Bay Meeting House and Vestry the Society until it was transferred to the Church in 1955. Its exterior, a blend of Federal massing with Gothic features, has remained nearly unaltered since its construction. The vestry, built in 1841 and enlarged in the early 20th century, is a vernacular structure that is typical of its period. Bay Meeting House and Vestry The Bay Meeting House and Vestry, now the Second Baptist Church, is a historic church complex on Upper Bay and Steele Roads in Sanbornton, New Hampshire. Built in 1836 for a Free Will Baptist congregation headed by Moses Cheney, the church is a good example
Vestry the vestry committees were not established by any law, and had come into being in an unregulated ad-hoc process, it was highly convenient to allow them to develop. This was convenient when they were the obvious body for administering the Edwardian and Elizabethan systems for support of the poor on a parochial basis. This was their first, and for many centuries their principal, statutory power. With this gradual formalisation of civil responsibilities, the ecclesiastical parishes acquired a dual nature and could be classed as both civil and ecclesiastical parishes. In England, until the 19th century, the parish vestry was in