Vestry minutes
- Held At: West Sussex Record Office
- Reference Number: Par301/12/2
- Document Order #: Par 301/12/2
- Date: 1827-1832
- Level: Item
- Extent: 1 vol
- Description: The majority of meetings are those of the Select Vestry "for the concerns of the poor". Recurring items in the minutes are the making of the poor rate [the church rate is referred to only in 1827 (f.6) and in 1829 (f.41)]; a regular four-weekly contract to buy flour for paupers; and lists of recipients of relief. Once a year a General Vestry examined and passed the Overseers' accounts with a summary of receipts and expenditure (ff.5, 21, 38, 57v, 78) and established the Select Vestry, their nominations and elections being confirmed by the magistrates (formal documents often attached).
The minutes also include the following items:-
ff.4r & v minutes relating to boarding out agreements, 1827;
f.13v minute of a General Vestry approving the accounts of the Surveyors of the Highways, 1827;
f.18 resolution of a General Vestry to borrow £65 for the emigration of Thomas Baldwin and his family to Pitsford in North America, 1828;
ff.20v, 26 minute of a Vestry met to consider an estimate for a gallery on the North Side, and for a "Gallery over the singing Gallery ..." and later a decision "that the Parish be not called on to bear any part of the expense of the erection of the Gallery", 1828;
ff.25, 26v minute of a General Vestry reaching no decision on repairing a lane leading from Brantridge Lane to Whitehouse in Balcombe; later it was decided not to repair the lane, "the Parishioners not being satisfied it is a Publick Highway", 1828;
ff.27v, 28v vestry decision to advertise in the Lewes Journal for a governor for the workhouse; signed agreement by the newly appointed manager, 1828;
f.34r & v minutes concerning "the best mode of employing the Poor"; resolutions on the subject include re-opening the stone pit at Whiteman's Green, forming a committee of management, asking the Surveyors to buy the stone, etc., 1829;
f.39 agreement between the vestry and a new workhouse manager, 1829;
f.40 minute ordering that the work at the stone pit be continued, 1829;
f.45 examination and passing of churchwardens' accounts, 1829;
f.47v minute relating to the erection of "a Cage for detaining Prisoners" and to estimates for its production, 1829;
f.48v nomination of a paid assistant surveyor of the highways, 1829;
f.60 decision to build a bridge "in the Highway Lane between Merryfields and Barnsnape", 1830;
f.65v examination and passing of the highways surveyors' accounts, 1830;
f.67v minute forming a committee to deal with the work and wages of the labouring poor, 1830;
f.69 minute agreeing to pay the arrears "of the Composition for the Hodges and Cuckfield Turnpike Road", 1830;
f.69v minute on forming a committee to manage the Whiteman's Green stone pit, 1830;
f.71v minute agreeing to advertise in the Lewes press for a workhouse manager, 1831;
f.73v agreement to a three-months appointment of an assistant workhouse manger, 1831;
ff.74v, 75 nomination of a paid assistant overseer, 1831;
f.77 decision to build a bridge between "Ansty Cross and Willies" [1831];
f.81 copy of the Cuckfield entry in the 1831 Census;
f.85 examination and approval of the highway surveyors' accounts, 1831;
f.86v minute recording the apprenticeship of Stephen Ede to William Elliott, shoemaker, 1831;
ff.88v, 89 minutes of a General Vestry called to plan for the profitable employment of unemployed labourers, of whom there was a great number of agricultural labourers; resolutions on employment and wages were unanimously adopted, 1831; f.93v decision to employ two assistant overseers, 1832;
f.94 draft advertisement for a "steady active married Man as Governor of a Workhouse", n.d - Terms:Cuckfield
- 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,