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112
It can be readily imagined that that system, however suitable
for rural communities, did not adequately meet the requirements
of a populous urban parish such as St. James's became
at an early period of its existence. We accordingly find that
in the year 1761 the parishioners obtained a local Act of Parliament
(2 Geo. III, cap. 58.), providing, amongst other
matters, for the creation of a Board of twentv-one substantial
and discreet persons to be called the Governors and Directors
of the Poor, of which Board the Churchwardens and Overseers
of the Poor for the time being Were to be members ex-officio.
This Board had entrusted to them the management of the
poor but many of their acts required confirmation by the
Vestry before being valid. The Board, moreover, had no
powers of rating, the making of the rates being transferred
from the Churchwardens and Overseers to a meeting of the
Rector, Vestrymen, Churchwardens, and Overseers. By the
same Act of Parliament the Overseers were relieved of their
personal liability in the collection of the rates, by a provision
enabling the Vestrymen to appoint and pay collectors, with
all the powers of overseers.
All the details of poor law relief were, however, administered
by the Governors and Directors of the Poor for more
than a century, for it was not until the year 1868 that the
practice in St. James's was brought into conformity with the
custom generally introduced into England upon the passing
of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.
In the year 1868 the Parish was combined with the Parish
of St. Anne, under the name of the Westminster Union.
The Board of Guardians for the Union consists of eighteen
members twelve of whom are elected by the ratepayers of St.
James's and six by the ratepayers of St. Anne's. In addition
to these elected members, all Justices of the Peace for the
County of Middlesex, resident within the limits of the Union,
are members of the Board ex-officio.