Kirtling: Charities for the poor

CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.

By will proved 1592 Richard Derisley left the rent of a cottage at the west end of Kirtling Green to be divided among the poor of Kirtling and seven nearby parishes. (fn. 1) The cottage was still standing in 1671 (fn. 2) but had been pulled down by 1709. (fn. 3) There is no record of any other parish receiving part of the income. In 1633 £14 of the town stock of £40 was spent on another cottage. (fn. 4) The remainder was used in 1668 to buy 3½ a. of land. (fn. 5) The total income from the charities was c. £3 a year in the 1660s. (fn. 6) At inclosure in 1815 the land was exchanged for 2½ a., (fn. 7) which in the 1830s brought in almost £6 a year. It was distributed in cash in the 1830s (fn. 8) and in fuel in the 1860s. (fn. 9)

Another charity of unknown origin provided 10s. a year rent by 1633. It was still paid in 1777 and probably in 1786 but had ceased by 1834. (fn. 10) It may have represented the charity of 6s. 8d. a year set up in 1538 when the bishop of Rochester leased the rectory to Edward North. (fn. 11)

John Crichton-Stuart, marquess of Bute, built a row of six single-storeyed red-brick almshouses north of Kirtling Tower in 1842 in memory of his wife Maria, (fn. 12) but they were not endowed. (fn. 13) Between c. 1871 and the mid 1880s part of the building was used as a Catholic school, (fn. 14) and afterwards housed retired farm labourers. (fn. 15) It later passed into the control of Newmarket rural district council, which refurbished it as three dwellings in 1972. (fn. 16)