Contested legitimacy and the ambiguous rise of vestries in early modern London

MERRITT, J. F.

Abstract

Studies of the rise of London's vestries in the period to 1640 have tended to discuss them in terms of the inexorable rise of oligarchy and state formation. This article re-examines the emergence of the vestries in several ways, moving beyond this traditional focus on oligarchy, and noting how London's vestries raised much broader issues concerning law, custom, and lay religious authority. The article reveals a notable contrast between the widespread influence and activities of London vestries and the questionable legal framework in which they operated. The political and ecclesiastical authorities – and in particular Archbishop Laud – are also shown to have had very mixed attitudes towards the legitimacy and desirability of powerful vestries. The apparently smooth and relentless spread of select vestries in the pre-war period is also shown to be illusory. The granting of vestry ‘faculties’ by the authorities ceased abruptly at the end of the 1620s, amid a series of serious legal challenges, on both local and ideological grounds, to the existence of vestries. Their rise had thus been seriously contested and stymied well before the upheavals of the 1640s, although opposition to them came from multiple sources – Laudians, Henry Spelman and the royal Commission on Fees, and local parishioners – whose objectives could vary.

Citation

MERRITT, J. F. (2011). Contested legitimacy and the ambiguous rise of vestries in early modern London. Historical Journal, 54(1), 25-45. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x10000555

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 1, 2010
• Online Publication Date: Jan 31, 2011
• Publication Date: 2011-03
• Deposit Date: Nov 12, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 12, 2019
• Journal: The Historical Journal
• Print ISSN: 0018-246X
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-5103
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 25-45
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x10000555
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3233910
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/contested-legitimacy-and-the-ambiguous-rise-of-vestries-in-early-modern-london/F4ED17DEB95029A8ED81C3D0E46AB9C7
• Contract Date: Nov 12, 2019