HURSLEY
Hurseleghe (xiii cent.), Hursele (xiv cent).
The parish of Hursley, covering 6,949 acres, (fn. 1) lies
south-west of Winchester. The north of the parish,
being part of the girdle of bare chalk downs which
surround the city of Winchester, reaches over 500 ft.
near Crabwood Farm. The land falls towards the
centre of the parish, where the village lies on low
ground, but rises again to a moderate height in the
south. The main road from Winchester to Romsey
traverses the whole length of the parish, passing through
the hamlets of Pitt and Standon, Hursley village, and
Ampfield. Hursley village is one of the most picturesque
types of the larger Hampshire villages. Entering it
from Winchester, low thatched cottages are grouped on
the left and right. A row of pollard limes stands in
front of some low cottages on the east hand, and away on
the west, behind a low hedge, are stretches of meadow,
and in the distance behind a belt of trees is the church
spire. Farther along the road by the 'White Horse'
a sharp bend up-hill to the left leads by Collins Lane
to Upper Sharland, and then the main road winds
slightly west into the centre of the village. Standing
well back from the road on the right is the village
school; beyond is the church, and behind the church
the vicarage. Facing and parallel with the low stone
wall of the churchyard is a row of cottages, one of
which serves as the post office, and at the end of the
row is the quaint blacksmith's shop overshadowed by
a tall elm tree. Beyond the church, on the right, are
four or five cottages fronting on the street, tiled and
timbered with latticed windows and overhanging stories
belonging at latest to the seventeenth century. Lower
down the street and on the opposite side of the road
are more modern houses and cottages, and at the end
of the street on the left, surrounded by a high wall, is
Southend House, the residence of Mr. H. V. Henry.
Following this wall round to the left a narrow lane
branches from the main road and leads to Bunstead
and on to Silkstead, which is partly in Hursley parish.
West of the village and almost parallel with the
village street is Hursley Park, covering 450 acres of
luxuriantly wooded country well stocked with deer.
Hursley House, standing in the park, was built
in 1718–20 by Sir William Heathcote, first baronet,
and has been very much extended and refitted within
the last few years by the present owner, Sir George
Cooper. In the north of the park are the ruins of
Merdon Castle, one of the palaces of the bishops of
Winchester.
The Cranbury estate, including Cranbury Park and
Cranbury House, a residence of Mr. Tankerville
Chamberlayne, M.P., lies in the south-east corner of the
parish. The thickly-wooded country which closes
around the park on the east and south continues
southwards to Hiltingbury Common, which is now
since 1894 part of Ampfield parish, but was part of
Hursley when Ampfield itself was a hamlet of
Hursley. Ampfield Wood, lying to the west, stretches
across from the woods which lie south of Hursley
Park to the border line between Ampfield and
Romsey parishes.
Ampfield village is south of the wood and consists of a number of scattered cottages brought probably into existence by the necessity for workers at the
saw-mills and the gravel-pits in Ganges Wood. St.
Mark's church stands on high ground north of the
main road, and west of the church, about half way
down the hill, is the vicarage. Ampfield House, the
residence of Mr. David Faber, J.P., and Philpott's
Farm are also close on the main road, but the cottages
and the village school lie away to the north along a
branch in the road between the church and vicarage.
The hamlet of Standon lies about half a mile north
of Hursley village where the main road curves to the
right towards Winchester. It consists of a group of
some picturesque half-timber thatched cottages lying
back for the most part behind bright cottage gardens
Pitt hamlet nestles between two steep hills about
two miles north-west from Stanton. Pitt Farm is
on the right, and along a branch road to the left
are a few scattered cottages and a school chapel
built by Miss Charlotte Yonge in 1858, served by
the vicar of Hursley. The oldest house is at the
corner of the road, a long low half-timber thatched
cottage possibly dating back to the sixteenth century. There is no river in Hursley parish, but there are
several lakes and ponds covering 10 acres altogether;
one in Hursley Park, three in Cranbury Park (Great
Pond, Upper Pond, and Lower Pond), a small one
at Parsonage Farm, another at Upper Sharland, and
several at Standon and Pitt. The soil of the parish
varies from chalk in the north to clay, sand, and gravel
with peat in the south, and the vegetation differs
accordingly. The chief crops are wheat, barley, and
oats, with good crops of turnips and peas.
CASTLE
Although it is possible that an earthwork existed at Merdon in the eleventh
century or earlier, yet there is no mention of such in Domesday, and the foundation of the
castle is ascribed to Bishop Henry de Blois, who built
and fortified it in 1138. (fn. 2) During the next few years,
in the struggle between Stephen and the Empress
Maud, the castle was doubtless of military importance,
but from that time it seems to have been rather a
bishop's palace than a military castle.
Like Farnham and Wolvesey it was kept in good
repair, and between 1265 and 1268 in Bishop Gervase's
account book an entry was made of the expense of
fitting up the hall in the castle of Merdon. (fn. 3) In
1278 Bishop Nicholas of Ely was resident at the castle,
and the ceremony of reinstating the prior of St.
Swithun was performed there. (fn. 4) However, by the
fourteenth century such parts as were useless for
habitation seem to have fallen into decay, though
Bishop Edendon seems to have resided there as late as
1365. (fn. 5)
The site of Merdon Castle is marked by a fine
circular earthwork surrounded by a deep ditch, with
traces of a second line of banks outside the ditch, and
a causeway on the east leading to the central inclosure.
A small length of the curtain wall remains on the
south, with a tower which may be of twelfth-century
date. Its walls are 7 ft. thick, and the windows and
doorways have lost their architectural detail, but
appear to have been round-headed.
MANOR
There is only one manor in the parish
of Hursley, and that bearing not the name
of the parish, but of the ancient castle
of MERDON—(Maerdune, Meredune, Meretune,
Merantune (ix cent.), Mardon, Merden (xv cent. et
seq.)—within the parish. Though it is difficult to state
with any certainty that the 'Merantune' of the AngloSaxon Chronicle, the scene of Cynwulf's murder by
Cynheard his kinsmen in 784, was Merdon in Hursley, yet there is much to be said for the suggestion. (fn. 6)
Certain it is that the murdered king was buried at
Winchester, his capital; and his visit with a small
company to 'Merantune,' made evidently from
Winchester, is more likely to have been a short journey
to a quiet country place just outside Winchester than
across Surrey. The next mention of Merantune or
Maerdune is in 781, when two months after the
Danes had been victorious at Basing King Ethelred
and Alfred his brother fought with them at Merdon.
Though for a time fortune favoured the king, yet in
the end the Danes were victorious and held the place
of battle. (fn. 7)
Merdon was probably included in the grant made
about 636 by King Kinegils to the bishop and church
of Winchester of land within a seven-mile circle of
Winchester, (fn. 8) and from that time onwards to the
reign of Edward VI the bishops of Winchester held
the manor. In 1291 Merdon was included among
the bishop's lands, and was worth £80. (fn. 9)
In 1341 Adam, bishop of Winchester, granted the
office of parker or warrener in his manor of Merdon
to Giles de Mansynton, subject to the confirmation
of the grant by the prior and convent of St. Swithun.
There is little else in the history of the manor, apart
from the castle, until the reign of Edward VI, when
in 1552 John Poynet, bishop of Winchester, surrendered Merdon among other lands to the king. (fn. 10) In
the same year Edward granted
it to Sir Philip Hoby, together
with the park of Hursley, to
be held in chief for the fortieth
part of a knight's fee. (fn. 11) Before
this time there was probably
no manor-house at Merdon
except the castle, and that was
in decay by the fourteenth
century, and it was Sir Philip
Hoby who probably built the
'great Lodge.' But he had
little time to enjoy his new
possession, since in 1557, when Mary dared to restore
the church lands, the manor of Merdon was granted
to John White, bishop of Winchester. (fn. 12)
Hoby. Argent three weavers' bottoms gules.
An entry on the steward's roll for 1559, the year
of the regrant by Elizabeth to Sir Philip Hoby's
half-brother William Hoby, (fn. 13) shows that the profits
of the manor, 'part of the Bishopric of Winchester
before this,' were then brought into the annual
account register, 'since the said manor by Act of
Parliament was granted to William Hoby.' (fn. 14)
William Hoby seems, according to a monumental
inscription in Hursley church, to have married as his
second wife the widow of the Thomas Sternhold
who in collaboration with John Hopkins first
'sounded out the Psalms of David' in metrical verse,
and employed much time in singing his psalms to his
organ for his own 'godly solace'. (fn. 15) On his death,
probably at Hursley, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, (fn. 16) the manor descended to his son
Giles, who in 1600 sold the castle and manor to
Thomas Clerke of Ardington in Berkshire, his fatherin-law, reserving to himself and his wife a life interest
in the lodge and park of Hursley. (fn. 17)
In 1602 Sir Thomas Clerke was living at Merdon,
and in that year his son was married in Hursley
church. (fn. 18) At this time the copyholders of the manor
were still required to perform their customary services
of reaping and carrying crops, and in Robert Morley's
manuscript there is an account of a quarrel between
the lord and his tenants on one of the 'hay dobyn'
or service days. The lord was obliged to supply
breakfast and dinner for the workers, and one day
'the cart brought afield for the reapers a hogshead
of porridge which stunk and had worms in it.' The
tenants headed by Mr. Coram, the holder of Cranbury, refused to work without better provision, and
he and Mr. Pye, Sir Thomas Clerke's steward, drew
their daggers, and rode at one another through the
wheat. At last Lady Clerke promised to dress two
or three hogs of bacon for them, and they quietly
retired to work. (fn. 19) It is not difficult to imagine how
much these hay dobyn days were hated by the tenants,
especially as a hindrance to their own work, and
Morley writes how 'a heire went for a man on hay
dobyn days if able to carry a hook aforesaid.' (fn. 20) In
1606 Sir Thomas Clerke sold the manor of Merdon
with the rest of his property to William Brock, 'a
great lawyer,' who died in 1618, leaving his only
child, a daughter and minor, under the joint guardianship of Sir Thomas Savage and Sir Richard Tichborne, (fn. 21) on whom settlement was made at the time
of the sale in 1606. (fn. 22) In 1626 Anne Brock married
John Arundell, (fn. 23) who in right of his wife became
lord of the manor. The Arundells do not, however,
seem to have lived at Hursley,
but leased the manor in 1623
to Richard Lumley, (fn. 24) in 1626
to Henry Hastings, (fn. 25) and before
1630 sold it to Sir Nathaniel
Napier of Crichel (Dorset). (fn. 26)
Napier of Crichel. Argent a saltire engrailed between four cinquefoils gules.
In the meantime, in 1621,
Giles Hoby had leased the
lodge and park of Hursley to
Nicholas Peascod. (fn. 27) Giles died
in 1626 and his wife in 1630,
and thereupon the lodge and
park reverted to the holder of
Merdon Manor, Sir Nathaniel
Napier. (fn. 28) On the death of
the latter some time before 1635, (fn. 29) the manor
descended to his son Gerard, who sold it in 1638–9
to Richard Major, who was, according to the description of a contemporary, a man witty and thrifty even
to miserliness, and an unscrupulous oppressor of his
tenantry. (fn. 30) More especially did he 'usurp authority
over his tenants,' when 'King Charles was put to
death and Oliver Cromwell was Protector of England
and Richard Major of his Privy Council and Noll's
eldest son Richard was married to Mr. Major's
Doll.' (fn. 31) The marriage there referred to was that of
Richard Cromwell with Dorothy Major, which brought
Merdon into the Cromwell family, and gave it a part
in one of the most interesting periods in English
history. Richard Cromwell lived at Merdon from
1649, the year of his marriage, until he became Protector on the death of his father in 1658.
On his forced withdrawal from Whitehall in 1660,
he came to Hursley for a few months, but early in
the summer left England for
France, (fn. 32) leaving behind him
a heavy burden of debts contracted, as he himself stated,
upon the public account. (fn. 33)
While abroad he went by
another name, 'though he did
not disguise himself nor deny
himself to any man that challenged him.' (fn. 34) It was thus
under assumed names that he
corresponded with wife and
children at Hursley, where
they lived in quiet seclusion, and where Mrs. Cromwell
died in January, 1675–6. During her illness Cromwell wrote to his daughter Elizabeth, bidding her desire
her mother to quiet her conscience concerning him and
strive to be cheerful. (fn. 35) Yet the letters that follow
show how little cheerfulness there was for the solitary
exile. In 1680 he returned to England, (fn. 36) but not to
Hursley; so the letters to his children continue. His
great anxiety concerning the marriage of his son Oliver,
who was of age in 1677, became quite pathetic. To
his daughter Elizabeth he wrote in 1689 'it would
greatly please to see your brother answer a duty both
to God and his family… I would hope he would
not dalley any longer with Providence, but take a
resolution to fixe his minde. (fn. 37) ' In the next year he
wrote 'Pray let your brother settle, and that will be
the best step for us to enjoy each other, according to
what you desire.' (fn. 38) About this time there was
evidently some thought of Richard joining his family
at Hursley, (fn. 39) but the idea fell through and the letters
continue.
Cromwell. Sable a lion argent.
In the meantime Oliver, on the death of his mother,
had claimed Merdon in right of her marriage settlement and took possession of the estate. It was then
that the customary tenants, possibly taking advantage
of his youth, determined to win back some of the
privileges and customs they had lost under the oppression of Richard Major. The Chancery suit was in
progress in 1692, and lasted on until after the death
of Oliver in 1705. In 1707 Imber, on behalf of
the tenants, since the Chancery decree was 'written in
chancery hand and part thereof being in Latin and
therefore not able to be read and understood by the
tenants,' made an English abstract of the same in
order that the tenants and their successors 'might on
all occasions rightly know the customs of the manor.' (fn. 40)
They claimed ordinary copyholders' rights, right to
demise customary lands by copy; to pay a fixed fine
on admittance; to let their tenements for a year
without licence; to have sole right to fell trees on
their tenements except oak, and even oak for repairs;
to have sole pasture and feeding on the lord's heaths
and wastes, and in the three coppices of South Holme,
Heale Coppice, and Holman Coppice. Oliver Cromwell had ignored these customs on several occasions,
as for instance when he brought an action against
Mrs. Elliot for leasing her copyhold for a year, and
against Thomas Lloyd for cutting down some oak
trees for repairs on his copyhold of Nevil's Close and
Hiltingbury (fn. 41) In 1705 Oliver died before the suit
was finished, and a dispute arose concerning the
Hursley estate. Richard Cromwell, who had allowed
his son's right to the manor, now disputed the right
of his daughters, who considered themselves the heirs
of their brother. The case was heard and decided in
Richard's favour, (fn. 42) and after this he seems to have
lived partly at Hursley and partly at Cheshunt. (fn. 43) In
1712 he died at Cheshunt, and was buried at Hursley with much pomp. (fn. 44) His two surviving daughters,
Elizabeth and Anne, succeeded
to the estate, but only lived at
Merdon for a few years, selling
the whole manor in 1718 to
Sir William Heathcote. (fn. 45) Sir
William pulled down the old
mansion-house, then in ruins,
and built the modern house.
He died in 1751, (fn. 46) leaving his
eldest son Thomas as heir.
On the death of Sir Thomas
in 1787 the manor descended
to his son William, whose
great-grandson, Sir William
Percival Heathcote, sold the estate in 1899 to Joseph
W. Baxendale, who sold it in 1905 to Sir George
Cooper, bart., the present owner.
Heathcote. Ermine three roundels vert with a cross or upon each.
Hursley House is a fine building, the central part of
which dates from the early part of the eighteenth
century, while the wings are modern additions. The
great attraction of the house is the splendid oak panelling and fittings formerly in Winchester College
Chapel, and most unfortunately removed at the disastrous 'restoration' of the chapel by Butterfield. The
work is of the time of Charles II, the carving being,
as usual, attributed to Gibbons; in this case it is at
any rate worthy of him. The site of the former
house lies behind the present building on lower
ground, and its foundations may be seen in the turf,
though no part is now above ground.
CRANBURY
CRANBURY seems originally to have been an
important hamlet of Hursley, (fn. 47) and to have consisted
of many distinct tenements or copyholds, (fn. 48) but now
the name belongs only to Cranbury House and Park.
Of the proprietors of Cranbury, who held of course
of the bishop as of his manor of Merdon, the first
mentioned seems to be a certain Shoveller, who surrendered to a Roger Coram before 1580. The latter,
according to Marsh, seems to have been 'a zealous
assertor of the tenants' rights against the lords of the
manor.' (fn. 49) On the death of this Roger Coram Sir
Edward Richards seems to have held the property
until 1640–3, (fn. 50) when he let it, with the lord's consent, to Dr. John Young, dean of Winchester, who
lived in quiet retirement at Cranbury during the
Commonwealth. His widow, Mrs. Young, was holding in 1650, and probably resigned the house to Sir
Charles Wyndham, who married her daughter in
1665. Sir Charles, who seems also to have been 'a
zealous assertor of the tenants' rights,' and 'of a most
respectable family,' died in 1706, before his wife, who
survived him until 1720. (fn. 51) On her death the house
and estate were sold to Jonathan Conduit, who sold
the whole in 1737 or 1738 to Thomas Lee Dummer.
The latter died in 1765, leaving a son and heir
Thomas, from whom the estate devolved to Sir
Nathaniel Holland. (fn. 52) On the death of Lady Holland, widow of Sir Nathaniel,
the estate passed into the
Chamberlayne family, and is
held at the present day by Mr.
Tankerville Chamberlayne.
Chamberlayne. Gules a cheveron engrailed or between three scallops argent.
Cranbury House is a large
eighteenth-century red-brick
building, with a projecting
entrance porch on the south
front, the main rooms being
arranged round a central hall
and staircase. There is a good
deal of fine plaster decoration
in the Adam style, especially in
the saloon on the south front,
which has a circular domed ceiling. The house contains a good number of valuable paintings, there being
one very fine Romney, of Lady Hamilton as a maenad,
and several of less merit. In the rooms on the east
front are a number of pictures by Richter and Westall,
and a curious unfinished subject painting, said to be
by Romney.
The site of the house is well chosen, the ground
falling steeply on the north, in well-wooded slopes.
Some way down the slope is a spring, over which a
domed well-house has been built, and on the higher
ground to the west of the house is a circular earthwork. To the north of this is a summer-house and a
stone sun-dial, said to have been designed by Sir Isaac
Newton; its gnomon is supported by a monogram in
openwork, apparently I.L.C. for Jonathan Conduit.
In the park, at some distance to the south-west
of the house, is a gamekeeper's cottage, masked by
a sham ruin made up of fragments from Netley
Abbey, whose north transept was destroyed for the
purpose. A set of very beautiful early fourteenthcentury bosses from a vault are built into the work.
Tenements in LONGMOOR, which is now the
name of a farm on the western borders of Cranbury
Park, were included in 1551 and in later grants among
the appurtenances of the manor of Merdon. (fn. 53)
The hamlets of STANDON (Staundone, xiv cent.;
Stonden, xvi cent.) and PITT (Putte, xiv cent.)
were given among the bishop's possessions in 1316 as
the 'villa de Staundone' and the 'villa de Putte,' and
were evidently quite important hamlets. (fn. 54) Tenements in both were also given among the appurtenant
tenements of Merdon manor in 1551. (fn. 55) A messuage
and lands in Pitt were held by Sir John Philpott, lord
of the manor of Compton, on his death in 1502, (fn. 56) and
remained in the Philpott family until 1623, when Sir
George Philpott held the same on his death. (fn. 57)
Hursley parsonage-house and the tenement of
SHARLAND (Shorling, xv cent. et seq.) belonged
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to the college
of St. Elizabeth near Winchester as appropriators of
the church of Hursley. (fn. 58) At the Dissolution they
were granted as 'the parsonage of Hursley and a
tenement and pasture called Shorlinge in Hursley' to
Thomas Wriothesley, Lord Southampton. (fn. 59)
In 1562 Frances Kempe and Thomas Wilmot brought
a Chancery suit against John Forster concerning a lease
of the parsonage and 'the manor or tenement of Shorling.' They petitioned that Thomas Runcorne,
warden of the late college of St. Elizabeth, and the
chaplains of the same being lawfully seised of the
house and tenement about 1539, leased the same with
the consent of the bishop of Winchester for a term of
forty-one or forty-two years to John Wilmot. In 1558
John Wilmot bequeathed the same to his wife Joan
for her life and after her death to his son Edward
Wilmot. In later days the parsonage-house and
the great tithes were purchased by the Heathcote
family.
AMPFIELD
AMPFIELD (Annfelde, xiv cent.; Anfield xvi and
xvii cent.), civil parish, was created out of Hursley
parish in 1894. Before this time it was a hamlet of
Hursley, appurtenant to the manor of Merdon. In
1316 it was given among the bishop of Winchester's
possessions. (fn. 60) In 1551, when, after John Poynet had
surrendered the manor of Merdon among others to
Edward VI, the king granted the manor to Sir Philip
Hoby, lands and tenements in 'Anfield' were given
among the appurtenances together with those in
PUCKNALL (Pukenhale, xiv cent.; Puckinhall,
xvi cent.); HILTINGBURY and HAWSTEAD
(Horstead Field, xiv cent.). (fn. 61) The latter are now
included in Ampfield parish; Pucknall Farm is in the
north-west, Hiltingbury Common in the south-east,
and Hawstead in the east.
CHURCHES
The church of ALL SAINTS,
HURSLEY, has a chancel with north
and south chapels, a nave with north and
south aisles, and a western tower, all except the tower
being modern, and rebuilt by John Keble during his
long incumbency, 1836–66. The work is of fourteenthcentury style, but rather lifeless; the church owes its
picturesque effect rather to its situation than its architecture. The tower is of three stages, faced with
chequer work of flint and stone, the two lower stages
being old, and apparently of fifteenth-century date.
There is a pointed west doorway under a square head, with
what may be a consecration
cross on its south jamb, and
above the doorway is a squareheaded window of three cinquefoiled lights. The belfry
stage is modern, and from it
rises a stone spire.
Keble. Argent a cheveron engrailed gules and a chief azure with three molets or therein.
Two brasses are preserved
from the old church, one of
John Bowland, 1470, and
another of Anne Horswell,
1559, with a quaint inscription in English. In the
tower is a large monument to Mrs. Elizabeth Connell,
1731.
There are six bells: the first by Mears & Stainbank, 1880; second and third by W. Taylor, Oxford,
1835; the fourth bears the inscription 'Prayse God,
I W, 1616'; the fifth 'O Give thanks to God I W,
1616,' both by John Wallis of Salisbury; the sixth is
by Robert Cor of Aldbourne, 1713.
The plate is a silver-gilt set dating from 1841, consisting of a chalice, two patens, a large flagon, and an
almsdish.
The first five books of registers, containing mixed
entries, run as follows:—1600–39, 1640–53, 1653–66, 1665–1706, 1706–53. The sixth and seventh
books contain baptisms and burials, 1755–82, and the
eighth the same, 1783–1820. The ninth and tenth
contain marriages, 1754–1813.
The church of ST. MARK, AMPFIELD, was
built in 1838–40 by Sir W. Heathcote, bart., of blue
brick and stone. It consists of chancel, nave, north
transept, south aisle, porch and open octagonal western
turret with spire, containing two bells. The register
dates from 1841.
ADVOWSONS
The church of Hursley was in the
gift of the bishop of Winchester until
the beginning of the fourteenth century when John de Pontoise founded the college of St.
Elizabeth, Winchester. (fn. 62) This foundation led to the
ordination of the vicarage of Hursley, the rectory of
which was given by the bishop to the college. (fn. 63) The
grant of the appropriation of the church, which had
been made without the licence of Edward I, was confirmed to Richard de Bourne, the provost, and the
chaplains and clerks by Edward II in 1307. (fn. 64) Bishop
Edendon, when ratifying to the college the gift of
Hursley Church, (fn. 65) contrived to secure for himself and
his successors the rectory-house. (fn. 66) The possession of
the rectory was, however, restored to the provost and
chaplains by William of Wykeham in 1372, when the
college undertook to pay an additional annual pension
of 13s. 4d. to the bishop. (fn. 67) The provost and chaplains presented the vicars until the Dissolution, when
the advowson fell into the hands of the king. Edward VI granted it together with the manor of Merdon
to Sir Philip Hoby, (fn. 68) and from this time the advowson followed the descent of the manor. (fn. 69)
The living of St. Mark's, Ampfield, is a vicarage in
the gift of the Heathcote trustees.
CHARITIES
In 1720 Mrs. Wyndham left £20
in respect of which 20s a year was
distributed among the poor on St.
Thomas's Day.
By deed, 1817, the trusts of a sum of money were
declared which had been raised by subscription for
the purpose of providing a Sunday evening service
at the church. The fund was added to from time
to time, and is now represented by £1,224 18s. 8d.
consols.
In 1864 James Beckley, by will proved this date,
left £3,647 2s. 6d. consols to the rector and churchwardens, and directed that the income should be
applied weekly to five poor widows or widowers not
under the age of fifty-five, who receive 7s. 6d. a week
each.
In 1893 Emma Baker, by her will proved this date,
bequeathed a moiety of her residuary estate for the
benefit of the poor. A sum of £318 was received in
respect thereof, of which £300 was invested in
£301 16s. 9d. India £3 per cent. stock, the balance
being distributed among the poor together with the
income accruing on the stock.
The sums of stock belonging to the charities respectively are held by the Official Trustees of Charitable
Funds.