CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.
In 1661
Michael Richards, the vicar, provided for a 5s.
rent charge to be paid to five of the poorest people
in the parish. Nothing more is known of the
charity. (fn. 80) By 1674 five charitable sums given for
the poor amounted to £22 and produced £1 6s. 5d.
in 1674-5. By 1686 the capital was £34 9s. The
parish appointed new trustees, among them Basil
Brooke, in 1688 and regulated investment of the
stock in 1695. The overseers seem to have used
the charity money indiscriminately with the poor
rate, a fact which may explain the statement in
1716 that the parish had no charities. (fn. 81)
The 17th-century charities probably account
for at least one of two sums of £30 (fn. 82) added to a £40
legacy of Basil Brooke (d. 1699) for the parish
poor. In 1706 and 1713 cottages, gardens, and
other land in Madeley Wood were bought. In the
later 18th century the income was distributed in
sums of 5s. or less to widows and other poor.
About 1796 a house of industry was built on the
charity property, and in 1797 the property was in
effect exchanged for rent charges of £18 4s. 6d.
One Johnson, fl. before 1786, left a 5s. rent
charge for five poor widows. By 1820 it had been
commuted for £5 which, with £1 arrears, had
been banked by the parish charity estate trustees.
In the early 19th century the 5s. was distributed
with the £18 4s. 6d. as clothing tickets. For over
forty years in the mid 19th century, save in the
cholera years, the charity income was accumulated as a reserve fund for times of exceptional
distress. When the house of industry was sold c.
1878, £750 was added to the charity capital.
Distribution resumed in 1879 and the charity was
given away as blankets for many years thereafter. (fn. 83)
Known from 1912 as Madeley United Charities,
the income, c. £52 in 1975, was applied for the
general benefit of the poor. (fn. 84)
James Embery (d. 1827) of Ironbridge left the
interest on £50 for the relief of widows. (fn. 85) Nothing
more is known of the bequest.
In 1839 Mrs. Cotton left the interest on £200 to
buy bread for the poor. (fn. 86) The income was £5 in
1908, £14 in 1975.
The Bartlett Memorial Charity was founded in
1863 when land was conveyed in trust to be let to
the deserving poor of Madeley parish as allotment
gardens. (fn. 87) In 1975 income from land and stock
was £9, surplus funds being used for the benefit of
the poor.
The Wilcox Charity, founded by will proved
1865, was to be distributed to twenty or thirty
widows of the Madeley Wood area. In 1975
income was £12.
James Mellor's charity, founded in 1870, was
endowed with £36 12s. 5d.; half of the interest
was to be used for twenty widows aged over sixty.
In the 1880s and 1890s some 10s. a year was so
distributed. By 1963 the charity formed part of
Madeley United Charities.
By will proved 1871 Edward Edwards left stock
for gifts of bread, coal, or clothing, to Church of
England widows of Coalbrookdale parish. In 1975
the income of his charity, which included a
bequest of Elizabeth Edwards, was £10.
Mrs. Elizabeth Morgan's charity, established
1886, was endowed with £50. Around the turn of
the century the annual income of c. £2 10s. was
distributed to numerous widows. In 1975 income
was £7.