1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vestry

VESTRY (O. Fr. vestiaire, Lat. vestiarium, a wardrobe), a place or room adjoining a church, where the vestments of the minister are kept. Hence the name applied to an assembly of the parishioners, usually convened in the vestry, to transact the business of the parish. In populous parishes it obtains by custom in some, and by the “Adoptive” Vestries Act 1831 in others, to choose yearly a select number of parishioners, called a “select vestry,” to manage the concerns of the parish. (See Parish.)