How to look for records of... Land and property for charitable use: trust deeds, 1736-1963

2. Understanding charitable status and trust deeds

A trust is created when legal ownership of some form of property (e.g. land or money) is given to an individual or individuals (the trustee or trustees) for the benefit of others (the beneficiary or beneficiaries).

The trust deed (sometimes referred to as an indenture or a declaration of trust) is the formal document which creates the trust. It specifies:

• Who is giving the property – the grantor
• The property being given – the trust property
• Who the trustees are
• The purpose and/or object for which the property is given
• The conditions upon which the property is given

Generally, the law does not permit trusts to be created for purposes rather than people. Charitable trusts are an exception to this rule. They are trusts created for the public benefit. They advance education or religion, relieve poverty, or promote other purposes beneficial to the community.

3. An introduction to the records held at The National Archives

To understand where to find charitable trust deeds within our collections, it is helpful to understand the legislative regimes under which they were created or recorded. In consequence of these, copies of charitable trust deeds are generally located in the records of one or more of the following:

• The Court of Chancery – later the Supreme Court of Judicature
• The Charity Commission
• For trusts relating to school and education, the Education Department

3.1 Charitable trust deeds in the records of the Court of Chancery and Supreme Court of Judicature

The Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act 1736 required that conveyances of land or other assets in trust for charitable purposes should be executed by deed and enrolled within six months with the Court of Chancery. The resulting records are located in the Chancery Close Rolls, and later in the enrolment books of the Supreme Court of Judicature as follows:

• 1736 – 1903: See record series C 54. (For advice on searching see Section 4).
• 1903 onwards: See record series J 18. (For advice on searching see Section 5).

3.2 Charitable trust deeds in the records of the Charity Commission

From 1855 charitable trust deeds could also, further to the Charitable Trusts Amendment Act 1855, be enrolled in the records of the Charity Commissioners.

From 1888 trust deeds for certain types of charities could be enrolled either with the Charity Commission, or with the Supreme Court of Judicature. Under the Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act 1888 these included trusts for:

• Houses for elementary school masters (up to one acre)
• Public parks (up to 20 acres)
• Public museums (up to two acres)

The Working Class Dwellings Act 1890 and the Technical and Industrial Institutions Act 1892 extended this to include gifts of land for those purposes.

The records enrolled under these Acts, for the period 1856 – 1925, are found in record series CHAR 12.

Finally, the Settled Lands Act 1925 required that all deeds conveying land in trust for charitable purposes should be enrolled with the Charity Commission. These records, for the period 1926 – 1963, are found in record series CHAR 13.

For further advice see Section 6.

3.3 Charitable trust deeds in the records of the Education Department

Under successive Acts of Parliament, trust deeds for educational purposes have come to be held, albeit in a rather piecemeal and haphazard way, within the records of the Education Department. Key series within which deeds, copies or extracts of deeds relating to schools may to be found, include:

• ED 21 – elementary school files for the period 1856 – 1946
• ED 29 – building grants files for the period 1860 – 1904
• ED 43 – secondary school, endowment and estate management files for the period 1894 – 1924
• ED 191 – Board of Education enrolled deeds for the period 1903 – 1920

For further advice refer to Section 7.

4. Searching for charitable trust deeds in the Chancery Close Rolls, 1736 – 1903

To find charitable trust deeds enrolled in the Close Rolls in C 54, you can do an advanced search of our catalogue within reference C 54.

You can search using combinations of the following terms:

• Date of enrolment – which had to be within six months of the execution of the trust deed
• Place – generally parish and county
• Charitable purpose – for example using key words like “religious”, “education”, “poverty”, “moral welfare”
• Charitable object – for example using keywords like “school”, “church”, “chapel”, “widows”

5. Searching for charitable trust deeds in the Enrolment Books of the Supreme Court of Judicature, 1903 – 2003

To find charitable trust deeds in the Enrolment Books of the Supreme Court of Judicature in J 18, order the volume/volumes for the relevant date/year. There are yearly indexes to these enrolment books in the Map and Large Document Reading Room at Kew.

The indexes to J 18 are arranged chronologically by the initial letter of the name of the grantor (the person making the deed). If you do not know the name of the grantor, and preferably the year of enrolment, then, for the period before 1926, you are advised to look instead at the records of the Charity Commission in CHAR 12.

N.B. If the trust deed relates to a Church of England school, then Lambeth Palace Library may be able to provide you with the date of grant and the name of the grantor. Please see their research guide on education.

6. Searching for trust deeds in the Enrolment Books of the Charity Commission

There are two consecutive series of records of enrolments.