Section 904

"In the law of England, a parish is an important subdivision of the country for purposes of local self- go vorn men t, most of the local rates and taxes being confined within that area, and to a certain extent self- imposed by the parties who pa}' them. The origin of the division of England into parishes is not very clearly ascertained by the authorities. Some have asserted that the division had an ecclesiastical origin, and that a parish was merely a district sufhcient for one priest to attend to. But others have asserted that parishes had a civil origin long anterior to ecclesiastical distinctions, advantage being merely taken to ingraft these on so convenient an existing subdivision of the country, and that a parish was a subdivision of the ancient hundred, known as a vill or town, and through its machinery the public taxes were anciently collected. Hobart fixes the date of the institution of civil parishes in 1179, and his account has been generally followed. Much difficulty has occasionally arisen in fixing the boundaries of par- ishes. Blackstone says the boundaries of parishes were originally ascertained by those of manors, and that it very seldom happened that a manor extended itself over more parishes than one, though there were often many manors in one parish. Nevertheless, the boun- daries of parishes are often intermixed, which Black- stone accounts for by the practice of the lords of adjoin- ing manors obliging their tenants to appropriate their tithes towards the officiating minister of the church, which was built for the whole. Even in the present dav' these boundaries often give rise to litigation, and the courts have always decided the question according to the proof of custom. This custom is chiefly estab- lished by the ancient practice of perambulating the parish in Rogation-week in each year. See Perambu- lation. There are some places as to which it is uncer- tain whether they are parishes or not, and hence it has been usual to call them reputed parishes. There are also places called extra-parochial places, which do not belong to any parish, such as forest and abbey lands. In these cases the persons inhabiting were not subject to the usual parochial rates and taxes, and other inci- dents of parochial life. But in 1857 a statute was passed which put extra-parochial places upon a similar footing to parishes, by giving power to justices, and in some cases to the Poor-law Board, to annex them to adjoin- ing parishes, after which they are dealt with in much the same way as other places. One of the chief charac- teristics of a parish is that there is a parish church, and an incumbent and churchwardens attached to it, and by this machinery the spiritual wants of the parishioners are attended to. These several parish churches, and the endowments connected therewith, belong in a cer- tain sense to the nation, and the incumbents are mem- bers of the Established Church of England, and amena- ble to the discipline of the bishops and the spiritual courts. The private patronage, or right of presenting a clergyman to an incumbency, is technically called an advowson, and is generally held by an individual as a salable property, having a market value. The patron has an absolute right (quite irrespective of the wishes of the parishioners) to present a clerk or ordained priest of the Church of England to a vacant benefice, and it is for the bishop to sec to his qualifications. The bishop is the sole judge of these qualifications, and if he ap- proves of them, the clerk or priest is instituted and in- ducted into tlie benefice, which ceremony completes his legal title to tlie fruits of iho l)enefice. The incumbents of parisli churclies are called rectors, or vicars, or per- petual curates, tlie distinclioii Ijciug cliiefiy founded on the state of the tithes. AN'licn tlie benetice is lull, tlien the freeliold of the church vests in the rector or parson, and so does the church-yard ; but he holds these only as a trustee for the use of the parishioners. There are certain duties which the incinnbentof the parisli church is bound by law to jierform for the benefit of the parishioners. He is bound, as a general rule, to reside in tlie parisli, so as to be readv to administer the rites of the Church to them.