A HISTORY OF DORSET 



legacy of ^Tio from a husbandman for the same purpose.^^^ In the case of 

 Lady Dorothy Gorges, who died in 1649, the large sum of ^^150 was be- 

 queathed to the poor of Gussage/" Sometimes a certain class of poor person 

 was favoured, as when Sir Samuel Mico left the interest on ;C500 ' partly to a 

 sermon, partly to poor decayed seamen of Weymouth ' who possessed the 

 qualifications of sixty years of age or upwards, and having been present ' at the 

 hearing of the sermon.' ^" 



If these bequests had been duly carried out there would probably have 

 been no record of their existence. But it was easy enough for the heirs and 

 executors to appropriate such bequests when the judicial system was not so 

 good as it is at the present day, and, above all, the means of communication 

 between different parts of the country slow and very expensive. Lawsuits 

 were the luxury of the rich man who had both time and money at his disposal. 

 It was probably counting upon these advantages that the son of that Lord 

 Mountjoy who built the almshouses at Wimborne thought it worth while to 

 retain ^12 out of the interest of the endowment.^" Sir Edmund Uvedale's 

 brother and heir probably thought that he was safe in appropriating the pro- 

 perty bequeathed for the maintenance of the almshouse at Corfe Castle."' 



Government did take measures to protect the poor by means of com- 

 missioners, the scope of whose inquiries shows the different classes of persons 

 who benefited by charitable bequests. There was to be an examination into 



all moneys, &c., left in trust for the relief of aged, impotent, and poor people, maintenance of 

 sick and maimed soldiers or mariners, of schools, &c., repair of bridges, ports, havens, cause- 

 ways, churches, seabanks, or highways, education or preferment of orphans, relief, stock, or 

 maintenance of houses of correction, marriages of poor maids, supportation, aid, or help of 

 young tradesmen, handicraftsmen, or persons decayed, relief or redemption of prisoners 

 or captives, or aid or ease of other poor inhabitants concerning payment of fifteenths, setting 

 out of soldiers, or other taxes, in any parish, town, or place in the county of Dorset, and any 

 breaches of trust, &c.''' 



But these inquisitions were not too frequent. The first on record was held at 

 Blandford in 1623, and it was only then shown up that the 'John Mathewe 

 legacy had not been paid for the last twenty-four years.' "* There was 

 an inquest taken at Dorchester in 1677, when it was discovered that the 

 'John Browne ' bequest to the poor had been appropriated by the executors. 

 The next recorded inquest at Dorchester was in 1709, when it was proved that 

 the poor of Buckland Newton had been deprived of their funds for the last 

 seventeen years. As to the poor of Gussage they had never received any money 

 on the death of Lady Dorothy Gorges, and no inquiry appears to have been made 

 until 1676, twenty-seven years after her death. The court made an order 

 that it should be paid to the churchwardens. But still this was no guarantee 

 that the poor of Gussage received the bequest. If the heirs and executors 

 honestly fulfilled a charitable trust the poor still ran the chance of being de- 

 frauded by the churchwardens or corporation on whom the trust eventually 

 devolved. In the case of the ' Buckland Newton ' charity the churchwarden 

 trustees embraced the opportunity to repair the church. The corporation of 

 Weymouth behaved no better with the legacy of Sir Samuel Mico. They 

 ouo;ht to have put out thirty-three apprentices in eleven years, but they only 



'" Petty Bag : Proceedings of Commissioners for Charitable Uses, bdlc. 51, No. 7. 



'" Ibid. bdle. 28, No. 19. '" Ibid. bdle. 48, No. I. '" Ibid. bdle. 10, No. 2. 



'^ Ibid. '" Ibid. bdle. 27, No. 5. "» Ibid. bdle. 10, No. 2. 



2SO 



