Churchwardens were mentioned in 1510 when they held chantry property. (fn. 24) There were two from 1552. (fn. 25) A constable of Willesden was mentioned c. 1580 when he was ordered to put the lessee of Brondesbury in the stocks. (fn. 26) From c. 1641 to 1853 there were two constables. (fn. 27) A collector for the poor was mentioned in 1608. (fn. 28) There were two overseers of the poor from 1678 and a salaried deputy or assistant overseer in 1794, 1798, 1826, and 1830. From 1678 there were usually two surveyors of highways although in 1706-7, 1711-14, and 1771 there were three. The parish clerk, mentioned in 1708, was paid in 1774 for doing the vestry clerk's work and in 1789-90 and 1802 the two offices were held by the same man. (fn. 29) William Twyford (d. 1826), dismissed for incompetence as vestry clerk in 1813, continued as parish clerk in 1818 and 1824 although unsatisfactory. Other officials included a beadle (1703), a dog-whipper (1778), an apothecary or surgeon, (fn. 30) appointed in 1809 and 1818 and dismissed for neglect in 1833, a sexton, whose office was combined 1806-26 with that of parish clerk, two examiners of weights and measures (1826), and a poundkeeper from 1828. Appointments were mostly annual, although one churchwarden served continuously from 1787 to 1793. From 1816 one churchwarden was appointed by the parish and one by the vicar. In 1826 there was a struggle between the vestry and the vicar over the appointment of the sexton.
From 1678 the assembled inhabitants were acting as a vestry although not by that name until 1693. Early vestries were held at irregular intervals, but by the early 19th century there were monthly meetings, usually attended by the vicar or curate, the churchwardens and overseers, and a few others. There were occasional larger attendances, 15 for example in 1798. During the 19th century attendances became larger and there were 64 present in 1847 when the church was threatened. A vestry house was mentioned in 1708 and 1735 but for most of the 18th and the early 19th century meetings were held at the Six Bells or in the church. In 1815 a vestry room was built on the north side of the church. By 1856 it had become too small and meetings were held in private houses until a vestry hall was built in 1857 in the churchyard.
Besides poor-law matters the vestry's deliberations included law and order in 1749, 1757, 1810, and 1820, straying cattle in 1821, and starting a parish school in 1809, a benefit society in 1811, and an association to prosecute offenders in 1820. Church rates, normally 3d. in the £ in the 18th century and 2d. in the early 19th, were used for a variety of purposes not necessarily connected with the church, particularly in the 18th century, including the repair of buildings, the purchase of two constables' staves in 1796, and payments to the sick poor, especially in times of smallpox. From c. 1840 payments were confined to church repairs and salaries.
A poor rate was levied, usually twice a year, from 1678. The annual total rose from £57 in 1678 to £90 in 1730, £140 in 1770, £303 in 1803, £564 in 1821, and £844 in 1831. The income was augmented by rent payable from enclosed waste land, of which there were 31 parcels in 1792. The overseers spent a small part of it on repairing bridges (1682) and constables' expenses (1688, 1779). Expenditure on the poor included weekly pay and sums for specific purposes like apprenticing, sickness, burial, clothing, brandy for a woman in labour in 1708, and port for a widow on the doctor's order in 1801. The poor were badged in 1706. Edgware Road brought in many poor from elsewhere including, in the 1730s, disabled soldiers, a sailor, and Turkish prisoners; the overseers were forbidden in 1736 to make casual payments to outsiders. In 1801 relief was given to 94 women and children travelling with passes. Gypsies and vagrants were causing trouble in 1820. In 1800 the overseers bought potatoes, herrings, split peas, and barley, and distributed coal and potatoes in 1801 and 1823.
Following the end of the Napoleonic wars, the series of bad summers, and agricultural depression, (fn. 31) the overseers were ordered in 1818 to employ all the men who wanted to work, and in 1824 to purchase flax or hemp to employ poor women. By 1834 some 49 able-bodied poor were receiving relief. Women and children were employed in spinning and the able-bodied men were set to work on the roads, without supervision. Money was given to induce men to seek work outside the parish. About half the poor were nonparishioners and probably many were Irish; the ease with which they obtained magistrates' orders for relief was resented.
Willesden had no workhouse but cottages in the churchyard were being used to house the old and widows by 1704. It may have been one of them that was referred to in 1781 as the church house. There were six in 1828, (fn. 32) one being used by the parish clerk, and seven in 1834.
Willesden became part of Hendon union under the Act of 1834 and the poor houses were converted in the 1840s into larger ones for the parish officers. They were replaced by the engine house and vestry hall in the 1850s and 1860s. (fn. 33) The parish continued in a much more limited way its care for the poor: in 1847 an association was set up to improve the condition of the labouring classes, and some 3 a. were leased for allotments; in 1857 a vestry committee reported on the state of the dwellings of the poor; in 1861 some ladies were organizing soup kitchens during the winter.
The vestry continued to appoint officers: in 1837, for example, overseer, constables, surveyors, assessors of land, sexton, and beadle. A keeper for the fire engine was appointed in 1840 and a poundkeeper in 1842; in 1857 a headborough was mentioned. One man often combined several offices, in 1857 for example as constable, poundkeeper, sexton, beadle, and engine-keeper. The Vestry Clerks Act was adopted in 1856. (fn. 34) In 1835, to avoid becoming part of the Metropolitan police district, the vestry adopted the Lighting and Watching Act, 1833, and in 1849 it adopted the lighting provisions for part of Kilburn. (fn. 35) Increasingly the work of the vestry was done by committees. By 1857 there were committees for allotments, parish charities, building a vestry hall, the state of the poor, and nuisances. In 1863 Willesden became part of Edgware highway district. (fn. 36) By 1871 a separate sewer rate was being levied, (fn. 37) to deal with problems that eventually led to the formation of Willesden local board.
Willesden was a district in the Harrow parliamentary division of Middlesex (fn. 86) until 1918, when it became a parliamentary borough divided into two divisions each returning one member. (fn. 87) Conservatives sat for Willesden West until 1923 and 1931-5, and Labour members 1923-31 and 1935-74. (fn. 88) Except in 1923 when the seat was held by a Liberal and The Times referred to the 'traditional pastime' in Willesden of wrecking the meetings of opponents, (fn. 89) Willesden East was represented by Conservatives until 1945 and from 1959 to 1964, and by Labour members 1945-59 and 1964-74. In 1974 the parliamentary boundaries were revised, the former borough of Willesden being included in Brent East and Brent South; both returned Labour members.
1. Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 475-6.
2. Hist. MSS. Com. 39, 15th Rep. II, Hodgkin, p. 257.
3. Guildhall MS. 11816B; St. Paul's MS. A 39/1370.
4. Guildhall MS. CC. 33099.
6. St. Paul's MS. C (I Nowell), ff. 330v.-331.
7. Guildhall MS. 11816B; St. Paul's MS. FB 3, prebendal leases 1721-96, ff. 28-30v.
8. St. Paul's MS. C (III Nowell), ff. 162v.-163.
9. Ibid. MS. FB 4, prebendal leases 1798-1834, ff. 77-9; Guildhall MS. CC. 1988; Ch. Com., Surveys S2, p. 411.
11. St. Paul's MS. C (I Nowell), f. 456v.
13. St. Paul's MS. A 39/1354.
15. B.L. Stowe MS. 862, f. 33.
17. St. Paul's MS. C (Sampson), f. 54.
19. Guildhall MS. CC. 33099.
20. Ch. Com., Surveys S2, pp. 495-501.
21. M.R.O., EA/WIL, nos. 93, 413, 503.
22. Grange Mus., 1 D 11 (vestry bk. 1825-32); ibid. gen. files, High Rd. (Mdx. Courier, 21 June 1895).
23. Based on Grange Mus., 1 D 10-13, 29 (vestry mins. 1722-1878); 1 B 1-5, 7-11 (poor rates 1703-35, 1770-1835); 1 B 6, 24-8 (overseers' accts. 1678-1710, 1775-1823, 1833-7); 1 B 12, 16-17, D 17 (church rate and churchwardens' accts. 1730-1869); 1 B 13-19 (highway rate and surveyors' accts. 1785-1832, 1842-52). See also ibid. Wood F 23, pp. 211 sqq.; Rep. Com. Poor Laws, H.C. 44, pp. 185f-185h (1834), xxxv-xxxvi.
24. St. Paul's MSS. C (I Nowell), ff. 330v.-331v.; (III Nowell), ff. 162v.-163v.
25. P.R.O., E 315/498, ff. 39-40.
27. B.L. Add. MS. 38856, f. 59.
28. Bodl. MS. D.D. All Souls c 124/84.
29. Grange Mus., Wood F 24, p. 82.
30. Payments were made to a doctor in 1679 and apothecary in 1774 but they are unlikely to have been appointed by the parish.
31. All Souls Coll., uncat. material, agents' letters 1808-37.
32. Pigot, Lond. and Provincial Dir. (1828-9).
33. Grange Mus., Ball, 'Old Willesden', 117-34.
34. Lond. Gaz. 6 June 1856, p. 2015.
36. Lond. Gaz. 13 Mar. 1863, p. 1480.
37. Grange Mus., 1 B 23.
38. 37 & 38 Vic. c. 152 (Local).
39. Grange Mus., 1 A 4 (Willesden Chron. Charter Suppl. 8 Sept. 1933); ibid. Wood F 23, pp. 281 sqq.
40. 50 & 51 Vic. c. 149 (Local).
41. Grange Mus., Wood F 9 (Bill and mins. of evid. 1887).
42. Kelly's Dir. Mdx. (1890).
43. Grange Mus., gen. files, Dyne Rd.; photo. files (NL 785); ibid. Ball, 'Old Willesden', 89; Kelly's Dir. Mdx. (1882).
44. Grange Mus., Wood F 23 pp. 281 sqq.; below, pub. svces.
45. M.R.O., Rep. Local Inqs. 1889-97, 639-62 (Willesden 1894); Grange Mus., gen. files, ward boundaries.
46. The Times, 5 Apr. 1922; Grange Mus., 1 A 5 (Willesden Chron. 3 Sept. 1920).
47. Grange Mus., Wood F 37/15A; Wood 67.
48. Ibid. Wood F 24, p. 258; Kilburn and Willesden Dir. (1895, 1900, 1910, 1918-19).
49. Grange Mus., biog. files, Chas. Pinkham; gen. files, elections, local; The Times, 26 Apr. 1918.
50. Grange Mus., 1 A 2 (Willesden Cit. 28 Oct. 1949).
51. Willesden Cit. 1, 8 Apr. 1910.
52. The Times, 6 Apr. 1910.
53. Willesden Cit. 1, 8 Apr. 1910; Willesden Call, 11 Apr. 1913; Kelly's Dir. Mdx. (1926).
54. The Times, 4 Apr. 1922; below, pub. svces.
55. The Times, 5 Apr. 1922; Grange Mus., 1 A 5 (Willesden Cit. 25 June 1920).
56. Grange Mus., gen. files, W. Willesden Cit./Courier (July 1930).
57. The Times, 29 June 1917.
58. Leff and Blunden, Willesden Story, 18.
59. Grange Mus., MF 352 (petition for incorp. 1931).
60. Morris, Willesden Surv. pp. 10, 12.
61. Kelly's Dir. Mdx. (1908).
62. Grange Mus., 2 C 17 (souvenir of incorp. 1933).
63. The Times, 18 Jan. 1922.
64. Grange Mus., 1 D 23 (establishment bk. 1925).
65. Ibid. 1 D 16 (overseers' min. bk. 1895-1904); ibid. gen. files, workhouses (Municipal Jnl. 20 Mar. 1903); ibid. MF 352 (petition for incorp. 1931); ibid. Wood F 23, p. 234; The Times, 14 Dec. 1908; 11 Jan. 1910; below, pub. svces. (Park Royal hosp.).
66. The Times, 2 Nov., 2 Dec. 1908; 12 Feb. 1909; 15 Nov. 1910; 29 Oct. 1919.
67. Ibid. 2, 8 Sept. 1933.
68. Grange Mus., NM 9 (map of ward boundaries); ibid. gen. files, ward boundaries; Census, 1921, 1931.
69. Grange Mus., NM 22 (map of boundaries 1952); Census, 1961.
70. Grange Mus., gen. files, elections, local.
71. Willesden Monthly Illus. 5 Jan., 5 Oct., 5 Nov. 1937; Weintraub, 'Race and local politics'.
72. Willesden Civic Review, June 1956; Grange Mus., gen. files, elections, local.
73. Grange Mus., NM 309 (Willesden town planning scheme 1933).
74. Leff and Blunden, Willesden Story, 30-33.
76. Leff and Blunden, Willesden Story, 40 sqq.
77. Grange Mus., 1 A 2 (Willesden Cit. 25 Oct. 1963).
78. Weintraub, 'Race and local politics'; Who's Who (1977).
79. Excluding 1,635 employed in educ.: Morris, Willesden Surv. p. 70.
80. M.R.O., Hist. Notes 25/8/71.
81. Willesden Monthly Illus. 5 Oct. 1937; Willesden Civic Review, Dec. 1957; Apr. 1960; June 1963.
82. Grange Mus., 1 A 2 (Willesden Cit. 4 May 1962); V.C.H. Mdx. iv. 246; v. 82.
83. Brent Civic Review, July 1965.
84. Grange Mus., gen. files, health service.
85. Weintraub, 'Race and local politics'.
86. Based on Whitaker's Almanack (1918-75).
87. Grange Mus., MF 352 (petition for incorp. 1931).
88. The Times, 16 Nov. 1922; 28 Oct. 1931; Grange Mus., gen. files, Members of Parl.
89. The Times, 28 Nov., 7, 8 Dec. 1923.