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HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Some have been lost.®* The most important used to 

 be the Edmund Molyneux bread charity, being the 

 profits of his estate at Canewdon in Essex.^* 



In the following notes the Report of the 1899 

 inquiry has been used ; in it is reprinted the Report 

 of 1829. 



Abram has certain lands, the rents of which are 

 devoted to charitable uses, and some minor bene- 

 factions.®* Pemberton also had some small chari- 

 ties." At Ince, linen, oatmeal, and gifts of money 

 were provided,®® but part of the fund is lost ; while 

 at AspuU of the two charities one survives.®® At 



<ii3tributed by the minister of the parish 

 church J in 1828 ^^3 ioj. was divided 

 among Wigan and the other townships 

 in the parish. 



Robert Sixsmith, by his will dated 

 1688, gave two closes in Wigan and one 

 in Ince, for the needy people of the town, 

 half the rents being applicable to schools. 

 In 1828 the nominal income was about 

 ^30 ; the usual practice was to give to 

 each poor person in the districts into 

 which the town was divided for distribu- 

 tion, so that from id, to u. was all that 

 each received. Gilbert Ford, in 1705, 

 left the moiety of a close at Wigan called 

 the Bannycrof t ; in 1828 the half-rent 

 amounted to ,^3, which was spent in 

 linen or flannel garments. 



In 1707 Ellen Wells left >^ioo for the 

 poor, and Richard Wells, her husband, 

 jCzoo for apprenticing boys ; Edward 

 Holt in 1704 bequeathed ;^i5o and £y^ 

 for oat bread or other sort for a Sunday 

 distribution of bread ; these sums and 

 other charitable funds were in 1768 used 

 in building a workhouse, and in 1828 

 j^27 6s, ^d. was paid to the churchwar- 

 dens out of the poor-rate as interest, 

 which was to be laid out according to the 

 wishes of the donors in linen, apprentic- 

 ing boys, doles of bread, and school fees. 

 An inquiry respecting the Wells charity 

 is printed in Local Glean . Lanes, and 

 Ches, ii, 143. 



John Baldwin, in 1720 left closes called 

 Barker's Croft and Pilly Toft, charged 

 with the payment of ;^ioo, which had 

 been entrusted to him by Orlando Bridge- 

 man for apprenticing two boys each year ; 

 j^3 a year was still paid in 1 828, 

 William Brown in 1724 augmented a 

 bread charity founded by his uncle George 

 Brown ; and ^^2 a year was paid by the 

 owner of a farm in Poolstock as interest, 

 and laid out in bread. 



Ellen Willis, widow, by her will of 

 1726 left a bond for £100 to her sons 

 Thomas and Daniel Willis, as trustees, 

 and added another ^Tioo ; Margaret 

 Diggles, widow, gave j^ioo also ; and in 

 1737, Daniel Willis, the surviving son, and 

 William Hulton, conveyed to trustees 

 closes called the Page fields in Frog 

 Lane, Wigan ; two-thirds of the interest 

 was to be spent in clothing for poor per- 

 sons * frequenting the communion of the 

 Lord's Supper in the parish church of 

 Wigan,' while the other third might be 

 used for apprenticing boys. In 1828 the 

 rental amounted to about ^^42, which was 

 distributed with the Sixsmith and Guest 

 charities. 



Thomas Mort of Damhousc, in 1729 

 gave money for the Throstle Nests or 

 Baron's fields, near Gidlow Lane, the 

 interest to be spent in binding children as 

 apprentices. The rent in 1828 was £16, 

 but the trustee being in difficulties, a con- 

 siderable sum was in arrears. John Hard- 

 man in 1742 left ;^200 to found a clothing 

 chanty, and ^^9 10s. a year was available 

 in 1828, being spent on woollen coats and 

 cloaks distributed by the curate of Wigan. 



James Molyneux, by his will of 1706, 

 left his lands of inheritance, as also a 

 leasehold messuage in the Wiend, until 

 j^ioo should accrue from the rents to 



found a charity for the poor, or for ap- 

 prenticing boys. The money was not 

 paid, but in 1757 Richard Barry, son and 

 executor of Lord Barrymore, who had 

 given a bond for the execution of the 

 will, gave Houghton House and another 

 burgage in Wigan to the corporation to 

 fulfil the trust. The lands were leased 

 for 1000 years, bringing in total rents of 

 j^ii 55.5 but the buildings upon them, 

 including tbe Woolpack Inn, were worth 

 over ;^ioo a year in 1828. Philippa 

 Pennington in 1758 gave ;^20o to found 

 two charities, one for the poor generally, 

 the other for apprenticing boys in Stan- 

 dishgate ; this seems to have been intact 

 in 1828. 



In 1899 the following changes were 

 reported in some of the charities named, 



John Guest's Charity : — The rent- 

 charge on Bolton House has been re- 

 deemed, and ;^i4o consols produces the 

 income required for the charity. 



Holt's Charity : — The workhouse hav- 

 ing been sold ^^302 was invested in 

 consols as the share of this charity. The 

 income was practically unused, and has 

 recently been applied to found exhibitions 

 for poor boys in the grammar school. 



■^* John Bullock left a rent-charge of ^^5 

 a year on premises in St. Dunstan's in 

 the East, and St. Botolph's to the cor- 

 poration of Wigan for the poor ; but in 

 1828 no information could be obtained. 

 Ralph Sale in 1722 bequeathed to his 

 wife Hannah a burgage in Wigan, on 

 which, after paying 20j. as lord's rent and 

 four groats as chief rent to the rector, he 

 charged loj. a year for the poor. His 

 widow gave jQiS, the messuage being 

 chargeable. In 1828 the Charity Com- 

 missioners could not find which the pre- 

 mises were ; only one house in Wallgate 

 paid four groats to the rector, and the 

 owner, Sir R. H. Leigh, was not aware of 

 any charge of that kind upon it. John 

 Baldwin, brother of Thomas Baldwin, 

 rector of Liverpool, by his will of 1726, 

 charged his house with ^^3 a year for the 

 apprenticing of a child ; but no informa- 

 tion as to the premises or the charity was 

 forthcoming in 1828. Robert Forth in 

 1761 left a charge of 205. for the purchase 

 of religious books for the poor ; up to 

 December, 18 16 this sum had been yearly 

 paid to a Wigan bookseller for the purpose 

 named, but in 1828 nothing could be 

 ascertained as to who was liable. Anne 

 Lyon in 1803 left ^40 for the poor j but 

 the acting executor died insolvent, and the 

 money was lost. 



^^ Edmund Molyneux was a citizen of 

 London, whose will was dated 8 October 

 1613 ; sixty poor people at Wigan and 

 thirty at Upholland were to have each a 

 penny loaf every Sunday. In 1828 it 

 was producing ,^55 a year, and the in- 

 terest was distributed in bread. 



A new scheme was approved in 1889, 

 by which the net income is applied for 

 the benefit of schools at Wigan and Up- 

 holland. Owing to agricultural depres- 

 sion the net income has fallen very much, 

 being at best only ^^9 a year. 



9S Abigail Crook gave ^f 1 2, Thomas Ince 

 jf4o, and others various sums, so that 

 ^^95 was laid out in lands, on which a 



66 



sclioolhouse and cottages had been erected, 

 producing ^i8 a year in 1825, laid out 

 in linen and blankets. The trustees 

 of Thomas Crook distributed £1 a year 

 from his foundation in accordance with 

 their father's will ; and 6s. 6d, was re- 

 ceived for woollen cloth as the interest of 

 j^io left by William Newton in 1724. 



Elizabeth Bevan of Lowton, widow, 

 left ;£'70o in 1 8 3 3 for a church and school 

 in Abram, and the Rev. Nicholas Robin- 

 son in 1 8 3 9 left ;^20 for the Sunday school. 

 Frances Elizabeth Chadwick in 1878 be- 

 queathed ;^20o for the benefit of the poor. 



Dissatisfaction existing as to the ad- 

 ministration of the older charities a 

 scheme was prepared in 1877, and a new 

 one was made in 1897, under which the 

 charities are administered by the same 

 body of trustees, who have greater liberty 

 in the application of the income, which 

 now amounts to ;^ii4 a year. 



^ Thomas Molyneux gave ,^20 and 

 James Rainford ^^lo for the benefit 

 of the poor j the money was devoted to 

 building the school, and30j. a year was in 

 1828 paid out of the rates and given to 

 the poor in sums of 6d. to each, a * use- 

 less mode of distribution.' Similarly ^^5, 

 arising from ;f 100 given by James Kitts, 

 was distributed in sums of is. each, 

 William Worthington's gift of ^10 had 

 been lost, Molyneux's and Rainford's 

 benefactions have since 1829 been lost, 

 and Kitts* is applied improperly — to the 

 benefit of the schools. 



The Rev. Joshua Paley in 1849 left 

 ^1,000 for the endowment of the church, 

 but the greater part was lost in 1886 by 

 the bankruptcy of a solicitor ; j^200 re- 

 mains, the interest of which is applied to 

 the schools, and a ground rent of 

 £() \6s. zd. applied to the choir. Pem- 

 berton also shares in the Algernon Eger- 

 ton Memorial Fund, 



'* John Walmesley, by his will of 1726, 

 gave jQioo to his son John and others to 

 purchase a rent-charge or estate, the in- 

 come to be spent on linen for the poor, 

 Edward Richardson directed that for fifty 

 years after his death five loads of oatmeal 

 should be given to the poor, and this was 

 •till in operation in 1828. Mary Collier 

 in 1684 left ,^20, for which it was con- 

 jectured 20s. a year had been given by 

 a Mrs. Anderton, though this her son re- 

 garded as a voluntary gift. Peter Whittle 

 in 1727 bequeathed 40J. out of his mes- 

 suage in Ince ; £2 los. had for long been 

 received out of a close called Fillyhey, but 

 for some years before 182S Mr, Legh's 

 agent had refused to pay. 



In 1899 it was found that the Walmes- 

 ley charity had been in existence as late 

 as 1863. For the Whittle charity £z is 

 still paid by Lord Newton out of Rothwell's 

 or the manor-house estate, and is distri- 

 buted by the overseers to the poor. 



" Houghton's charity was a charge of 

 £} upon an estate called Kirk Lees ; it 

 was in 1828 given in doles of is. each. 

 James Hodkinson's benefaction produced 

 los. a year, given in money or calico. 



In 1899 'he rent-charge of ^5 out of 

 Kirk Lees was still paid and distributed to 

 the poor ; the ^10 belonging to Hodkin. 

 son's charity had disappeared since 1863. 



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