Catalogue description Records of Wadhurst United Charities

The various parish charities of Wadhurst were amalgamated under a single group of trustees by a charity commission order of 11 January 1898 (AMS5813/44 below). There is some evidence (AMS5813/25, 26-43 below) that an amalgamation between the trustees of fowle's and Whitfield's charities had already taken place in 1889. In 1905 the Barham (Educational) charity merged with the United Charities and in 1966 a joint committee with the trustees of the Mullins Memorial Fund was established. The documents which form this deposit consist almost entirely of the records of Whitfield's charity and begin with a settlement of 1580 which itself recites back to 1517. The endowment of the charity, established by deed of 1623 (5 below), consisted of three cottages at Wadhurst and an annuity of £10 charges on John Whitfield's ironworks at Rowfant in Worth

For annual accounts, 1901 - 1954, see CHC 77/2

Records deposited by the trustees of Wadhurst United Charities 12 May 1980 (ACC 2550)