1827.] Public Charities. 3 



church of St. Bartholomew. The rents of these premises now amount to 

 [401. , and the lecturer actually gets the whole. The clergy certainly 

 either keep a better look-out, or are in better luck than their neigh- 

 bours. 



SOMERS' CHARITY. A. tenement in St. Dunstan's, East, value 31. per 

 annum, given to the company; 30s. for the performance of a yearly 

 obit; [2s. to twelve poor freemen of the company, and the remainder for 

 themselves. In the embarrassments of the Haberdashers, in the seven- 

 teenth century, the house appears to have been sold, and the payments to 

 the poor were consequently discontinued the obit, of course, long before. 

 The commissioners, who are very cautious of advancing an opinion, think, 

 however, in this case, the payments to the poor should be resumed ; and 

 the company accordingly express their willingness to pay 12s. into the 

 poor-box. Not a word of the arrears. Liberal souls ! 



PEACOCK'S CHARITY. In 1535 Sir Simon Peacock left to the company 

 lands, in the parish of St. Sepulchre, charged with 21. 17s. 4d. for cha- 

 ritable purposes : the original value does not appear. The premises have 

 been exchanged by the company. The rental of the present property 

 amounts to 721. [2s., and [11. 19s. 10^. is the sum annually paid of 

 which 8/. go to the debtors in Whitecross-street. 



BUCKLAND'S CHARITY. Twenty shillings to four poor members of the 

 company, 20s. to the churchwardens of St. Michael le Quern, and 20s. 

 to the poor of Shepperton which last sum has been discontinued since 

 1812. Why? These payments were charged on two houses in Pater- 

 noster-row, sold by the company, in 1675, for 150/., to pay their own 

 debts. But even 150/., at the usual rate of interest, produce 11. 10s. 

 On what principle, then, are three pounds, or rather two, now paid ? 



LADY BURGHLEY'S CHARITIES, 1583. Two hundred pounds to the 

 company, to pay 10/. a year to the poor of Cheshunt, and to maintain 

 four sermons. What has been done about the sermons does not appear : 

 the 10/. are paid to the churchwardens of Cheshunt. The same consi- 

 derate lady left 120/. to be lent to six persons of Romford (still lent) ; 

 and 80/. to be lent to six persons of Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, and Waltham 

 Abbey discontinued since 1670, and supposed to have been lost by 

 failure of securities. That was the company's concern : let them make 

 the loss good to the poor of Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, and Waltham 

 Abbey. 



FREE SCHOOL, BANBURY. For the support of this school, 130/. was 

 charged by the founder, Thomas Aldersey, on the tithes of certain parishes 

 in Cheshire, belonging to him. The charge is a specific sum; and, of 

 course, though the value of the said tithes has doubtless quadrupled, the 

 Aldersey family pay 1 30/., and no more. The purpose of the donor is, 

 however, obviously defeated. He must have meant the school to be kept up 

 in its original condition. He had calculated the sum requisite for carry- 

 ing his purposes into effect: that sum was 130/. ; and 130/. he accord- 

 ingly charged upon property which he knew would well bear the burden. 

 That sum was a third, or a fourth, or a fifth of the whole value of the 

 estate ; and, of course, with his views looking far into futurity had the 

 good man had any notion of the depreciation of money, or of the quibbles 

 of lawyers, or of the graspings of families, he would have charged his 

 estate, not, with a fixed sum, but with a third, or a fourth, or whatever 

 part of the whole the 1 30/, might be. The intent of the founder, we 



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