[see WARDEN.]
1. In England: A lay honorary officer of a parish or district church, elected to assist the incumbent in the discharge of his administrative duties, to manage such various parochial offices as by custom or legislation devolve upon him, and generally to act as the lay representative of the parish in matters of church-organization.
As a rule there are two churchwardens, elected annually at the Easter vestry, one by the incumbent, the other by the parishioners. As kirk-masters, church-masters they are mentioned in 1429, as church-reeves in 1386; the OE. ciric-weard was not a layman.
1494. Fabyan, Will, Pref. 8. I will that the said xiijd. be distributed … after the discrecon of the churche wardeyns of the said parisshe.
1514. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 145. To the seid Curate and Kirke-wardeyns.
1552. Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion. The Curate and the Churchwardens. Ibid. Then shal the Churche wardens … gather the deuocion of the people.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 101. Honest substantiall men (called churchwardens or the like) chosen by the consent of the whole congregation.
1610. Churchw. Acc. St. Margarets, Westm. (Nichols, 1797), 29. For Salt to destroy the fleas in Church warden’s pew … 6d.
1628. Earle, Microcosm. Ch. Papist (Arb.), 31. Once a moneth he presents himselfe at the Church, to keepe off the Church-warden.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 158, ¶ 4. The Church-warden should hold up his Wand.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. xi. 395. A churchwarden may justify the pulling off a man’s hat, without being guilty of either an assault or trespass.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 107. The lists of county voters, the overseers and churchwardens of every parish are charged with the duty of preparing.
attrib. [cf. CHURCHWARDENISM.]
1886. R. N. Worth, Devonsh., 293. The Saxon font … preserved through the churchwarden period by being partially buried, reversed, in the floor.
fig. a. 1876. G. Dawson, Improvers of Shaks. (1888), 46. So have Shakespeare’s works suffered from the churchwardens of literature.
2. In Scotland, sometimes applied to the (salaried) church-officer or beadle.
3. colloq. A clay pipe with a very long stem.
1863. Jeaffreson, Live it Down, II. 187 (Hoppe). Mr. Wylie lit his pipe, having first induced Mr. Braddock to take a churchwarden, and smoke also.
1883. W. H. Rideing, in Harper’s Mag., July, 174/1. The ‘church-warden’ is provided on demand to any customer. It is a small clay pipe with a stem from sixteen to twenty inches long.
Hence Churchwardened ppl. a., nonce-wd., placed under a church-warden. Churchwardenism, the rule of churchwardens, used contemptuously in reference to the damage done to the architecture, art, etc., of many churches under the direction of illiterate church wardens. So Churchwardenize v.
1598. E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 43.
| Or I could sute her were she not prophane, | |
| To a new painted, and churchwarden’d fane. |
1865. Cornh. Mag., June, 737. The genius of churchwardenism ruled in the vestries, and presided over the destruction or defacement of much that would not be rescued from their hands.
1864. Puckle, Ch. & Fortress of Dover Castle, i. 4. Remnants of mediæval Churchwardenisms … are often as bad as any of the nineteenth century.
1881. Jrnl. R. Archæol. Inst., XXXVIII. 353. The doctrine of ‘conservative restoration’ … has been more destructive than the axe of the Puritan, or the century and a half of churchwardenism which came after it.
1831. Fraser’s Mag., IV. 284/2. To think of churchwardenising the Alhambra.
1863. Sat. Rev., XV. 23 May, 669/1. Buildings … although much churchwardenized, still possessing great architectural interest.
