Parish

A district of country, of different extents. In Ecclesiastical Law. The territory committed to the charge of a parson, or vicar, or other minister. Ayliffe, Par. 404; 2 Bl. Comm. 112. In Louisiana. Divisions corresponding to counties. In New England. Divisions of a town, originally territorial, but which now constitute quasi-corporations, consisting of those connected with a certain church. See 2 Mass. 501; 7 Mass. 447; 16 Mass. 457, 488, 492 et seq.; 1 Pick. (Mass.) 91.

A district of country, of different extents. As used in the revised statutes, the word is synonymous with county; In re Sup'rs of Election, 28 Fed. S40; as also in I Louisiana. In Ecclesiastical Law. The territory committed to the charge of a parson, or vicar, or other minister. Ayl. Par. 404; 2 Bla. Com. 112; Iloffm. Eccl. Law. Although, in the absence of a state church In this country, the status of parishes is comparatively unimportant, yet In the Protesant Episcopal Church, at least, their boundaries and the rights of the clergy therein are quite clearly do lined by canon. In the leading ease of Stubbs and Hoggs v Tyng, decided in New York, in March, 18GS, the defendant was found guilty of violating a eanqn of tho church, in having officiated, without the permission of plaintiffs within the corporate bounds of tho city of New Brunswick, N. J., which then constituted the plaintiff’s parochial cure. Baum 103. As to their origin, see 2 Hallam, Mid. Ages, c. 7, p. 144. See, also, 1 Poll. & Maltl. 560. In New England. Divisions of a town, originally territorial, but which now constitute quasi- corporations, consisting of those connected with a certain church. See Weston v. Hunt, 2 Mass. 501; Milford v. Godfrey, 1 Pick. (Mass.) 91. Synonymous with church and used in the same sense as society. Ayres v. Weed, 10 Conn. 299.

In English law. A circuit of ground, committed to the charge of one parson or vicar or other minister having cure of souls therein. 1 Bl. Comm. 111. Wilson v. State, 34 Ohio St. 199. The precinct of a parish church, and the particular charge of a secular priest Cowell. An ecclesiastical division of a town or district, subject to the ministry of one pastor. Brande. In New England. A corporation established for the maintenance of public worship, which may be coterminous with a town, or include only part of it. A precinct or parish is a corporation established solely for the purpose of maintaining public worship, and its powers are limited to that object. It may raise money for building and keeping in repair its meeting-house and supporting its minister, but for no other purpose, A town is a civil and political corporation, established for municipal purposes. They may both subsist together in the same territory, and be composed of the same persons. Milford v. Godfrey, 1 Pick. (Mass.) 91. In Louisiana. A teiTitorial division of the state corresponding to what is elsewhere calied a "county." See Sherman v. Parish of Vermillion, 51 La. Ann. 880, 25 South. 538; Attorney General v. Detroit Common Council, 112 Mich. 148, 70 N. W. 450, 37 L. R. A. 211.

— Parish apprentice. In English law. The children of parents unable to maintain them may, by law, be apprenticed, by the guardians or overseers of their parish, to such persons as may be willing to receive them as apprentices. Such children are called "parish apprentices." 2 Steph. Comm. 230.

— Parish chnrch. This expression has various significations. It is applied sometimes to a select body of Christians, forming a local spiritual association, and sometimes to the building in which the public worship of the inhabitante of a parish is celebrated ; but the true legal notion of a parochial church is a consecrated place, having attached to it the rights of burial and the administration of the sacraments. Story, J., Pawlet v. Clark, 9 Cranch, 326, 3 I Ed. 735.

— Parish clerk. In English law. An officer, in former times often in holy orders, and appointed to officiate at the altar; now his duty consists chiefly in making responses in church to the minister. By common, law he has a freehold in his office, but it seems now to be falling into desuetude. 2 Steph. Comm. 700; Mozley & Whitley.

— Parish constable. A petty constable exercising his functions within a given parish. Mozley & Whitley.

— Parish court. The name of a court established in each parish in Louisiana, and corresponding to the county courts or common pleas courts in the other states. It has a limited civil jurisdiction, besides general probate powers.

— Parish officers. Church-wardens, overseers, and constables.

— Parish priest. In English law. The parson ; a minister who holds a parish as a benefice. If the predial tithes are appropriated, he is called "rector;" if impropriated, "vicar." Wharton.

In old English ecclesiastical law, a parish was a circuit of gi-ound committed to the charge of one parson or vicar, or other minister having the care of souls therein. It was thus a territorial division, but of ecclesiastical character and purpose. According to Jacob and Tomlins, "parish" did anciently signify what was afterwards called the diocese of a bishop; but in their day it had come to mean the circuit of ground in which the people belonging to one church do inhabit, and the particular charge of a secular priest. It is derived from Saxon words signifying priest-shire. How ancient the division of England into parishes is, may be difficult to ascertain; it seems to be agreed that in the early ages of Christianity in the island, parishes were unknown, in the modern territorial sense. There was then no appropriation of ecclesiastical dues to any particular church; but every man was at liberty to contribute his tithes to whatever priest or church he pleased, provided only that he did it to some: or, if he made no special appointment or appropriation thereof, they were paid into the hands of the bishop, whose duty it was to distribute them among Camden attributes the formal division of parishes to about the year 630, Ilobart to about 1179, and other authorities to various intermediate dates. Some intermediate date is more probable, for Selden has clearly shown that the clergy lived in common, without any division of parishes, long after the time mentioned by Camden: and it appears from the Saxon laws that parishes were in being long before the date of that council of Lateran to which they are ascribed by Hobart. By the time of King Edgar, about the year 970, the system of arbitrary or voluntary appropriation of tithes having proved disadvantageous, it was ordered that every one should pay tithes to the church to which his parish pertained. This proves that the kingdom was then universally divided into parishes; which division happened probably not all at once, but by degrees; for it seems certain that the boundaries of parishes were originally ascertained by those of a manor or manors; since it very seldom happens that a manor extends itself over more parishes than one, though there are often many manors in one parish. But later, the boundaries of the one af Eord no inference or evidence whatever of the boundaries of the other. The lords, as Christianity spread itself, began to bu Ud churches upon their own demesnes or wastes, to accommodate their tenants in one or two adjoining lordships; and, in order to have divine service regularly performed therein, obliged all their tenants to appropriate their tithes to the maintenance of the one officiating minister, instead of leaving them at liberty to distribute them among the clergy of the diocese in general; and this tract of land, the tithes whereof were so appropriated, formed a distinct parish; which accounts for the frequent intermixture of parishes one with another. For if a lord had a parcel of land detached from the main of his estate, but notsufficientto form a parish of itself, it was natural for him to endow his newly erected church with the tithes of those disjointed lands; especially if no church was then built in any lordship adjoining to those outlying with the tithes that arose within the circuit assigned. But some lands, either because they were in the hands of irreligious and careless owners, or were situate in forests and desert places, or for other reasons, were never united to any parish, but continued extra-parochial; and their tithes are payable to the king instead of the bishop, in trust and confidence that he will distribute them for the general good of the church. In the settlement of many of the colonies, particularly in that of Massachusetts, divisions of territory similar to the English parishes were made, under the same name, for the purpose of administering ecclesiastical government, which, in those days, was largely mingled with civil administration. As the charge of religious afiairs was gradually relaxed by the state, the territorial character of the parish became less and less distinct, until now, in most parts of the country, "parish " signifies an incorporated body of persons or quasi corporation, organized in a locality for the purpose of there maintaining a particular church, but without territorial sway or civil powers. In Louisiana, however, the word is the name of the general civil division of the state, corresponding to"coimty" elsewhere. A parish, there, is a bounded portion of the state, set o£E for the purposes of independent government in local affairs, and is also a quasi corporate organization of the inhabitants of such a portion of territoiy. Populous and extensive parishes are now, however, under various acts of parliament, divided into smaller ecclesiastical districts for spiritual purposes. {2Steph. Com. 760- 754.) Mozley Sr W.. A precinct or parish is a corporation established solely for the purpose of maintaining public worship, and its powers are limited to that object. It may raise money for building and keeping in repair its meeting-house and supporting its minister, but for no other purpose. A town is a civil and political corporation, established for municipal purposes. They may both subsist together in the same territory, and be composed of the same persons. Inhabitants of Milford V. Godfrey, 1 Pick. 91. Parish apprentice. The children of parents unable to maintain them may, by as may be willing to receive them as apprentices. Such children are called parish apprentices. The reception of a parish apprentice was formerly compulsory, but, by Stat. 7 & 8 Vict. ch. 101, § 13, passed in 1844, this is no longer so. 2 hteph. Com. 230. Parish clerk. An oificer of a church, generally appointed by the incumbent. By custom, however, he may be chosen by the inhabitants. Formerly, the parish clerk was very frequently in holy orders, and was appointed to officiate at the altar; but now his duty consists chiefly in making responses in church to the minister. By the common law, he has a freehold in his office. (1 Bl. Com..395; 2 Steph. Com. 700, 701; Tornl.) The office seems now to be falling into desuetude. Mozley 4r W. Parish constable. A petty constable exercising his functions within a given parish. Mozley ^ W. Parish court. The name applied in Louisiana to local courts in each parish, having jurisdiction to a limited amount in civil suits, and an extensive jurisdiction in probate matters; corresponding in most respects to county courts or probate courts in other states.