Parish

In England the parish was, at the time of the settlement of America, the unit of local government. Its leading institutions were apparently adopted in the town government of the New England colonies, but in the Southern colonies were imitated exactly, with the same name. The Virginia parish, for instance, was usually a sub-division of the county. Besides its religious duties, the vestry of the parish had to choose church-wardens and with them to take charge of the poor, of public proce ioning of bounds, of the counting of tobacco, and of other administrative matters. They chose the clergyman and provided for his salary. In New England the word parish had only an ecclesiastical significance. In South Carolina the parish was the chief sub divis on of the colony, there being no counties. In Louisiana the same is still true.