be appointed for holding such vestry by the publication of such notice in the parish church or chapel on some Sunday during or immediately after divine service, and by affixing the same on the principal door of such church or chapel. § 1.

And for the more orderly conduct of vestries, in case the rector or vicar or perpetual curate shall not be present (3), the persons so assembled shall forthwith appoint by plurality of votes, to be ascertained as hereinafter directed, one of the inhabitants to be the chairman of and to preside in every such vestry; and in all cases of equality of votes, the chairman shall (in addition to such vote or votes as he may by virtue of this act be entitled to give in right of his assessment) have the casting vote; and minutes of the proceedings and resolutions of every vestry shall be fairly entered in a book, (provided by the churchwardens and overseers,) and shall be signed by the chairman and by such other of the inhabitants present as they shall think proper to sign the same. § 2.

In all such vestries every inhabitant present, who, by the last rate made for the relief of the poor, shall have been assessed in respect of any annual rent, profit, or value, not amounting to 50l., shall give one vote and no more: if assessed for any such annual rent, &c. amounting to 50l. or upwards, (whether in one or more than one charge, shall be entitled to give one vote for every 25l. in respect of which he shall have been assessed, so that no inhabitant shall give more than six votes, and where two or more of the inhabitants present shall be jointly rated, each shall vote according to the proportion which shall be borne by him of the joint charge; and where only one of the persons jointly rated shall attend, he shall vote according to the whole of the joint charge. § 3.

When any person shall have become an inhabitant of any parish, or become liable to be rated therein since the making of the last rate, he shall be entitled to vote in respect of the property for which he shall have become liable to be rated, and shall consent to be rated, in like manner as if he should have been actually rated for the same. § 4.

the

No person who shall neglect to pay any rate for the relief of poor, which shall be due from and have been demanded of him, (and) shall be entitled to vote or to be present in any vestry until he has paid the same. § 5.

"Whereas the word "and" was inserted by mistake in the 58 G. 3. c. 69. § 5. It is enacted, that no person who shall neglect to pay any rate for the relief of the poor, due from and

(3) The minister of a parish has a right to preside at vestry meetings. Wilson v. M‘Math, 3 B. & A. 243. and 244. notis. 3 Phill. R. 87. S. C.

demanded of him, shall vote or be present at any vestry of the parish for which the rate was made till such rate is paid." 59 G.3. c. 85. § 3.

By 58 G. 3. c. 69. § 6. As well the books by this act directed to be provided and kept for the entry of the proceedings of vestries, as all former vestry books, and all rates and assessments, accounts and vouchers of the churchwardens, overseers of the poor, and surveyors of the highways, and other parish officers, and all certificates, orders of courts and of justices, and other parish books, documents, writings, and public papers of every parish (except the registry of marriages, baptisms, and burials; see 52 G. 3. c. 146. § 5. tit. Register.) shall be kept by such person and deposited in such place and manner as the inhabitants in vestry shall direct; and if any person in whose custody the same shall be, shall wilfully or negligently destroy, obliterate, or injure the same, or suffer the same to be destroyed, obliterated, or injured, or shall after reasonable notice and demand neglect to deliver the same to such person, or to deposit the same in such place as shall by the order of any such vestry be directed, he shall on conviction or confession, or on the oath of one witness before two justices of peace upon complaint thereof made, forfeit not exceeding 50l. nor less than 40s. as such justices shall adjudge; and the same shall be levied by warrant in such manner as poor rates may be levied, and shall be paid to the overseers and applied for the relief of the poor; But nevertheless every person who shall unlawfully retain in his custody, or refuse to deliver to any person authorized to receive the same, or who shall obliterate, destroy, or injure, or suffer to be obliterated, &c. any book, rate, assessment, &c. or paper belonging to any parish, or to the churchwardens, overseers of the poor, or surveyors of the highways thereof, may be proceeded against in any court, civilly or criminally, as if this act had not been made.

All provisions in this act in relation to parishes shall extend to all townships, vills, and places, having separate overseers, and maintaining their poor separately, and all the directions herein in regard to vestries shall be applied to all meetings which may by law be holden of the inhabitants of any parish, township, vill, or place, for any of the purposes in this act expressed; and the notices hereby required to be given of every vestry may in places in which there shall be no parish church or chapel, or where there is not divine service, be given in such manner as notices of the like nature have been there usually given, or as shall be most effectual for communicating the same to the inhabitants. 58 G. 3. c. 69. § 7.

Nothing in this act shall alter the time of holding any vestry, parish, or town meeting which is by the authority of any act re

quired to be holden on any certain day, or within any certain time, nor shall any thing in this act affect the powers of any vestry or meeting holden by virtue of any special act of any ancient and special usage or custom, or change or affect the manner of voting in any vestry or meeting so holden.

§ 8. Nothing in this act shall extend to any parish within London or the borough of Southwark. § 10. But only to England and Wales. 11.

By 59 G. 3. c. 85. § 1. Any person rated for the relief of the poor in respect of any annual rent, profit, or value, arising from any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, situate in any parish in which any vestry is holden under 58 G. 3. c. 69., although such person shall not reside or be an inhabitant thereof, may be present at such vestry, and be entitled to give so many votes at such vestry in respect of the amount of such rent or value, as by such act any inhabitant of such parish present at such vestry might do if such person were an inhabitant of such parish.

By § 2. In all cases where any corporation or company of such corporation, &c. shall be charged to such rate, either in the name of such corporation or of any officer of such corporation, the clerk, secretary, steward, or other agent duly authorized may be present at any vestry, and such clerk, &c. shall be entitled to give at such vestry such and so many votes in respect of the amount of the rent, &c. of such lands, &c. as by 58 G. 3. c. 69. inhabitant assessed to such rate present might.

any

By § 3. No clerk, secretary, steward, or agent, shall be entitled to be present or to vote at any vestry, unless all rates which have been assessed in respect of the annual rent, &c. in right of which any such clerk, &c. shall claim to be present and vote, which shall be due and which have been demanded before the meeting of such vestry, shall have been paid.

Where feoffees of a charity were directed to do certain acts only in a vestry or meeting of the said feoffees, and of ten of the inhabitants of the parish which should be vestrymen in the said parish, and not feoffees, it was held that the votes were to be taken per capita, and not according to the provisions of the Vestry Act. (58 G. 3. c. 69.) Atto. Gen. v. Wilkinson, 3 Brod. & Bing.

R. 266.

As to select vestries for relief of the poor, The King v. Woodman. 4 B. & A. Rep. Chetwynd.]

see 59 G. 3. c. 12. Burn's Justice, by

Uicar.

A VICAR, vicarius, is one that hath a spiritual promotion or living under the parson; and is so denominated, as officiating vice ejus, in his place or stead. And such a promotion or living is called a vicarage, which is a part or portion of the parsonage allotted to the vicar for his maintenance and support.

This part or portion is in some places an annual sum of money certain; but in most places it is a part of the tithes in kind, which most commonly is the small tithes ; and in some places he hath a part of the great tithes, and also of the glebe: and such a one is called a vicar endowed.

Thus he that hath the right to the possession of the lesser part, is called a vicar; and he that hath the other and greater part of tithes, is called the parson, who in some parishes is a clergyman, and sometimes the minister or incumbent of the same church; but in other places he is a mere layman, and cannot supply the church but by a spiritual vicar: and this so possessed by a layman, is called an impropriation, and himself the impropriator.

An appropriation is properly when such a parsonage (or vicarage or other church preferment) is in the hands or possession of some ecclesiastical person and his successors, and can be made only to a body politic or corporation spiritual, that hath succession, whereby such body becomes perpetual incumbent of the benefice appropriated, and shall for ever enjoy the tithes and other profits, and the cure of souls belonging thereto.

But the words impropriation and appropriation are generally confounded in the books: and the law concerning the whole is treated of under the title Appropriation, and see INDEX, Vicarage.

Uicar general.

VICAR general is an officer whose office is usually annexed to that of Chancellor, and is therefore treated of under that title. See Fees.

Wigil. See Holidays.

Ui laica removenda.

VI laica removenda is a writ which (upon the bishop's certificate in chancery of a force and resistance touching a church)

12 c

[13]

lieth where a debate or controversy is between two parsons for a church, the one whereof doth enter into the church with strong hand and great power of the laity, holding the other out, and keeping possession thereof with force and arms. Whereupon he that is so held out of possession may have the said writ directed to the sheriff of the county, to remove the force within that church, and (if need be) to raise the power of the county to his assistance, and to arrest and imprison the persons that make resistance, so as to have their bodies before the king at a certain day to answer the contempt. Which writ is sometimes grantable without the bishop's certificate as aforesaid: for it may, as it seemeth, be had upon a surmise made thereof by the incumbent himself without such certificate; there being a distinct and several form thereof in each of the said cases. So that this writ properly lieth for the removal of any forcible possession of a church kept by laymen. God. 645. F. N. B. 124.

By this writ the sheriff ought not to remove the incumbent who is in possession of the church, whether the possession be of right or wrong; but only to remove the force. F. N. B. 125.

The writ is made returnable into the king's bench, in which court the offenders shall be fined and punished for the force: and restitution also shall be awarded out of the same court (as it seemeth). Wats. c. 30.

Uisitation. (1)

NOTE, free chapels and donatives (unless such donative hath received the augmentation of queen Anne's bounty) are [ 14 ] exempt from the visitation of the ordinary; the first being visitable only by commission from the king, and the second by commission from the donor: And there are also other churches and chapels exempted, which did belong to the monasteries; having heretofore obtained exemptions from ordinary visitation, and being visitable only by the pope; which by the statute of 25 H. 8. c. 31. were made visitable by the king, or by commission under the great seal. These, and other exempted churches or chapels, so far forth as they are exempted, are not treated of under this title; the purport whereof extendeth only to places visitable by the bishop or his subordinate officers.

Origin.

1. For the government of the church, and the correction of offences, visitations of parishes and dioceses were instituted in

(1) See Com. Dig. tit. Visitor.