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discreet" persons, either from their own body, or from among
the Justices of the Peace for Middlesex or Westminster, or
other " creditable inhabitants" of the Parish, such persons,
together with the Churchwardens or Overseers of the Poor,
to be called Governors and Directors of the Poor. A list of
the gentlemen so appointed is given on page 11, and a statement
of the receipts and expenditure of the Board on page
124.
When this Board was created by Parliament in the year
1762, its principal duties were administering poor-law relief
and street cleansing. The Board neither made nor collected
the Poor Rate, but it was upon their order that payments
from the rate were made. The Board acted as the Poor-law
.a uthority in the Parish until the formation of the Westminster
Union in the year 1868, and as the duty of street cleansing
had already passed to the Yestry, the transfer of Poor-law
duties to the Guardians of the Union left the Governors and
Directors of the Poor with scarcely any function to perform
except to order payments from the Poor Rate.
It appearing both to the Board and to the Vestry that the
Board had outlived its period of usefulness, and that the
administration of parochial business would be simplified by the
transfer of their remaining duties to the Vestry, application
was made by the Board, with the concurrence of the Vestry, to
the Local Government Board for an Order under the Acts
30 & 31 Vic., cap. 106 ; 31 & 32 Vic., cap. 122; and 42 & 43
Vie., cap. 54, to repeal so much of the local legislation relating
to this Parish as requires the Vestry to appoint Governors
and Directors of the Poor, and to transfer the duties, powers
and property of the Governors and Directors to the Vestry.
The Local Government Board, in acknowledging the receipt
d