CHAPTER III. THE PARISH. The Civil Parish - Different kinds of Parishes - History of the Parish-Decay of Parish Functions-The Vestry-Its Functions-The Overseers-The Ecclesiastical Parish-The Minister -The Churchyard and rights of Burial-Churchwardens and other Lay Officers. I. The Civil Parish. 1 FOR most purposes of local government the term "parish" means the Poor-Law Parish. The poor-law parish is a district or area for which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed. The area thus designated, says a return by the Local Government Board, "may consist of an entire ancient parish, one or more highway townships, a parochial chapelry, a chapelry, a quarter, a hamlet, or some part of an ancient parish which is not known by any of these designations." 1 By sec. 18 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1866 (29 and 30 Vict. c. 113):-" In all statutes, except there shall be something in the context inconsistent therewith, the word 'parish' shall, among other meanings applicable to it, signify a place for which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed." The careful vagueness of this definition is a good illustration of the confusion which reigns supreme over all local matters in England. In 1873 a Select Committee was appointed to inquire into the question of parish boundaries. From their investigations it appears that the parish bears no definite relation to any other administrative area except the union. A parish may be situated partly in one county, partly in another; partly in a county and partly in a municipal borough; partly within the jurisdiction of a local board, and partly without. Again, the lands composing a single parish are by no means always within a ring-fence boundary. They are often separated from the lands of the mother parish by a considerable distance. In Yorkshire, at that time, there were more that seventy divided parishes, and one parish had no less than ten outlying portions intermixed with the lands of other parishes. The total number of divided parishes was over 1300. Three Acts, however, have now been passed-one in 1876, another in 1879, and a third in 1882, enabling the Local Government Board, under certain conditions, to readjust the boundaries of divided parishes, and either merge outlying portions in adjacent parishes or make them into new parishes. Very few orders have as yet been made under the powers given by these Acts. Apart from statutory readjustment, the boundaries of parishes are determined by immemorial custom, and are ascertained and evidenced by perambulations. These perambulations formerly were made annually in Rogation Week, but now it seems they should be made triennially, for the Poor Law Act of 18441 authorises the expenses of perambulations incurred by the parish officers to be charged to the poor rate, "provided the perambulations do not occur more than 17 & 8 Vict. c. 101, sec. 60. D once in three years." The expense of setting up and keeping in repair the parish boundary stones may also be charged to the poor rate. Parishes are very unequal both in area and population. There are many parishes with an area of less than 50 acres, and many with an area exceeding 10,000 acres. There are 788 parishes with a population of less than 50 persons, and 6000 > parishes with a population under 300. There are cases in Northumberland of parishes containing only five or six persons.1 On the other hand, there is a considerable number of parishes with a population exceeding 30,000. The township of Toxteth, for instance, contains 107,000 inhabitants. The average population is about 1500, and the greater number of parishes have a population varying between 200 and 1000.2 There is no power to consolidate small parishes, but the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1867 enables the Local Government Board, by Provisional Order, to subdivide a large parish on the application of one-tenth in value of the owners and ratepayers therein. 3 There are other kinds of parishes besides the poorlaw parish, which must be distinguished from it. There is the "Land-Tax Parish," which may be disregarded for purposes of local government. 1 There is the Highway Parish, which may or may not be identical with the poor-law parish. Many hamlets, villages, and tithings which are not separate poor-law parishes, are by custom separate highway parishes. The number of these parishes is not known; but in 1881 the number in respect of which returns were made to the Local Government Board was 14,777.2 There remains the Ecclesiastical Parish, which was once identical with the civil or poor-law parish and is often confused with it, though there is now no necessary connection between the two. A hamlet, for instance, may be in one parish for ecclesiastical purposes, such as tithe; while it is in another parish for civil purposes, such as the poor rate. According to the Census Returns of 1871, the number of civil parishes in England at that date was 14,945. The number of ecclesiastical parishes was estimated at about 13,000, there being no returns available from which the exact number could be ascertained. Now that the civil and ecclesiastical divisions of the land have parted company, it seems a pity that the ecclesiastical term "parish" is not confined to the ecclesiastical division. The old word township might then be used exclusively to denote the civil division. 1 Report on Poor Law Guardians, 1878, p. 7. Mr. Fry mentioned a parish in which there was only one ratepayer. That man may well say L'état c'est moi. He must rate himself. Presumably he is the overseer, the vestry, the chairman of the vestry, and the guardian. When h meets himself in vestry we may surmise that he takes the opinion of the meeting by show of hands. It may be an open question whether he might not constitute himself the burial board and bury himself. 2 Census Returns, 1871, vol. iv.; Select Committee on Poor Law Guardians, 1878, p. 9. 3 30 & 31 Vict. c. 106, sec. 3. From a historical point of view the parish is the most interesting of our local institutions. Primarily the parish is merely the old township in its ecclesiastical aspect." 1 See a definition of the land - tax parish in section 5 of the Taxes Management Act, 1880. 2 As to the constitution and functions of the "highway parish see Chapter IX., on Highway Areas. It is quite impossible to say what constitutes a "parish" for the purposes of the Burial Acts. 3 Stubbs, Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 85. We can therefore trace the descent of the modern civil parish, through the ecclesiastical parish, up to the old Saxon township. Some have carried its lineage still higher. "The township," says De Tocqueville, "is the only association which is so perfectly natural that wherever a number of men are collected it seems to constitute itself. If man makes monarchies and establishes republics, this, the first association of mankind, seems constituted by the hand of God Himself." Without going back quite so far as this, it may be safely said that the English parish is the legitimate descendant of the Teutonic mark, and that the English parish, the New England township, the French or Belgian commune, and the village community of Northern India, are but variations of one common type which reproduces itself wherever the Aryan race is found. Whether the Teutonic mark system was ever introduced into England by our Saxon forefathers may be an open question; but the Saxon township owed many of its distinguishing characteristics to the mark system. The township was so called from the tun or hedge which surrounded the group of homesteads. Around the homesteads were the township lands, held chiefly in common, but partly also in the separate ownership of the freemen who dwelt there. The constitution of the township was democratic. Every freeman took part in the business of its gemot or assembly; one and the same assembly made its bye-laws, held the township court, elected its officers, and managed its affairs. Its officers were the gerefa and the tithing-man. The functions of the gerefa were, it seems, judicial. He, too, with four chosen freemen, represented it in the hundred court and in the shire moot. The tithing-man was its peace officer. |