1827.] Public Charities. 355 



be is of course unknown. One hundred boys are boarded, clothed, and 

 educated. Chatterton was brought up in this school. It is classed by the 

 Commissioners under the corporation trusts ; but it does not appear that 

 they have any thing to do with it. 



TEMPLE STRKET SCHOOL. The same munificent Edward Colston left 

 the only funds by which this drooping school is supported. Till 1711 it 

 was maintained solely by voluntary subscription, when Mr. Colston erected 

 the present school and dwelling-house, and endowed it with an annuity of 

 80/., charged on the manor of Toomer, in the parish of Hensbridge, in 

 Somersetshire. This sum was then found sufficient for clothing and edu- 

 cating forty boys ; and even now thirty are clothed and instructed, with a 

 balance of 31. 13s. Gd. still remaining. Let the efforts of the City grammar- 

 school be compared with this. There, with an endowment of 590 acres of 

 land, four boys, sometimes five, are educated, at least with the additional 

 payment, on the part of the parents, of 51. 10s. each: here thirty boys are 

 educated and also clothed for less than 80/. Surely the corporation might 

 turn over some of the enormous surplus to the Temple-street school, and at 

 least keep up Mr. Colston's number of forty. 



TEMPLE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. This school was instituted about a cen- 

 tury ago, and was supported by voluntary contributions till 1798, when the 

 ample amount of the funds, from donations and legacies, rendered farther 

 subscriptions unnecessary. By subsequent gifts, the funds have been 

 increased to 1,750., five per cents.; and a legacy of 100/. still remained 

 to be paid. In J 797, an old house and a piece of freehold ground were 

 purchased. The house was pulled down, and the present school built on 

 the site of it. Forty girls are entirely clothed and educated. 



TRINITY HOSPITAL. This is a very ancient institution, the origin of 

 which is involved in obscurity. The corporation are in possession of a 

 charter believed to be of Henry V. ; but the words are too much obliterated 

 to determine which Henry. It appears to recite a previous grant by the 

 predecessor of the reigning sovereign, to one John Barnstaple, empowering 

 him to erect, in the suburbs of Bristol, a perpetual hospital, and the 

 grantees to take the profits of lands and other possessions to them and 

 their successors for ever. A regular series of conveyances brings the pro- 

 perty to the corporation. Considerable additions have been made to the 

 funds ; the total income of which now amounts to 789/. ids. %d. Ten 

 men and thirty-six women receive each five shillings a week, making 598/. : 

 the average expenditure is 6471. 4*. 7d. The hospital consists of twa 

 buildings on the north and south side of the old market place. 



FOSTER'S ALMSHOUSE, founded 1492. John Foster, a merchant of 

 Bristol, directed his executor to find a priest daily to sing in the chapel of 

 his almshouse in Stepe-street, for twelve years, for his soul and the souls of 

 his family ; and distribute 2*. 2d. for forty years after his decease among- 

 the poor of the said almshouse. The lands vested in feoffees for the 

 endowment consist of several houses in the city, the rent of which, together 

 with some fee-farm rents, now amount to 333/. 1 6y. 4d. The alrashouse 

 consists of fourteen apartments, each of which, we suppose, is occupied ; 

 and each occupant has 4*. a week, and half a ton of coals at Christmas, 

 with 4*. extra at Christmas, and 5*. at Easter and Whitsuntide, divided 

 among them. The bailiff of the corporation inspects the institution, and 

 has fifty guineas per annum nearly one-sixth of the whole establish- 

 ment. 



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