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St. James's Square. It subsequently passed through many
changes, being used at one period of its history by the
Unitarians, and at another as a proprietary chapel in connection
with the Church of England. It ceased to be used as a
place of worship about the year 1869.
THE ANCIENT GOVERNMENT OF THE PARISH.
It has already been observed that at the time of the
separation of St. James's from St. Martin's, the term
"Parish" had almost an exclusively ecclesiastical signification,
although it is true that a Parish had then had for about
a century the duty of maintaining its own poor, and was also
responsible in some degree for cleansing its highways, most
of which were unpaved.
The City and Liberties of Westminster were, as before
stated, under the civil government of the Dean and twelve
Burgesses and their assistants, and previously to the constitution
of the Parish a Commission of Sewers had been
appointed. The functions of the Dean and Burgesses, however,
were rather legislative and judicial than parochial or
municipal, and the sewers were mostly open ditches, either
natural streams or artificially constructed, scarcely in any
sense corresponding to the term sewer in its modern acceptation.
In some instances "houses of office" were erected,
overhanging a sewer, but in the majority of cases the system
of cesspools was adopted. The duties of the Commissioners
of Sewers appear to have principally consisted in maintaining
the banks of the Sewers, preserving them from encroachment,
and keeping the course clear from carcasses and offal which
were cast into the sewer. With reference to the general
question of sewers, the minutes of the Vestry, dated the 19 th
February, 1686/7, record that the inhabitants of Ayre Street