Catalogue description LAMBETH CHARITIES

Charity administrative records

Hayle's Charity, Lambeth, Surrey

Walcot Charity, Lambeth, Surrey

Major Lawrence's Charity, Lambeth, Surrey

Lambeth Boys' Charity School, Lambeth, Surrey

Lambeth Boys' Parochial School

Richard Robert's Charity, Lambeth, Surrey

Lambeth United Charities, Surrey

Mary Kershaw, d c1849, of Lambeth, Surrey

These records were donated by the Trustees of the Hayle's Charity, one of the most important of the many charities set up for the benefit of the inhabitants of the parish of Lambeth. It does not however, consist only of Hayle's Charity records., but contains in addition records of the Walcot Charity and several lesser charities. Of these the most significant are Major Lawrence's whose history was closely linked with the Parochial Boys' School, and United Charities, formed in 1893 by the combination of several lesser bequests, including Sir Noel Caron's Almshouses.

Many of the charitable bequests were very small, and the reports on Lambeth by the Commissioners appointed under 58 Geo.III c.91 and 5 Geo.IV c.58 to investigate charities in England and Wales, which appeared in 1819, 1820, 1826, indicate a certain slackness on the part of those supposed to administer the trusts, who usually included the Rector and churchwardens of the parish. A vestry committee recommended in 1846 that an application should be made to Parliament for Trustees to have their legal ownership perpetuated and be made the only persons competent to distribute funds. Although in 1869 it was stated that 'The vestry has no interest in, nor any control over, the charity funds of this parish, 'it nevertheless possessed sufficient interest to vote that Commissioner Hare's report of that year on the Lambeth Charities should be published, and from 1893, when a new scheme for the amalgamation and administration of the smaller charities was drawn up, the accounts of Hayle's, Walcot and United Charities appeared in the annual vestry reports.

Under the 1893 scheme of the Charity Commissioners, 26 small charities, the majority of them with incomes of less than £50 p.a., were administered by a single body of Trustees (the Rector of Lambeth ex officio, 8 elected and 4 co-optative) as United Charities. 4 of these were consolidated as the Noel Caron Almshouses and 13 as the Consolidated Charities. At least two thirds of the net yearly income, after specific applications, was to be used for pensions.

HAYLE'S

Hayle's Charity was founded in December 1671 when Robert and Ann Hayle granted 6 Acre Piece in the parish of St George the Martyr, Southwark, to then rector and churchwardens of Lambeth and 6 others, for £300. The profits were to be used for the relief of the poor of Lambeth. In 1822, however, a petition was presented to Chancery (this was until 1860 the only means of varying a charitable trust) stating that there was no scheme for the application of the income but the money had been paid out at the whim of the Rector and churchwardens and requesting a scheme for the future regulation of the charity. This was drawn up and confirmed in January 1823. The recipients of the charity, to be elected by the Trustees, were to be housekeepers ortheir widows residing in the parish of Lambeth who received no parish relief. Proper accounts were to be kept. A new scheme was confirmed in 1853 which required, among other things, the submission of these accounts to the Court, but this requirement was dispensed with in 1891. Under the 1853 scheme, there were 17 trustees, the Rector and churchwardens ex officio and twelve elected by the vestry, one to represent each of the ecclesiastical districts into which the parish was subdivided (see appendix). Each district was run by an adminstering body consisting of its incumbent and churchwarden and the elected trustee and in the case of the original parish church district by the Rector and churchwardens. Once a year the adminstering bodies met as the aggregate body, in addition to the regular meetings of the Trustees. A clerk and receiver were appointed, the latter paid by commission.

The annual income was to be spent as follow:

Medical relief £863 4s, of which £450 was to go to the Royal Infirmary for children in Waterloo Road.

Pensions £436 16s, to be distributed to 28 pensioners.

School Up to £600 (first charge on residue after payment of medical relief and pensions).

Apprenticeship fees Up to £200 (second charge on residue).

Apart from the £450 to the Infirmary the money was divided among the ecclestiastical districts in a fixed proportion, but as new parishes were carved out of the original districts they usually received some share their 'mother' district's allocation. When St John and All Saints were combined following the amalgamation of the ecclesiastical districts, All Saints retained its sparate Trustee, although the Vicar and churchwardens of St John's were now on its adminstering body, and the All Saint's share of the combined income was used exclusively for the benefit of the old All Saints district.

Between 1887 and 1895 the Trustees, assisted by loans from the Public Works Loan Commissioners, erected 3 blocks of housing, known as Hayle's Buildings, between St George's Road and Elliott's Row. In 1897 a further block in Hayle Street was begun. The rooms were let to artisans at a low rate.

1925 saw yet another Charity Commissioners scheme. The 12 representative Trustees were now elected from the parliamentary divisions rather than the parishes and 10% of the gross income of the charity had to go to an extraordinary repair fund. The balance was to be used primarily for medical relief.

The records largely reflect the 1853 organisation into districts, with separate minute books, cash books and receipt books for each administering body, although none of these series is complete. They have been sorted according to the number allocated by the Commissioners to each district (see appendix). 1856 is the commonest starting date, suggesting that it took time for the 1853 organisation to come into effect. In spite of the amalgamation of its ecclesiastical district with St John in 1900, All Saints appears to have preserved separate records at least until 1904, but this was probably administratively convenient since the income was still reserved to the All Saints District.

WALCOT

The Walcot Charity dates from 1667, when Edmund Walcot left 18 acres of land equally between St Mary Lambeth and St Olave Southwark for the benefit of the poor and needy. There were various exchanges and apportionments between the parishes but an act of 1828 made a definitive division and vested the Lambeth part in the Rector and churchwardens. In 1853 a scheme was drawn up which allotted the income in various proportions to the various ecclesiastical districts as for Hayle's Charity. It was to be spent on pensions and education. A separate Educational Foundation was eventually set up and in 1908 the Board of Education set up its own scheme for a portion of this. In future it was to be called the Walcot Residuary Educational Fund and administered by Governors. £630 p.a. went to voluntary public elementary school. Two sevenths of the residue was given to Girl's Public School to be established in the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth with the support of the Parochial School Foundation. The remainder was to be given to the Trustees of a newly established Technical Fund to provide exhibitions and enable young people to continue their education.

The records are very similar to those of Hayle's Charity, although the district books have not survived so well. There is a clear distinction between the Trustees' records and those concerned with the running of the estate. One interesting point, however, is that the districts appear to have maintained their own records after 1925 to a greater extent than Hayle's Charity. This is confirmed by a study of the records in the Greater London Record Office.

As with Hayle's Charity, the creation of new districts caused some difficulty. A minute book now in the G L R O (P85/MTW/103) describes an obviously acrimonious meeting at which the incumbents of St John's Angell Town and Tulse Hill claimed a share of the money allotted to St Matthew Brixton. The dispute was finally settled by allowing Angell Town to make one nomination in four to pensions and Tulse Hill one nomination in ten.

The records of the other charities are not so well represented. Those of Major Lawrence's have survived best.

MAJOR LAWRENCE'S

In 1661 Richard Lawrence left 6 houses in Dog House Field to the parish, 1 to be used as a free school for 20 boys and the rent from the other 5 to be used for expenses. In 1753 the subscribers to the Parochial School, founded in 1708, built a new school on the Dog House Field site and the Lawrence boys were educated there. This school was rebuilt in 1814. In 1838 a scheme was drawn up in Chancery whereby 10 boys from Lambeth Marsh at the Parochial School and 10 at St John's School, Waterloo, were educated and clothed at the charity's expense. any surplus income going to the respective masters. The boys were also eligible for apprenticeship fees under another charity. In 1847 the estate was sold to the London and South-Western Railway Company, who rebuilt the school elsewhere and reconveyed some of the lease to the Trustees with the addition of a railway arch.

MARY KERSHAW

(IV/108/3/13) Mary Kershaw in a will of December 1849 left £200 to the Rector and churchwardens for the relief of the poor. This was invested and the dividends distributed in 5s money tickets. This was one of the charities that under the 1893 scheme was grouped with Consolidated Charities.

RICHARD ROBERTS charity was also amalgamated in 1893. In 1807 he had made over £200 to the Rector for paying minster, clerk and sexton to hold an early celebration of Holy Communion on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

IV/108/3/14 is not definitely identified but is probably the minute book of Archbishop Tenison's Girls' School. This was founded in 1706, and in 1787 a subscription was raised to found in addition a Parochial Girls's School While this was being built, 30 girls were sent to Archbishop Tenison's.. A new building for the joint use of both schools was erected in 1817 and 1824 the Tenison Trustees coffered to support the Parochial School girls so that the parochial subscriptions could be used to provide parochial schools in Waterloo and Norwood.

Because of the frequent involvement of the Rector and other incumbents, together with their churchwardens as ex officio trustees, records of Lambeth charities are also to be found with the parish records, which are in the Greater London Record Office, at County Hall.

This is also the case with the school records (see A/ATG for Archbishop Tenison's Girls's School and A/LPB for the Parochial Boys' School and Major Lawrences.). They appear under the relevant ecclesiastical district. St Matthew's Brixton has several items and All Saints, Holy Trinity, St Andrew's, St Barnabas, St Matthew Denmark Hill and St Michael are also represented, mostly by Walcot records. Other material, relating to the Walcot Charity in particular, is to be found in the Archives Department in class P/4.

Deposited October 1979

Acc No R62807

APPENDIX LIST OF DISTRICTS

1. St Mary, Lambeth-remainder of original parish.

2. St Mary's Princes Road.

3. Trinity Church.

4. St John, Waterloo.

5. All Saints.

6. St Thomas'.

7. St Andrew's.

8. St Mark's Kennington.

9. St Michael's.

10 St Barnabas'.

11. St Matthew's, Brixton.

12. St Matthew's, Denmark Hill.

13. St Luke's, Norwood.

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