish, we can confidently look for certain types of evidence.
Vestry Minutes record the dates of meetings, the names of vestry members and the business transacted, including the names of parish officers elected annually—churchwardens, supervisors and beadles.
Churchwardens’ accounts provide an annual audit of parish accounts down to the last penny spent.
Records of the parish cess provide the names of householders recorded by the street, square, lane or yard where they lived. Residents in tenements are not, unfortunately, recorded.
Parish Poor Relief records provide the earliest surviving evidence for welfare in local communities. We find the names of the poor for whom the parish provided. We find the names of foundling children and the nurses to whom they were boarded out, and orphan children and the names of their foster-families; sometimes, when an orphan child was bound as apprentice at the parish’s expense, we find the name of the young person, his or her master/mistress and his/her trade. For the relief of sick poor, and/or parish poor receiving outdoor (i.e. at-home) relief, parish officers would visit families in their homes to assess their situations. We find the names of parishioners who were buried by the parish. We also find evidence of subscriptions raised to help parishioners who had experienced a setback—a house fire, a serious illness or death.
Parish Watch account books record the names and rates of pay of individual night-watchmen; watch registers record where they were stationed on any specific night, as well as documenting disturbances and criminal activity observed.
Pew Rentals: a pew was a property interest that could be leased, sold or otherwise transferred. The position of the pew within the church was an indication of status.
After 1793 married militia, selected by ballot, received family support. The money was raised by the parish cess. The army wives lottery was conducted by the parish vestry, and surviving records are in the vestry minutes.
In 1833 the parish vestries lost the right to collect parish cess and virtually ceased to operate as an arm of government in the districts. Parish vestries were formally abolished as an instrument of local government in 1864.
Fiona Fitzsimons is a director of Eneclann, a Trinity campus company, and of findmypast Ireland.