The Queen against Thomas and Another, Chapelwardens of Haworth
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 24 June 1842 |
| Date | 24 June 1842 |
| Court | Court of the Queen's Bench |
English Reports Citation: 114 E.R. 632
IN THE QUEEN'S BENCH
S. C. 3 G. & D. 485; 6 Jur. 1122.
the quhen against thomas and another, Chapelwardens of Haworth. Friday, June 24th, 1842. By custom in a parish, church rates were made by the parishioners of the whole parish in vestry assembled, but were paid in certain customary proportions by the several townships of which the parish was composed. The Court refused a mandamus to compel the officers of a township to raise the proportion, in the township, of an alleged rate which bad been made by the churchwardens and minority of the parishioners in vestry, after the majority had (a) Wightman J. had left the Court. 8 B. 690. THE QUEEN V. THOMAS 633 refused the rate with the intention, as was suggested, of having no rate at all. Although the vestry meeting was held in obedience to a monition from the Consistory Court, whereby the churchwardens and parishioners were admonished to hold the meeting and lay a rate. [S. C. 3 G. & D. 485; 6 Jur. 1122.] Sir W. W. Follett, Solicitor General, in last Easter term, obtained a rule, calling on Enoch Thomas and Eobert Taylor, chapelwardens of the township of Haworth, in the parish of Bradford, in Yorkshire, to shew cause why a mandamus should not issue, commanding them to make and assess a rate upon the inhabitants of the township, for levying and raising the sum of 761. 12s. 10d., being the proportion payable by the said inhabitants of the church lay or rate of 3831. 4s. 2d., made, on 14th May 1841, upon the inhabitants of the pariah, to repay the necessary repairs and expenses of the parish church of the said parish ; and to proceed to collect the said sum of 761. 12s. lOd.; and, when collected, to pay the same over to the churchwardens of the township of Bradford in the said parish. The case on the part of the Crown was, that Haworth was one, and Bradford township another, of several townships of the parish of Bradford, in the West [590] Riding of Yorkshire. That, by immemorial custom (a)1, all church rates laid on the parish by the body of th& parishioners of the whole parish in vestry assembled were raised in the several townships in certain definite proportions, and paid over to the churchwardens of the township of Bradford, who, so far as regarded the parish church, acted as churchwardens of the whole parish. That the proportion always paid by Haworth was one fifth of the whole. That it was the duty of the chapelwardens of Haworth to raise and collect this fifth, and pay it over to the churchwardens of Bradford township. That a decree, dated 31st March 1841, had issued from the Consistory Court of York, against the churchwardens of the township of Bradford and the parishionera of the parish, commanding them to shew cause why a monition should not issue against them to take the necessary steps towards putting the parish church in repair and (amongst other things) to call a vestry meeting for making a rate for such repair, and also against the parishioners to meet and make the rate; with intimation that, if cause were not shewn, the vicar general and official principal, or some other competent judge, would decree the monition to issue. That, no cause being shewn, the monition issued, on 6th May 1841, to the churchwardens and parishionera accordingly, naming 14th May then instant for the vestry meeting; and the churchwardens were further monished to return the names of the parishioners, present at the vestry, who should refuse to make the rate, to the vicar general and official principal, or his lawful surrogate, [591] &c. That the churchwardens, in obedience to the monition, summoned a vestry meeting for the 14th May; which was accordingly held. That, at the...
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