A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

All such books shall, at all reasonable times, be open to the examination of every member of such board, churchwarden, overseer, and ratepayer, without fee or reward, and they respectively may take copies of, or extracts from, such books, or any part thereof, without paying for the same; and in case the members of such board, or any of them, or any of the officers or servants of such board having the custody of the said books, being thereunto reasonably requested, refuse to permit or do not permit any churchwarden, overseer, or ratepayer to examine the same, or take any such copies or extracts, every such member, officer, or servant so offending shall for every such offence, upon a summary conviction thereof before any justice of the peace, forfeit any sum not exceeding five pounds.

The vestry shall yearly appoint two persons, not being members of the board, to be auditors of the accounts of the board, and at such time in the month of March in every year as the vestry shall appoint, the board shall produce to the auditors their accounts, with sufficient vouchers for all monies received and paid, and the auditors shall examine such accounts and vouchers, and report thereon to the vestry.

The expenses incurred, or to be incurred, by the burial board of any parish in carrying this act into execution, shall be chargeable upon and paid out of the rates for the relief of the poor of such parish; the expenses to be so incurred for or on account of any parish in providing and laying out a burial ground under this act, and building the necessary chapel or chapels thereon, not to exceed such sum as the vestry shall authorize to be expended for such purpose; and the overseers or other officers authorized to make and levy rates for the relief of the poor in any parish shall, upon receipt of a certificate under the hands of such number of members of the burial board as are authorized to exercise the powers of the board, of the sums required from time to time for defraying any such expenses as aforesaid, pay such sums out of the rates for the relief of the poor, as the board shall direct.

Provided always, that it shall be lawful for the board, with the sanction of the vestry and the approval of the commissioners of her Majesty’s treasury, to borrow any money required for providing and laying out any burial ground under this act, and building a chapel or chapels thereon, or any of such purposes, and to charge the future poor rates of the parish with the payment of such money and interest thereon; provided that there shall be paid in every year, in addition to the interest of the money borrowed and unpaid, not less than one-twentieth of the principal sum borrowed, until the whole is discharged.

The commissioners for carrying into execution an act of the session holden in the 14th and 15th years of her Majesty, c. 23, “to authorize for a further period the advance of money out of the consolidated fund to a limited amount for carrying on public works and fisheries and employment of the poor,” and any act or acts, amending or continuing the same, may from time to time make to the burial board of any parish for the purposes of this act any loan under the provisions of the recited act, or the several acts therein recited or referred to, upon security of the rates for the relief of the poor of the parish.

The money raised for defraying such expenses, and the income arising from the burial ground provided for the parish, except fees payable to the incumbent, clerk, and sexton of the parish, and the other fees herein directed to be otherwise paid, shall be applied by the board in or towards defraying the expenses of such board under this act; and whenever, after repayment of all monies borrowed for the purposes of this act in or for any parish, and the interest thereof, and after satisfying all the liabilities of the board with reference to the execution of this act in or for the parish, and providing such a balance as shall be deemed by the board sufficient to meet their probable liabilities during the then next year, there shall be at the time of holding the meeting of the vestry at which the yearly report of the auditors shall be produced, any surplus money at the disposal of the board, they shall pay the same to the overseers, in aid of the rate for the relief of the poor of the parish.

The vestries of any parishes which shall have respectively resolved to provide burial grounds under this act, may concur in providing one burial ground for the common use of such parishes, in such manner, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as they shall mutually agree; and may agree as to the proportions in which the expenses of such burial ground shall be borne by such parishes, and the proportion for each of such parishes of such expenses shall be chargeable upon and paid out of the monies to be raised for the relief of the poor of the same respective parish accordingly; and, according and subject to the terms which shall have been so agreed on, the burial boards appointed for such parishes respectively shall, for the purpose of providing and managing such one burial ground, and taking and holding land for the same, act as one joint burial board for all such parishes, and may have a joint office, clerk, and officers, and all the provisions of this act shall apply to such joint burial board accordingly; and the accounts and vouchers of such board shall be examined and reported on by the auditors of each of such parishes; and the surplus money at the disposal as aforesaid of such board, shall be paid to the overseers of such parishes respectively in the same proportions as those in which such parishes shall be liable to such expenses.

For the more easy execution of the purposes of this act, the burial board of every parish appointed under this act shall be a body corporate, by the name of “The Burial Board for the Parish of ——, in the County of ——,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, and shall sue and be sued, and have power and authority (without any licence in mortmain) to take, purchase, and hold land for the purposes of this act; and where the burial boards of two or more parishes act as, and form, one joint burial board for all such parishes for the purposes aforesaid, such joint board shall for such purposes only be a body corporate, by the name of “The Burial Board for the Parishes of —— and ——, in the County of ——,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and a common seal, and shall sue and be sued, and have power and authority as aforesaid to take, purchase, and hold land for the purposes of this act.

Every burial board shall, with all convenient speed, proceed to provide a burial ground for the parish or parishes for which they are appointed to act, and to make arrangements for facilitating interments therein; and in providing such burial ground, the board shall have reference to the convenience of access thereto from the parish or parishes for which the same is provided; and any such burial ground may be provided either within or without the limits of the parish, or all or any of the parishes, for which the same is provided; but no ground not already used as or appropriated for a cemetery, shall be appropriated as a burial ground, or as an addition to a burial ground, under this act, nearer than 200 yards to any dwelling house, without the consent in writing of the owner, lessee, and occupier of such dwelling house.

For the providing such burial ground, it shall be lawful for the burial board, with the approval of the vestry or vestries of the parish or respective parishes, to contract for and purchase any lands for the purpose of forming a burial ground, or for making additions to any burial ground to be formed or purchased under this act, as such board may think fit, or to purchase from any company or persons entitled thereto any cemetery or cemeteries, or part or parts thereof, subject to the rights in vaults and graves, and other subsisting rights, which may have been previously granted therein: provided always that it shall be lawful for such board, in lieu of providing any such burial ground, to contract with any such company or persons entitled as aforesaid for the interment in such cemetery or cemeteries, and either in any allotted part of such cemetery or cemeteries or otherwise, and upon such terms as the burial board may think fit, of the bodies of persons who would have had rights of interment in the burial grounds of such parish or respective parishes.