larly charged with all matters pertaining to religion and public morals. The minister, or rector, was ex officio president of the board.
Vestrymen were not merely ecclesiastical officers, but some of the duties now performed by supervisors were imposed upon them by law. They had the care of the poor, and attended to the important duty, as it was then, of "processioning lands." At a time when the boundaries of contiguous tracts of land were ill defined, to prevent or settle disputes, commissioners were appointed by the vestry to ascertain and fix the lines. This custom had fallen into disuse, and every law on the subject had disappeared from the statute books, till the destruction of many county records during the late war, led to an act of Assembly, in 1865-'6, reviving the practice. In England the vestry has also charge of all highways in the parish; but in Virginia, during colonial times, little or no concern was taken about public roads.
The vestry held meetings statedly, at least once a year, to count up and provide for the expenses of the parish. They laid the parish levy; and it is curious at this day to find that here, as well as elsewhere in the colony, glebe farms were bought, churches and parsonages built, ministers, readers and sextons paid, and even the sacramental wine provided, out of the public treasury.
All members of the vestry were required by law to take the various oaths imposed upon public officers generally, and, in addition, to subscribe a declaration "to be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England." It is quite certain that most of the vestrymen of Augusta parish in 1746 were Dissenters from the Established Church. How they could, with a clear conscience, subscribe the declaration referred to is a question. They probably pleaded the necessity of the case. Without vestrymen and a rector the local government could not be completed, the poor could not be cared for, lands could not be "processioned," and especially none of the young people in the county could get married without much expense and inconvenience. The Scotch-Irish vestrymen of Augusta parish, with James Patton at their head, very likely agreed "to be conformable," &c., with the understanding that it was only for the time being and in respect to
