OTHER CHARITIES (fn. 7)
The number of endowed charities in Cambridge
is large, and the following account does not purport
to contain more than a summary description of some
of the more notable types of trust. (fn. 8) In particular, no
attempt has been made to deal with the many modern
institutions or societies for social and charitable
work which hold property on charitable trusts. The
majority of charities in Cambridge have been simple
eleemosynary ones for the poor of the Borough or
of one parish. Sermon charities were sometimes
attached to them. A number of charities for the poor
of the Borough in general seem to have been lost, in
some cases certainly by the negligence of the Corporation, well before the 19th century. There were several
coals charities, all of which seem to have been distributed very indiscriminately in 1836, the coals in
some cases being left at the church doors to be collected by anyone who chose. Some charities provided for payments or dinners for officials, and these
provisions often seem to have been liberally interpreted until municipal reform. Most of these charities are now paid to the inmates of the almshouses
maintained by the Municipal Charities or given in
cash to general charitable purposes. In accordance
with its statutes Trinity College distributed small
doles for the poor of certain Cambridge parishes
until the late 19th century. By then further payments, for the repair of roads, had long been discontinued, and the payments to the poor had long fallen
short of the original £13. 6s. 8d.
Of the parishes, All Saints in 1951 enjoyed one
charity for a sermon and five for the poor, the earliest
dating from 1588 and the rest from the 18th century.
The total income for the poor was £520 in 1952. In
1836 some embarrassment to the trustees of the
richest charity (Susannah Forrester's, founded 1726)
was caused by persons who came to the parish
especially to qualify for it. Holy Trinity parish has
Wray's almshouses and several small charities for the
poor dating from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
In 1836 the Charity Commissioners commented
that the indiscriminate distribution of one of them
seemed to be worse than useless. Three charities in
St. Andrew the Great parish were lost by 1836, two
apparently because the principal was lent and never
returned. The five surviving charities for the poor
date from the 19th and 20th centuries and produced
just over £50 in 1950. St. Andrew the Less parish
has five charities, all established in the 20th century,
which produced about £65 for the sick poor in the
year 1952–3. St. Bene't's parish has two charities,
established in the 16th and 19th centuries, which
produced just under £7 for the poor in 1950. Another, for loans, was being left to accumulate, while
a fourth was lost by 1836. St. Botolph's parish has
four charities, founded between 1563 and 1706,
whose income was distributed in bread and coals in
1836 and in cash in 1952, when it amounted to £9.
St. Clement's has five charities for the poor, and two
more were lost by 1836. All were founded in the
16th and 17th centuries. The surviving ones were
distributed indiscriminately to the poor in 1836; in
1948 they were given away in bread, coals, and doles
of a few shillings each. St. Edward's has six charities
for the poor, one dating from 1612 and the others
from the 18th and 19th centuries. They were mostly
distributed indiscriminately in 1836, and in 1952
£24 was given away in cash to eight persons and
£39 was given to charitable organizations. In St.
Giles's parish Bridgman's charity, founded in the
18th century, provided the parish workhouse for
some years, and was later used to relieve the rates.
Another charity, of 1815, provided a subscription to
Addenbrooke's Hospital for the parish; the proceeds
are now given to the hospital each year. There are
three other charities, which, with Bridgman's, pro-
duced about £95 for pensions to the poor in 1950, and
one small 17th-century charity which applies only to
the part of the parish which used to be the separate
parish of St. Peter. As well as Jackenett's almshouses and eight legacies which are appropriated to
them, St. Mary the Great formerly had two charities
for the poor which were lost by the 19th century.
St. Mary the Less had apparently lost two or three
charities by 1836; it still has an 18th-century sermon
charity and a 19th-century charity for relief in kind.
There was one apprenticing charity, founded in
1684, under which in the 19th century the children
were bound to masters in other parishes so that they
would gain settlements outside St. Mary the Less.
St. Michael's parish has five charities which were
founded between 1666 and 1820 for bread and coals
to be given to the poor. They produced just over
£20 in 1952, but none of this was spent. One of them
was designed partly for an almshouse and in fact
provided the parish workhouse for some time. A
sixth was lost during the 19th century. There is only
one charity for the poor in St. Paul's parish and in
1952 its income had apparently only once been used
since its foundation in 1904. Although seven charities
appear to have been left to the poor of St. Sepulchre's
parish between 1544 and 1785, all but one for coals
were lost by 1836.
Among the trusts founded for purposes other than
the direct relief of poverty were several charities for
the lending of money to young or poor tradesmen, in
some cases without payment of interest. They seem
to have been peculiarly liable to embezzlement.
Thomas Johnson's gift, by will dated 1563, had
been lost long before 1836 and the Borough records
then apparently contained an old note: 'Accursed
let that Mayor be that spent this £50.' Under Sir
Thomas White's charity, which was founded in
1566, Cambridge received £104 for loans every
24 years. In 1833 a suit was brought in Chancery
whereby it appeared that the Corporation had received £5,240 between 1592 and 1833 and had
accounted for only £4,450. As a result of the suit the
difference was repaid with interest. The unreformed
Corporation received a last payment in 1835, after
the suit had begun. Public notice was given for the
first time and two of the £25 loans were made to
young tradesmen, in accordance with the terms of
the trust, but the other two loans were made to
Borough bailiffs, one of whom was a musician over 40
years old. Since 1914 any unspent income is payable
in other charitable ways and no loans appear to have
been made for some time. Cambridge also shared in
John Crane's bequest for loans and gifts which he
made to several towns in his will dated 1651. Only
seven loans were made in Cambridge between 1701
and 1817. About 1822, when a movement was started
to compel the Corporation to observe the trusts, it
appeared that many members of the Corporation
were entirely ignorant of them. Arrears since 1816
were accordingly paid, and from then on the income
was given away to the poor more or less in accordance with the donor's will, while £200 capital was
duly used for loans at least until 1836. The income
appeared in 1951 to be used in general charitable
purposes, and no loans were apparently made. Three
other 17th-century legacies for loans appear to have
been spent by the Corporation or otherwise lost by
the end of the century. A loans charity, founded by
Elizabeth Goodall (d. 1813), still survived in 1951,
but though repayments of loans were made in that
year no new ones appear to have been made by 1953.
A £5 loans charity founded in St. Bene't's parish in
1673 never appears to have been used for that purpose since it was apparently not applied for.
Charities were endowed for the making or maintenance of causeways by Henry Harvey (d. 1585),
Master of Trinity Hall, Stephen Perse (d. 1615), and
William Worts (d. 1709). (fn. 9) Harvey in his lifetime
built a causeway from Paper Mills to Quy and left
money to Trinity Hall for its maintenance, (fn. 10) but no
later information about the administration of this
charity has been found. Perse's will provided for the
building of a causeway from Jesus Lane to Dr.
Harvey's causeway. (fn. 11) In 1841 the yearly sum to be
set aside for the maintenance of the causeway from
the endowment of all Perse's charities was raised
from £10 to £20. (fn. 12) None of this was spent in 1935.
William Worts endowed several charities including
one for the making and maintenance of a causeway
from Emmanuel College to the Gogmagog Hills.
The causeway formed the main road as far as the
Red Cross, whence it ran east to the hills. Until 1882
the trustees employed a surveyor to look after it
though the part inside the Borough was repaired by the
Improvement Commissioners. The income of £40 a
year is now paid to the appropriate local authorities.