In English law . A circuit of ground, committed to the charge of one parson or vicar, or other minister having cure of souls therein. 1 Bl. Comm. 111. Wilson v. State, 34 Ohio St. 190. The precinct of a parish church, and the particular charge of a secular priest Cowell. An ecclesiastical division of a town or district, subject to the ministry of one pastor. Bramle. In New England. A corporation established for the maintenance of public worship, which may be coterminous with a town, or include only part of it A precinct or parish is a corporation established solely for the purpose of maintaining public worship, and its powers are limited to that object. It may raise money for building and keeping in repair its meeting-house and supporting its minister, but for no other purpose. A town is a civil and political corporation, established for municipal purposes. They may both subsist together in the same territory, and be composed of the same persons. Milford v. Godfrey, 1 Pick. (Mass.) 91. In Louisiana. A teiritorial division of the state corresponding to elsewhere called a “county.” See Sherman v. Parish of Vermillion, 51 La. Ann. 880, 25 South. 538; Attorney General v. Detroit Common Council , 112 Mich. 148, 70 N. W. 450, 37 L. R. A. 211.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
