Vestry Meetings - St. Leonards & St. Mary Magdalen
The Cemetery Site. At the vestry meeting on Aug 3rd. after a discussion on another site selected by the Hastings parishes, it was resolved that the distance of the ground selected by the Burial Board, as well as the difficulty of access from the St. Leonards parish, compelled a disapproval of the chosen site, and that if a majority of the parishes decided on purchasing the ground on Blackland’s Farm the members of the Board from St. Leonards parish withdraw and take no further part therein.
Adjusting Assessments. At the vestry meeting in October, after passing a poor-rate at 4d. and a borough rate at 3d., the parishioners resolved to increase the assessment of 100 to 103 Marina from £30 to £40; also to rate 104 at £50, and to reduce 110,111, 113 & 115 to £26 each.
Vestry Meetings – St. Mary Magdalen, 1854
Burial Board. At a meeting of the Magdalen parishioners on the 9th of March, the following resolution was passed:- “That increased burial ground for this parish is absolutely necessary to be provided, and shall be provided under the powers of the Act to amend the laws concerning the burial of the dead in England beyond the limits of the Metropolis, &c. That this parish shall write with other parishes willing to concur for procuring a burial ground for the common use under the provisions of the said Act. That Messrs Joseph Bannister, Charles Pain and Stephen Putland be appointed the Burial Board on behalf of the parish. “ &c (the remainder of the resolution worded the same as that of St. Leonards vestry meeting). Ten parishioners signed the vestry book.
Parish Officers. At the meeting on March 9th, the persons named for overseers were J. Bannister, N. Parks, W. Hunter, Thos. Burgess and Jas. Ball. The elected assessors were Joseph Yarroll and John Carey. C. N. Levett was re-appointed collector of the borough rate. The Assessment Committee were S. Putland, J. Nicholas, F. Tree, Sam Woodgate, C. J. How, C. N. Levett and Hy Hughes. The parish bounds were ordered to be perambulated on the following Thursday. Seventeen persons signed the vestry book.
Rates. On the 21st of April twelve parishioners met at the “Warriors Gate” and passed a poor-rate at 3d and a borough rate at 3d.
Disapproval. On August 3rd a vestry meeting was held at the Saxon hotel, attended by 16 persons, with S. Putland in the chair, when a resolution, disapproving of the site on Blackland’s Farm, and worded in precisely the same manner as the one at the St. Leonards vestry, was passed.
A Poor Rate at 5d. was the only business transacted at the meeting held at the Commercial Inn, on the 8th of September.
Searching for a Cemetery site
The Burial Board.
The first meeting of the united Burial Board was held on the 17th of March, when Mr. J. Phillips officiated as Clerk. This gentleman said that Mr. Grainger, a medical officer of the General Board of Health, had approved of -
