Catalogue description RECORDS OF THE FIRST VESTRY OF THE PARISH OF FULHAM (TO 1885)

The majority of the records of the civil administration of the parish of Fulham until 1885 were deposited by the metropolitan borough council in Fulham Public Library in 1926. Following the creation of the London borough, they were transferred to the Archives Department. Apprenticeship indentures and other documents were later found elsewhere among the metropolitan borough records. Ecclesiastical records of the parish are held in the London Metropolitan Archives.

The earliest surviving civil records of the parish date from the early 17th century. Records of the 16th century were used in D Lysons, The Environs of London (6 vols, 1792-1811) but have since disappeared. Vestry minutes for the periods May 1693 - May 1721 and May 1765 - April 1776 are also missing. The surviving records differ little from those of other metropolitan parishes. In addition to vestry minutes there are volumes containing rates and officials' accounts, separate ratebooks including some church rates, valuation books and surveys, records of the workhouse committee and highways board, and a sparse collection of apprenticeship indentures, settlement and removal certificates, and examinations.

The records were used and quoted extensively by C J Feret in Fulham Old and New (3 vols, 1900). Feret also described in detail the early administration of the parish. The introduction to the present list, therefore, merely summarises the main developments in the administration of the parish from the 17th to the 19th century, with special reference to the peculiar position of the hamlet of Hammersmith.

Contents

Introduction

Minutes of the vestry, workhouse committee, select vestry for the poor, highways board, vestry hall and other committees, 1623 - 1887

Rates and accounts of churchwardens, overseers of the poor and surveyors of highways, 1625 - 1838

Rates for the poor and other rates, 1833 - 1885

Valuations, 1853 - 1881

Terrier, 1839

Correspondence, 1877

Poor law records, 1666 - 1829

Highways board, 1836 - 1856

Minutes, registers and papers of burial board, 1863 - 1896

Returns of street renumbering, 1881 - 1891

Returns of infant deaths, 1876 - 1888

Appendices

I Loose drafts and orders found among minutes of the workhouse committee (PAF/1/13/2-20)

II Analysis of PAF/1/22

III Church briefs in PAF/1/1

IV Analysis of rates by subjects

V Apprenticeship indentures

Not included in this list

Fulham Vestry, 1885-1899

Rating and valuation records

The vestry of Fulham levied church rates, poor rates, and highways rates. Sewers rates in Fulham were levied by the Westminster Commission of Sewers until 1848 when its powers passed to the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers; the new commission could levy a district sewers rate and a special sewers rate. In 1855 the metropolitan commission was dissolved; main sewers in Fulham became the responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works and other sewers the responsibility of the Fulham District Board of Works. In each case, however, the district board was responsible for levying the rates. The district board also took over the duties of the highways board and levied a general rate (which included the former highways rate) and a lighting rate. From 1858 the cost of the works carried out by the metropolitan board on main sewers was met by a main drainage rate, and from 1869 the metropolitan board levied a metropolitan consolidated rate, which covered all its expenses including those arising from drainage. Sewers rates and main drainage rates were sometimes called respectively "local" and "metropolitan" sewers rates, and from 1873 onwards all rates other than the poor rate were known collectively as the "local management rates".

Fulham ratebooks of the 17th century were sometimes divided into districts identified by a road or other topographical features, but this was not done consistently. Rating districts appeared again in ratebooks of the mid-19th century. Lighting rates from 1852 to 1856 were levied on two; the first covered the south and east part of the parish, and the second, called St. Mary's district, the north and west. The sewers rate of 1857 divided Fulham along the line of North End Road, Parsons Green Lane and Peterborough Lane, with Counters Creek district on the east and the districts of Fulham and Hammersmith on the west. In the 1860s a tripartite division of Fulham based on them existing parishes was regularly followed in ratebooks and valuation books: Number 1 district covered the parish of All Saints, Number 2 St John's Walham Green, and Number 3 St Mary's, North End. On one occasion (PAF/1/77) the last two districts were combined.

Two valuation books of the Fulham vestry, one of them unfinished, survive from the 1850s. After 1862 the making of valuation lists became compulsory. They were drawn up by the overseers under the supervision of the assessment committee of the Board of Guardians of Fulham Union, and supplemental lists were made. The first valuation list of Fulham compiled in this way was deposited with the assessment committee early in 1863. From 1870 onwards quinquennial valuation lists were made. In the intervening four-year periods annual supplemental lists and provisional lists were made to cover changes in the values of property.

Introduction

Fulham has been administered by five local authorities. From the 16th century until 1855 the parish vestry and officials were responsible for many aspects of local government. In 1855 most of the vestry's responsibilities passed to the Fulham District Board of Works, although parish officials continued to collect rates. In 1885 the district board was dissolved and its powers devolved upon a reconstituted vestry. In 1899 the vestry was abolished and the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham was created. This in turn was superseded in 1965 by the London Borough of Hammersmith, renamed the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in 1979. Records of the parish (1623-1885), the district board (1855-1885), the reconstituted vestry (1886-1899), and the metropolitan borough (1899-1965) are now in the custody of Hammersmith and Fulham Archives and Local History Centre.

Fulham and Hammersmith

Within the parish of Fulham lay the hamlet of Hammersmith. The hamlet had its own chapel by 1631, but did not become a separate parish until 1834. For over two hundred years, therefore, the parish of Fulham divided itself for the purposes of civil administration into two "sides". Each side had its own vestry and officials and collected its own rates. In the 17th and 18th centuries officials for each side were chosen at joint meetings of the two vestries, but by 1834 of the Hammersmith officials only the churchwarden was elected in this way. Meetings and committees of the inhabitants of both sides were also held to consider matters in which they had a mutual interest. Thus in 1752 a committee considered the disposal of property in Fulham, the rents of which were divided among the poor of both sides. Such meetings and committees also met to resolve disputes between the sides and to settle outstanding accounts between them. Apart from joint action of this nature, however, the civil administration of each side functioned independently along the lines of other metropolitan parishes.

The Fulham vestry and its officials

At Easter the Fulham vestry elected a churchwarden and two overseers of the poor. Surveyors of highways were elected around the same time, but from 1672 their election was held in December. In 1691 the vestry's action was limited to selecting candidates for surveyorship from whom the justices of the peace made a final choice. In 1766 the election was moved to September; and in 1836 the surveyors were replaced by the "board for the repair of the highways of the parish" (hereafter referred to as the highways board). The vestry also appointed permanent, salaried officials; they included the beadle, the vestry clerk (whose office was combined with that of the parish clerk) and the master of the workhouse.

Officers of Fulham manor were also employed on parish business. The constable and headborough were responsible for the maintenance of law and order in the parish; their expenses were paid by the parish overseers. Conversely, the parish beadle sometimes exercised the constable's office of summoning juries for the manor court. Constables and headboroughs were elected at the court leet. From 1842, however, constables were appointed by justices of the peace from names submitted by the overseers, and no constables or headboroughs could be appointed by courts leet "expect for purposes other than the maintenance of peace".

One of the vestry's main concerns was the running of the parish workhouse. The house was established in 1732 and was managed by a master under the supervision of the churchwarden, overseers, and a board of trustees. After 1743 the board became an annually appointed "committee meeting at the workhouse" (hereafter referred to as the workhouse committee). A new workhouse was built between 1774-6. In 1819 a "select vestry for the management of the affairs of the poor" (hereafter referred to as the select vestry for the poor) replaced the workhouse committee and lasted until 1836 when Fulham joined the Kensington Union. In 1845 Fulham and Hammersmith withdrew to form the Fulham Union which lasted until 1899. A union institution opened in 1850 to replace the workhouses of both parishes.

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