Clerkenwell Vestry

Last updated
Clerkenwell Vestry
Type
Type
Vestry of the parish of Clerkenwell
History
Foundedc.16th century
Disbanded1900
Succeeded by Finsbury Metropolitan Borough Council
Structure
Seats72 vestrymen
Committees
Joint committees
1855–1889: Appointed 1 member to Metropolitan Board of Works
Length of term
3 years
Constituencies
1855–1900: 5 wards
Elections
Last election
 16 May 1899
Meeting place
Finsbury Town Hall - Borough of Islington - London - August 11th 2014 - 06.jpg
Vestry Hall, Rosebery Avenue

The Clerkenwell Vestry was the vestry of Clerkenwell from c.16th century until 1900. The vestry had growing secular authority over the parish with the relief of the poor its main responsibility. It was incorporated in 1855 as an administrative vestry within the Metropolitan Board of Works area. The poor sanitation of the Clerkenwell Workhouse infirmary led to the removal of poor law functions in 1869. The vestry was a pioneer in public library provision with the open shelf system introduced for the first time by librarian James Duff Brown. The vestry was replaced by Finsbury Metropolitan Borough Council in 1900 with the final election to the vestry occurring on 16 May 1899. The vestry hall built towards the end of its tenure became the Finsbury Town Hall.

Contents

History

The vestry had growing secular authority over the parish of Clerkenwell, including the detached part around Muswell Hill, from the 16th century.

Poor law

The vestry built the Clerkenwell Workhouse in Coppice Row in 1727. [1] An infirmary was added in 1729. The administration of the poor law was reformed by the Clerkenwell (Poor Relief) Act 1775 which transferred responsibility from the vestry to the Clerkenwell Guardians. The board of 63 guardians were appointed by the vestry for life. They were made up of 42 for the district of St James and 21 for the district of St John. The guardians were empowered to improve the existing workhouse and could also build another one.

The 1775 legislation allowed the vestry to avoid the reforms of the New Poor Law. As part of an investigation into the sanitary condition of workhouse infirmaries, The Lancet in 1865 described the Clerkenwell infirmary as the worst in London. [2] In 1869 responsibility for the poor law passed to the Holborn Guardians, following the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867.

Incorporated vestry

In 1855 the parish of Clerkenwell came within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The Clerkenwell Vestry was incorporated as local government body and appointed one member to the Metropolitan Board of Works. In 1857 the medical officer of health appointed by the vestry reported on the poor state of sanitation in the parish. [1]

The vestry considered adopting the Baths and Washhouses Act 1846 in the 1850s and 1870s, but this was not acted upon. [1] Using the powers of the Sanitary Act 1866, in 1876 a mortuary and in 1877 a coroner's court designed by Henry Saxon Snell was opened by the vestry. [2]

In 1892/3 the vestry had an expenditure of £33,236 (equivalent to £4,656,203in 2023). [3]

The election of vestrymen was reformed by the Local Government Act 1894 with the vestry election in December 1894 the first to use the new system. [4] The 1894 election was for all members with the third elected with the least votes retiring in 1896, then the next third in 1897 and the third with the most votes in 1898. [3]

The vestry did not adopt the Electric Lighting Acts and electric power in Clerkenwell was provided by the County of London Electric Supply Company. The vestry turned down an offer to take over supply in the parish in 1893. [5]

Public libraries

The Public Libraries Acts were adopted on 13 December 1887 with the Clerkenwell Library Commissioners appointed on 26 January 1888. James Duff Brown, the first librarian, was appointed on 27 September 1888. [6] A temporary newspaper reading room was opened on Tysoe Street on 20 November 1888 and a temporary lending library opened there on 31 March 1889. [7] The first permanent library building opened on Skinner Street on 10 October 1890. [8] Brown was an innovator and the Clerkenwell Library was the first to use the now-common open shelf system. The powers and duties of the library commissioners were absorbed by the vestry on 29 September 1898.

Abolition

The final vestry election was held in May 1899. [9]

Clerkenwell Vestry was abolished by the London Government Act 1899 with the first election to the replacement Finsbury Metropolitan Borough Council taking place on 1 November 1900.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clerkenwell</span> Area of central London

Clerkenwell is an area of central London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras</span> Metropolitan borough of England

St Pancras was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of St Pancras became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Camden in Greater London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury</span>

The Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury was a metropolitan borough within the County of London from 1900 to 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Islington to form the London Borough of Islington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Borough of Islington</span> Former local authority of London, England

Islington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish within the county of Middlesex, and formed part of The Metropolis from 1855. The parish was transferred to the County of London in 1889 and became a metropolitan borough in 1900. It was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury to form the London Borough of Islington in Greater London in 1965.

A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies, which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially as the "vestry". At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spent nearly one-fifth of the budget of the British government. They were stripped of their secular functions in 1894 and were abolished in 1921.

A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Local Government Act 1894</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888. The 1894 legislation introduced elected councils at district and parish level.

Shoreditch (St Leonard) was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. It was both a civil parish, used for administrative purposes, and an ecclesiastical parish of the Church of England. The parish church is St Leonard's, Shoreditch, often simply called "Shoreditch Church".

Hornsey was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. It was both a civil parish, used for administrative purposes, and an ecclesiastical parish of the Church of England.

The parliamentary borough of Finsbury was a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 1832 to 1885, and from 1918 to 1950. The constituency was first created in 1832 as one of seven two-seat "metropolis" parliamentary boroughs other than the two which already existed: Westminster and the City of London; the latter until 1885 retained an exceptional four seats. Finsbury was directly north of the City of London and was smaller than the Finsbury division of the Ossulstone hundred but took in land of Holborn division to its southwest in pre-introduction changes by Boundary Commissioners. It included Finsbury, Holborn, Moorfields, Clerkenwell, Islington, Stoke Newington and historic St Pancras. The 1918 constituency corresponded to the smaller Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury ; it was a seat, thus electing a single member, fulfilling a longstanding aim of Chartism which underscored the 1832 reforms.

Boards of guardians were ad hoc authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.

Finsbury Central was a parliamentary constituency that covered the Clerkenwell district of Central London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holborn District (Metropolis)</span>

Holborn was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London to the north west of the City of London from 1855 to 1900.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Giles District (Metropolis)</span>

St Giles District was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1900. The district was created by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, and comprised the civil parish of St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury, Middlesex: the two parishes had been combined for civil purposes in 1774. The district was abolished in 1900 and its former area became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn. The civil parish was abolished in 1930. It is now part of the London Borough of Camden.

James Duff Brown (1862–1914) was a British librarian, information theorist, music biographer and educationalist. Most of his life was spent in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasshouse Yard</span>

The Liberty of Glasshouse Yard was an extra-parochial liberty adjacent to the City of London. The liberty took its name from a glass manufacturing works established there. The area now forms part of the London Borough of Islington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents and Ely Place</span>

Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents and Ely Place was a liberty and from 1866 to 1930 a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. It was part of the ancient parish of St Andrew Holborn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clerkenwell Workhouse</span> Workhouse in Clerkenwell, England

The Clerkenwell Workhouse stood on Coppice Row, Farringdon Road, in London, from 1727 to 1883.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hammersmith Vestry</span> Vestry in England

The Hammersmith Vestry was the vestry of Hammersmith from c.1631 to 1900. The vestry was established following the building of a chapel of ease for the inhabitants of Hammersmith in the parish of Fulham. Hammersmith became a distinct parish in 1834 and the vestry was also known as the Vestry of the Parish of Hammersmith.

The final election to the Clerkenwell Vestry took place on Tuesday 16 May 1899. Vestrymen were elected for three years. The term was reduced to end on 1 November 1900 by the London Government Act 1899.

References

  1. 1 2 3 South and East Clerkenwell. New Haven, CT ; London : London: Yale University Press; on behalf of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 2008. ISBN   9780300137279.
  2. 1 2 Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville. New Haven: Yale University Press, on behalf of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London. 2008. ISBN   0300139373.
  3. 1 2 The London Vestries (PDF). London: The Fabian Society. November 1894. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  4. ↑ "London Vestry Elections". London Evening Standard. 17 December 1894. p. 2.
  5. ↑ "Clerkenwell". The Electrician. 31: 298. 14 July 1893.
  6. ↑ Annual Report of the Commissioners. Clerkenwell Free Public Library. 1890.
  7. ↑ "The Clerkenwell Free Public Library". Pall Mall Gazette. 1 April 1889. p. 6.
  8. ↑ "Clerkenwell Public Library". London Evening Standard. 10 October 1890. p. 5.
  9. ↑ "Vestry Elections for 1899". Holborn and Finsbury Guardian. 20 May 1899. p. 6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.