| AdminHistory | Origins and extent
The church of St John of Wapping was constructed in 1617 as a chapel of ease to St Mary Whitechapel (a chapel of ease was an Anglican chapel built for the convenience of parishioners living a long distance from the parish church). It was assigned a separate parish in 1694. The 1617 building was replaced in 1756-60 on a site opposite the old church; the new church was built by Joel Johnson. Most of the building was destroyed during the Second World War, although the tower survived and was restored. The parish was later united with St Peter London Docks.
The parish itself was a rather curious shape, with a long and thin Thames frontage along Wapping and as its western boundary a narrow projection sandwiched between St Botolph without Aldgate and St George-in-the-East and reaching north to St Mary Whitechapel. The parish became essentially maritime in its character, with numerous boatbuilders and other related tradesmen present.
Purpose
Before 1855 the parish vestry had met to discharge the business of both ecclesiastical and secular local government. Parish vestries were committees of prominent householders and church officials. The name came from the way meetings took place in the church vestry or sacristy; this is the room where the priest prepares for a service and where vestments and articles of worship are stored.
The two main secular functions discharged by the parish were:
(i) the care of the poor and the administration of parochial charities.
(ii) the maintenance of roads and bridges.
There was also some management of petty law and order.
In the middle of the eighteenth century there was, in addition to the Parish Clerk, a total of 29 parochial officers for St John Wapping, as follows:
- Churchwardens: 2
- Overseers of the Poor: 4
- Constables/Headboroughs: 8
- Scavengers: 4
- Beadles: 1
- Watchmen: 10*
*Figures from Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith, The History of East London (London: Macmillan, 1939), p. 116.
Most of these officers ultimately derived their historical origins and authority from a variety of sources: the Churchwardens had always been elected by the parishioners; the Overseers were appointed by the County Justices of the Peace; the Constables and Headboroughs were originally manorial officers appointed by the Court Leet; the Surveyors were appointed by the JPs from a list submitted by the parish. The Parish Clerk, the Beadle and probably the Watchmen were the only officials who derived their authority solely from the vestry. As time went on these arcane distinctions of origin, jurisdiction and responsibility became increasingly blurred.
The key officials responsible for 'local authority' functions were:
Overseer of the Poor: an unpaid office created in 1572. Officials were initially responsible for supervising endowments and charitable funds. Following the 1601 Poor Law Act, the churchwardens of the parish together with two or more substantial local landowners were to act as Overseers. Their role was to collect the poor rate and supervise the relief of the poor, including managing workhouses and arranging the apprenticeship of poor orphans. The 1662 Law of Settlement Act empowered Overseers to remove 'strangers' from the parish. Sometimes referred to as 'aliens' these were people who did not have rights to settle, because, for example, they were born outside the parish. Overseers were chosen at Vestry meetings to administer the Poor Law for the ensuing year. Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, Boards of Guardians replaced the Overseers and administration of poor relief left the parish's powers.
Surveyor of the Highways: an unpaid position created in 1555. The parish Surveyor's role was to inspect roads and bridges three times a year and to organise repairs. The Surveyor could also raise rates.
The Surveyors and Overseers kept accounts and were answerable to the Justices of the Peace. A new system was introduced in 1835, whereby JPs appointed paid surveyors to groups of parishes.
Constable: although the office was manorial in origin, vestries gradually acquired responsibilities for appointing constables. The position was filled by rotation and was unpaid. Constables' roles included dealing with petty issues of law and order, the collection of rates and taxes, maintenance of the forms of punishment (stocks and pillories - a wooden framework with holes for the head and hands, in which offenders were formerly imprisoned and exposed to public abuse), inspection of taverns, supervision of jury service, apprehending escaped prisoners and convening parish meetings.
The early form of local government outlined above was a fusion of ecclesiastical and civil functions which had evolved to meet the needs of the inhabitants as they arose. Unfortunately, very few records from the early period of the parish's history have survived, although there is a day book of baptisms, banns and marriages from 1781-91, and a few volumes of nineteenth-century rating records.
A generalised system of local government, separate to ecclesiastical concerns, slowly took shape during the course of the nineteenth century. The first concerted attempt to rationalise administration came in the form of the 1855 Metropolis Management Act. While retaining the ancient parish unit as a basis for government, this Act provided for the election of a new type of vestry by the ratepayers of each parish. In the less densely populated parishes of London such as St John Wapping, these vestries - technically known as 'Schedule B Vestries' from that part of the 1855 Act in which they were listed - were invested with no authority apart from the power to elect representatives to a District Board which was endowed with municipal powers under the Act.
Limehouse District Board of Works was one of the 12 newly created District Boards across central London to govern and manage certain defined aspects of local affairs. Under the terms of the 1855 Act, St John Wapping elected three members to the Limehouse District Board of Works, with St Anne Limehouse electing 15 members, the Hamlet of Ratcliffe 12 and St Paul Shadwell six, respectively. T
This framework of local government in London remained unchanged until the Local Government Act was passed in 1894. In time, the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney was created under the terms of the 1899 London Government Act, which replaced the old system of governance across London. The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney took on the functions previously carried out by Limehouse District Board of Works. |