A HISTORY OF LONDON that the funds were well and honestly administered, until the character of the vestry changed and these members became interested persons. At St. George's Hanover Square, where the vestrymen were unconnected with trade, the administration was uniformly honest."' In the City, however, it was far otherwise. Aldermen were exempt from serving as churchwardens,*" and they seem to have taken little interest in the vestries, which were filled with small tradesmen,"" who divided the contracts among themselves. At St. Sepulchre's and Christ Church Spitalfields, entirely unnecessary repairs were undertaken for the sole purpose of giving contracts to vestrymen ; *" complaints were made in 169 1—2 that the money and stock of St. Magnus were misapplied,**^ and at St. Margaret Lothbury large sums of parish money were spent on bread, points and wands on Holy Thursday, and on refresh- ments.**' Feasts at the public expense were frequent, and the cost was rarely as modest as the £1 /^.s. 6d. spent on coffee by the vestry of St. Dunstan's in the West when auditing the pew roll in 1709.*" This condition of affairs lasted well into the 19th century, when the funds of the City churches had grown enormously with the increased value of property. In 1874 the vestry of St. Vedast's with St. Michael le Querne controlled an annual income of jri,532 7J. d. available for church purposes, but used largely to reduce the rates.*" The vestries did much to deaden church life in the i8th century ; the excessive fees charged for burial dues*" and sittings alienated the lower middle classes, who turned to the conventicles of the newer Nonconformist bodies, which they supported the more readily as Wesley consistently described his societies as siding with and not separating from the Church. The control of the vestry over the church and its officials made it extremely difficult for the incumbent to vary customs, and at least one vestry prohibited the addition of another service on the ground of the wear and tear involved. Influenced by politics, controversy, and social conditions, London Church life in the early i8th century was notably conventional, and interested only in the intellectual side of religion.*" The ardent spirit of Nelson and Horneck was inherited by few of the next generation, who were generally inclined to accept things as they were, and, taught by Sacheverell, regarded enthusiasm and popery as the strongest opiates in the world.**' But the older ideals sur- vived in Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, who had gained some distinction in London by his Athenian Oracle and sermons for religious societies, the traditions of which he handed down to his family. Probably as the result of his father's reputation as a High Churchman John Wesley was able in 1738 to preach at St. Andrew's Holborn, St. Clement Danes, St. Laurence Jewry, and other churches with High Church traditions.*" But his strong words and appeals to the Atonement scandalized congregations used to sermons on morality or the misdoings of the Government, and the clergy were annoyed '" Sidney and B. Webb, Engl. Local Govt, i, I74n, 236-40. '" Rec. Corp. Repert. ci, fol. 187.
- ™ John Marriott, Representation of some Mismanagements.
"' Webb, op. cit. i, 235. *" Rec. Corp. Repert. xcvi, fol. zzo. '" Sit. Margaret Lotkbury Vestry Minutes (ed. Fresh field), App. 150.
- " Hist. Acct. of Cons tit. of Fes try of Par. of St. Dunstan's in the West.
- " H. P. D.-ile, Life of Thomas Pelham Dale, i, 141.
- '^ Francis Sadler, The Exactions and Impositions of Parish Fees Discovered.
«' R. I. and S. Wilherforce, Life of William Wilberforce, i, 76. *"* Birch, Life ofTillotson, 74. "•^ Wesley, Journ. 12 Feb. 1738 ; 3 Nov. 1738 ; 26 Mar. 1738 ; 7 May 1738, etseq. 368
