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vestryman

American  
[ves-tree-muhn] / ˈvɛs tri mən /

noun

  • vestrymen
    plural
  1. a member of a church vestry.


vestryman British  
/ ˈvɛstrɪmən /

noun

  1. a member of a church vestry

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of vestryman

First recorded in 1605–15; vestry + man

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

He’d been a Columbia College trustee, a Trinity Church vestryman, president of the Philharmonic Society, co-founder of the Union League Club.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 23, 2026

In the years after the White House, Mr. Bush wrote his memoirs and divided his time between Houston and the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he was a vestryman of St. Ann’s Episcopal Church.

From Washington Post Nov. 30, 2018

He was a former vestryman at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Washington.

From Washington Post Jan. 2, 2016

Shaw's opinions on municipal politics and public health at the turn of the century were formed and sharpened by his years as a vestryman and borough councillor for the St Pancras district of London.

From The Guardian Jul. 13, 2012

Thank goodness, now everything was settled, now the vestryman had only to procure him the birth and baptismal certificates and send them to him.

From The Son of His Mother by Clara Viebig

In the early 1850s, three vestrymen from Christ Church founded the chapel, where services were led by lay members and volunteer students from Virginia Theological Seminary.

From Washington Post May 12, 2017

By 1932, after Dr. Cowles had treated several thousand patients in St. Mark's, the vestrymen told Dr. Cowles to clear out.

From Time Magazine Archive

The ten vestrymen met thrice, finally voted 8-to-2.

From Time Magazine Archive

As middle-class neighborhoods decayed into slums, vestrymen and clergy often gave up, sold their empty churches to Pentecostal sects or parking lot operators.

From Time Magazine Archive

These vestrymen hired the rectors or preachers, and the money which paid the preachers came from taxes levied on the people.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators by Elbert Hubbard

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