St Mary Rotherhithe Vestry Records

The Vestry meeting was the equivalent of today's Council meetings. The Vestry records for St Mary Rotherhithe include Vestry Minutes 1673-1900 (the minutes from 1856 onwards are of general meetings of parishioners, mainly for purposes concerned with the ecclesiastical parish; List of parish officers 1674-1856; Churchwardens Accounts 1707-1890; Committees Reports 1880-1895; Special Committees reports 1895-1900; Reports of General Purposes Committee 1895-1900; Reports of Finance Committee 1895-1900; Reports of Town Hall Management Committee 1897-1899; Reports of Library Committee 1899-1900; Reports of Law and Parliamentary Committee; Valuation Committee Minutes 1858-1876 and Reports from 1888.

From the late mediaeval period to the end of the 19th century, the basic unit local government in London was the parish vestry. Originally, the vestry was a meeting of all the taxpayers living in a parish, chaired by the parish priest and held in the vestry of the church. Vestries gradually developed with the decline of the feudal system; after the destruction of the monasteries removed a vital plank of late-mediaeval poor relief, the Tudor Poor Laws made parishes responsible for that function ? the vestry?s oldest and most important statutory function. "Vestries accumulated a variety of other functions over time, either via statute or through local customs and practice. In London, these included administering charities, providing burial grounds, road maintenance, rubbish disposal, street lighting, and policing. By the 17th century, many parishes had populations big enough that meetings of all taxpayers (known as ?open vestries?) were ineffective or impossible. In many cases, small groups of well-off parishioners were co-opted, or selected themselves, to create an administrative committee (known as the ?select vestry? or ?closed vestry?) that did most of the day-to-day work and made most decisions independently. This select vestry system made local administration more efficient, but also tended to breed corruption by small, self-perpetuating groups of the parish?s wealthiest people. By the late 17th century, this corruption had became a national scandal, leading to the creation of new ad-hoc bodies to take over different vestry functions (such as street maintenance or lighting). This ad-hoc system proved inadequate for Victorian London, and over the course of the 19th century London?s vestries lost most of their functions to newly-created elected bodies, including boards of poor law guardians in 1834, boards of health in 1848, and burial boards in 1853. In 1855, the Metropolis Management Act broke the link between religious parishes and local government by creating fully secular elected bodies, either parish vestries or district boards of works comprised of several smaller parishes. In 1900, 28 metropolitan boroughs took over almost all the functions of the parish vestries and district boards of works. In our area, the 1855 Metropolis Management Act created two District Boards of Works: St Olave?s (merging the vestries of St John Horsleydown, St St Olave, and St Thomas) and St Saviour?s (merging the vestries of St Saviour?s and Christ Church). Records for these parishes will not be as detailed after 1855. The vestries of Bermondsey, Camberwell, Newington, Rotherhithe, and St George the Martyr retained their functions after 1855. A flood in the 1920s destroyed a substantial proportion of Camberwell vestry?s records. The London Metropolitan Archives holds most of the records of St Saviour?s vestry. Vestry minutes are the official records of the opinions, decisions, and actions of a parish vestry. A vestry could create committees or sub-committees to oversee particular problems or functions, which would make recommendations to the full vestry, often in the form of a report. In some cases, the vestry committee or sub-committee took over the function of an independent body, like a lighting or turnpike trust, or commissions for libraries or washhouses.The LHLA holds both full vestry minutes and vestry committee and sub-committee minutes. Most committee and sub-committee minutes are stored off-site; please contact staff for more information. A flood in the 1920s destroyed a significant amount of Camberwell vestry?s records; the London Metropolitan Archives holds most records of St Saviour?s vestry. Rotherhithe vestry offices were in Paradise Street, then the Boardroom at St Olav's Workhouse Infirmary, then in 1897 Rotherhithe Town Hall in Lower Road.