Vestry minutes
- Held At: West Sussex Record Office
- Reference Number: Par21/12/5
- Document Order #: Par 21/12/5
- Date: Apr 1830 - Feb 1836
- Level: Item
- Extent: 1 vol., ff.57
- Description: The minutes follow on from those of Par/21/12/4 above, except for an entry in the latter for 1832 (ff.38v, 39). The regular parish business concerns the appointments of a visitor, guardians, overseers and churchwardens; making the poor rate, exemptions and some individual assessments; passing the accounts; "putting out" boys and girls and "letting" of paupers; and matters concerning tithes. Specific subjects included are as follows:-
f.iv: decision to advertise the letting of paupers in The County Chroncile, 12 April 1830;
ff.2v-3v: calling of a meeting to consider covering an open sewer called the Wear; appointment of Simon Johnson and his wife to care for paupers in the poorhouse, and he subsequently also to superintend the road workers; agreements on cost of posts and rails, 17 June 1830;
ff.4, 12: notice of a meeting to compound with the vicar, Henry Wray Brown, for the future payment of small tithes, and report that no business was done "owing to the disorder which prevailed", 26 August 1830; continuation of the above business, the vicar being the subject of legal proceedings, and resolution of the matter, 27 August 1831;
f.16: decision not to let the poorhouse and poor because of the poorhouse's visitor objecting, 20 June 1831;
ff.16v, 22v: regulation of labourers' hours of work allowing one hour for dinner, 14 July 1831, 5 June 1832;
ff.17, 18: discussion concerning "the most effective means of employing the men of the parish" and resolution to distribute the labourers according to the rates paid by each employer; wage to be paid from the poor rate for those employers complying with the regulation, 12 January 1832;
f.19: minutes of a meeting convened for the hiring out of boys and girls, the parents in receipt of parish relief being commanded to bring their children; and decision to initiate an emigration fund for emigration to America, with terms for borrowing and refunding etc., 22 March 1832;
f.22: acceptance of a tender for the maintenance of the poorhouse, 12 April 1832;
f.23: decision to reduce payment of paupers receiving parish aid for their children, 3 September 1832;
f.24: agreement to make a loan to a parishioner to enable him to start in trade as a currier, 3 December 1832;
f.25-27v: resolution concerning the employment to labourers according to Act of Parliament and decision to submit them to the Petty Sessions at Petworth, 13 December 1832;
ff.28v-52v: [discontinuous] matters concerning Coneyhurst Common Road, 14 February 1833 - 24 November 1835;
ff.29v-30v: report of a public meeting held to consider discharging the vestry clerk and appointing another, and record of those votes cast, 12 April 1833;
f.35: agreement to make a church rate, 4 November 1833;
f.40: decision to pay the master of the poorhouse a sum per pauper to depend on the price "at Petworth of good wholesome flour made from brown wheat", 4 April 1834;
f.44v: notice of a meeting called to answer a questionnaire from the Poor Law Commissioners, 17 September 1834;
f.48r & v: notice of meetings for 26 March and 6 April 1835; see minutes of these meetings in Par/21/12/6, ff.1, 2;
f.54r & v: resolutions concerning an overseer whose accounts were not in order, 15 February 1836;
ff.55-56v: notice of a meeting called to consider emigration funds in accordance with the Poor Law, and decision to borrow a sum of £115, 22 February 1836;
f.57v: list of single men with their ages, n.d.; receipt [pasted in] for land tax, Lady Day 1847 - Terms:Billingshurst
- Terms:Transatlantic Ties
- Access Status: Open
- Access Conditions: Please note that a part of this record has been digitised for the Transatlantic Ties project and can be viewed here: http://www.transatlantic-ties.org/
- Digital Copy:Online digital surrogate available
- Contact: West Sussex Record Office,