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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

At various points in his life, he was an architect, a builder, a planter, a farmer, a church vestryman, a court justice, a sheriff, a county official and an innkeeper.

From Washington Post Jan. 19, 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

She busied herself at the hearth whilst the vestryman counted the notes--licking his fingers repeatedly and examining both sides of each one--and then put them carefully into the envelope which the gentleman had given him.

From The Son of His Mother by Viebig, Clara

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

Much vexed were a group of white vestrymen, led by one Manuel Jesus Roure, who blamed it all upon the rector, a lank, thin-lipped onetime curate of Trinity Church named Rev. Rollin Dodd.

From Time Magazine Archive

Before him, in the brown Gothic interior familiar to tourists, sat a score of the clergy, his vestrymen, and 1,200 members of the seven congregations of New York City's Trinity Parish.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

She was the mother of Mr. William T. Rumsey, who gave the lot for the church and was one of its first vestrymen.

From A History of the Town of Fairfax by Rust, Jeanne Johnson

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