Chap. 5.] TOPOGRAPHY AND AGRICULTURE. 127 



CHAEITIES OF GBEGSON AND ECCLE8. 



Thomas Gregson, by will bearing date 28tli December, 1 742, charged 

 a messuage and tenement in Alston, containing by estimation 27^- 

 acres, which he gave to Thorn is Eceles, his nephew and his heir, and 

 a leasehold tenement, held under Sir Henry Hoghton, with the pay- 

 ment, amongst other legacies, of £10 to his executors, which he directed 

 to be put out at interest, and that the interest should be applied yearly 

 by them and the survivor, and their heirs, executors, and adminis- 

 trators, for ever, toward clothing such of the poor of Alston as his 

 executors should think proper. 



The said Thomas Eceles, by will bearing date 7th March, 1777, gave 

 to his brother, Edmund Eceles, and his eldest son, Seth Eceles, and 

 the survivor, and the heirs of such survivor, his freehold estate, then 

 in his possession, containing 26 acres, after the decease of his wife, to 

 the use of his son Thomas, and his heirs, charged upon the said 

 Thomas's coming of age with the payment of £10, the interest of 

 which he directed should be applied for ever towards clothing such of 

 the poor of Alston as his executors and the survivor of them shall think 

 proper. It is supposed that this was only intended as a confirmation 

 of the former gift of £10. 



Thomas Eceles, the devisee imder the last-mentioned will, was a 

 cotton spinner, and failed in business, and this estate was sold by his 

 assignees to Seth Eceles, the present proprietor. It does not appear 

 that the £10 was ever paid, or that anything has ever been given to 

 the poor in respect thereof, and as both wills bear date subsequently 

 to the passing of the statute of 9 Geo. II., c. 36, the gift seems to be 

 irrecoverable. 



berry's chaeity. 



The following account of the gift of James Berry was obtained from 

 Thomas Eceles, now living at Alston : — ' 



"James Berry, of Alston, in his life-time, gave to Seth Eceles, of 

 Alston, tanner, the sum of £200, then in the Preston bank, in or about 

 the year 1803, with this verbal injunction, ' that he should distribute 

 the yearly interest amongst such poor and distressed people as he, in 

 his discretion, should consider as objects of charity.' 



'Now old, of course. 



