The Past Overseers’ Society is an historic organisation that grew out of the medieval responsibility vested in local dignitaries of being responsible for looking after the poor of the parish. Originally referred to as “Collectors” because of their tax raising powers to pay for the costs of supporting the poor, by the Tudor period the became known as the “Overseers of the Poor”.
With the responsibility of being an Overseer, so burdensome, they would only remain in office for a relatively short time. In the Parishes of St. Margaret & and St John the Evangelist in Westminster, the retired Overseers formed a drinking club which met regularly in a member’s home to drink, smoke their pipes and confer on “parochial matters”. This club or society soon developed in to the Past Overseers Society of St. Margaret & and St John the Evangelist, Westminster.
In 1713, the then chairman of the Society Mr Henry Monck, gave to the Society the horn box (bought for four pence at the Charlton Horn Fair) that he would regularly carry with him, full of tobacco, which he would offer his fellow members at their meetings to place in their pipe to smoke. Following Monck’s death in 1720, his fellow members added to the lid a silver rim to which they added details of the gift and Monck’s name.
Committed to the custody of the senior Overseer, it became a tradition that on the senior Overseer’s retirement from office, he would hand over the box with an additional inscription on the silver giving details of the retiring Overseer. But over time, as the box became full of inscriptions, a further box was acquired (to which the earlier box would fit inside) and additional inscriptions added which subsequently not only noted the retiring Overseer but an event or two that had occurred in the intervening period. Over a period of time, numerous silver boxes were added with them all fitting inside each other like Russian dolls. By the late Victorian period when the largest of the boxes was almost as tall as the members of the society, silver rose bowels were added and from 1999 onwards a variety of different silver and wooden pieces used to inscribe the special events that had occurred each year with the name of that year’s Custodians of the silver.
The Society continues to meet annually at a formal dinner when the latest inscriptions are formally added and the new Custodians of the silver collection are appointed. The inscriptions and engravings on the now numerous silver pieces are a unique and fascinating history of Westminster and the United Kingdom.
The Society still flourishes and members of the Society are limited to one hundred and to qualify, must have lived or worked in Westminster. They must also reflect links with St. Margaret’s Church and Westminster Abbey, the Civil and Military Service, the City Council as well as professional practitioners within the city.
The society is run by the Standing Committee, who meet at least five times a year. The Annual General Meeting, to which all members are invited, is normally held in March. Other events such as the Annual Dinner in November and trips to places of interest within or close to the Westminster area are also organised.
The Senior and Junior Custodians (responsible for the silver collection) are appointed annually at the Annual Dinner, during which the ceremony of the transfer of the Tobacco Boxes to the custody of the Custodians takes place.
At the Annual Dinner, it has also become customary to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson by a silent toast to Lord Nelson. This became a tradition when in late 1805, the Society was enjoying its Annual Dinner, when news arrived of the death of Nelson.
The Silver Guard is responsible for the safekeeping, cleaning and moving of the entire silver collection when on display at the Annual Dinner. The Argentarius, the Society’s silver expert, advises the Standing Committee on the maintenance of the silver collection.
The full silver collection of tobacco boxes dating from the original horn box donated to the Society in 1713 and a number of additional silver items belonging to the Society, are normally displayed at the offices of Westminster City Council in Victoria Street.
