Elizabeth Watson (d. 1782) left £3 issuing from
her estate of Mitchells to be distributed to the poor on Christmas
Day and Good Friday, provided that
her parents' monument should be well maintained in
its then position. Although all the monuments in the
church were moved into the tower in 1861, the
charity money continued to be paid. There was some
difficulty in collecting the rent-charge from 1930 to
1937. In 1952 the money was spent on gifts of bread
to 38 recipients.
Dr. Gould, rector of the parish (d. 1799), left £105
to be invested for distribution among the poor of the
parish at Christmas and Easter. A board was to be
maintained, bearing a description of the charity. By
1835 the charity was only distributed on alternate
Easter Saturdays, when meat was given away to all the
poor families of the parish in proportion to their size.
In about 1888 £30 was added to the stock, representing the endowment of the Bell Rope Charity. This
was of unknown origin and had apparently consisted
of a small plot of land in Hook Lane which was sold
by the churchwardens in 1781 for £25. The payment
of the dividends of this sum seems to have been irregular
for some time: no mention of the charity was made in
the Brougham Commissioners' Report of 1835 and
about 8 years' arrears were paid in 1855. In the early
19th century the income was apparently used with
that of the other charities, and from 1888 it was always
distributed with Dr. Gould's Charity. In 1952 the
income of the two was £4 18s. 4d. which was spent on
meat for 41 persons.
Alice Martin, by will proved 1946, left the residue of
her estate amounting to £2,265 8s. 5d. in trust for the
benefit of the poor of the parish at Christmas. In 1952
the income was £73 6s. 10d.; 43 persons received gifts in
cash and 7 persons received them in children's clothes.
The Parliamentary Returns of 1786 recorded two
charities which were then lost: Edward Masters had
given £3 a year to the poor in 1670, and Captain Allen
gave them £10, producing 10s. a year, in 1675.
Nothing had been received from the first 'for many
years' or from the second since 1690.
Footnotes
| 19 |
All the information which follows is
derived from the following sources: Rep.
Com. Char. (Essex), H.C. 216, pp. 243-4
(1835), xxi (1); Char. Com. files. |