Vestries were committees set up in parishes to administer local and ecclesiastical government. They tended to meet at Easter each year to appoint parish officials, to examine accounts and at other times as and when the need arose.
At a vestry meeting on 2 May 1822 the inhabitants of the township of Wigton resolved unanimously that Revd Richard Matthews, in the absence of the vicar of Wigton was to take the chair, to establish a select vestry. Its members comprised ‘substantial occupiers’ of property in Wigton, together with the vicar, church wardens and overseers of the poor. The select vestry was to consist of no more than twenty men and no fewer than five to deal with the ‘concerns of the poor’.
The original members of the select vestry were:
Joseph Hodges of Highmoor
John Taylor esq. of Wigton
Joseph Parkin of Wigton
Thomas McAlpin of Wigton
John Pattinson or Pattison of Newstreet
Joseph Pattinson or Pattison Innkeeper, Wigton
William Bradshaw of Wigton
John Blackstock of Akehead
Thomas Armstrong of Standingstones
John Henderson of Moorhouse
John Smith of Mains
Robert Wise Shopkeeper of Wigton
Mr Isaac Westmorland of Wigton
Thomas Irving, Innkeeper, Wigton
By a ‘plurality of votes’ they resolved to ‘nominate and elect some discrete person to be assistant overseer’ of Wigton.
On 24 May 1822 the select vestry appointed William Buttery ‘as a fit person to be the Assistant Overseer’ with a salary of £12.
Sources
Cumbria Archives, PR/36/119, Wigton, Vestry Minute Book, 1735 – 1885
Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Sharon Howard and Jamie McLaughlin, et al., London Lives, 1690-1800 (www.londonlives.org, version 1.1, 24 April 2012)
William Buttery was one of the early members of the St John’s Lodge of Freemasons which was established in Wigton in 1807. He remained a member until 1854, except for a break between 1841 and 1845. His role as Assistant Overseer was noted in their Register of Members.