Vestry

The place in a church where the priest’s vestments are kept. Also an assembly of the minister, church wardens, and parishioners, held in the vestry of the church. There was formerly no separate body known as a vestry, except in a few parishes, especially in the city of London, where there existed by custom a representative body called a “Select Vestry.”

White, Church Law 306.

In America, from an early date, a body elected by a church congregation to adminis ter the affairs of the church. They were provided for in New York by the Duke of York’s laws of 1664; and in Maryland by an act of 1692. They can act only when assembled; People’s Bank v. Roman Catholic Church, 109 N. Y. 512, 17 N. E. 408; United Brethren Church v. Vanduson, 37 Wis. 54; they may preserve order; Beckett v. Lawrence, 7 Abb. Prac. N. S. (N. Y.) 403.