The Vestries Act 1831, commonly known as Hobhouse's Vestry Act (named after the Whig frontbencher Sir John Hobhouse, later created Lord Broughton), was an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in 1831 and was a local government overhaul which also affected the

Established Church A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...

at a local level. The act gave

subsidiarity Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines subsidi ...

in that local ratepayers would have to agree by a special majority for the reform to take effect in their local area (parish). Select vestry comforts LCCN2006691072

Where locally approved it replaced the Select

Vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for 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 colloquiall ...

(the local government where not an open vestry and which was in most cases a narrow

oligarchy Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...

) with a non co-opted system of vestrymen (vestry members) to be instead elected by

ratepayer Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role ...

s (male and female) who had been resident in the parish for more than a year. To adopt the act (reform) the parish had to have over 800 ratepayers (thus excluding almost all rural parishes), of whom at least would need to vote in support of the reform. The five metropolitan parishes to adopt the act were:Pauper Capital: London and the Poor Law, 1790-1870, David R. Green *

St George Hanover Square St George Hanover Square was a civil parish created in 1724 in the Liberty of Westminster, Middlesex, which was later part of the metropolitan area of London, England. The creation of the parish accompanied the building of St George's, Hanove ...

* St Marylebone * St Pancras *

Westminster St James Westminster St James (or St James Piccadilly) was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. The creation of the parish followed the building of the Church of St James, Piccadilly, in 1684. After several failed attempts, the ...

* Westminster St John Membership of their vestries were replaced over a period of three years with a series of elections. The

Metropolis Management Act 1855 The Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c.120) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body to co-ordinate the construction of the city's infrastructure. The Act al ...

went further by abolishing the remaining select vestries of all metropolitan parishes in 1855 and extended the principle of election by ratepayers.

References

United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1831 {{UK-statute-stub