CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.
The earliest
charitable trust established at Stroud was that
governing the land of John de Pridie, assigned to the
parishioners in 1304 for financing the maintenance
of the church and the chaplain's stipend; (fn. 34) the land,
usually known later as Pridie's Acre, lay on the
south side of the church and on it the market-house
and other buildings were erected. (fn. 35) The parish
property was augmented in 1567 by a house in Stroud
and a close called Church Furlong granted by Giles
Payne, and in 1578 by lands and tenements in the
town granted by William Sewell of Ferris Court and
Thomas Sewell. Those lands and Pridie's Acre were
vested in a body known as the Stroud feoffees which
from 1637 renewed itself by regular feoffments; it
usually included the lords of the various manors in
the parish and the leading clothiers. (fn. 36) During the
earlier 17th century the property was evidently
administered for the feoffees by the churchwardens, (fn. 37)
but in 1676 the feoffees agreed on more efficient
measures for administering the trust, (fn. 38) and regular
accounts kept by them survive from 1680. (fn. 39)
In 1637 the feoffees' property comprised 8
tenements in the town, the market-house with the
shops adjoining, and Church Furlong; (fn. 40) most of
their houses in the town stood by the market-house
on Pridie's Acre, but others, representing the gifts of
Payne and the Sewells, stood near the Cross and on
the south side of High Street. (fn. 41) The rents from
Pridie's Acre amounted to c. £17 in 1683; (fn. 42) by 1826
the rental of the property there had risen to £169
when the feoffees were receiving £115 for their
other property in the town and £9 from Church
Furlong; (fn. 43) and by 1861 the total rental amounted to
£353, providing a clear annual income of £214. (fn. 44)
In 1637 the uses of the trust were given as the
repair of the church and the relief of the poor (fn. 45)
and, as related above, the feoffees were also
responsible for a contribution towards the curate's
stipend. (fn. 46) The many small payments for the poor
and for apprenticeships made by the churchwardens
in the later 17th century were presumably made out
of the feoffees' funds, (fn. 47) and in the 18th century the
feoffees made regular contributions to poor-relief
and gave considerable sums to church maintenance. (fn. 48)
By the later 19th century the income was being
applied in equal parts to church and poor, (fn. 49) but
from 1887 the poor's moiety and all accumulations
on it were applied to the Marling School endowment. (fn. 50) In 1917 a further scheme divided the
feoffees' income, after maintenance expenses and the
payment to the vicar, into two equal moieties, one
to be paid to the Stroud Educational Foundation,
and the other to be used for the upkeep of the fabric
of the parish church and Holy Trinity. In 1971 the
feoffees' property still included the Shambles and
the town hall but some of their houses had been
sold and about one-fifth of their annual income of
c. £1,660 was derived from investments. (fn. 51)
In 1631 Samuel Watts, a London merchant and
native of Stroud, left £200, half for a lectureship
and half for the poor. The money was laid out
c. 1634 on land in Colethrop, (fn. 52) which was bringing
in a rent of c. £10 in 1683. (fn. 53) By 1676 the land was
vested in the Stroud feoffees (fn. 54) and the poor's
moiety of the charity was applied indiscriminately
with their other funds until c. 1818 when for a few
years it was used to buy coal; the charity had by
then been augmented by stock bought with the
proceeds of a sale of timber from the estate in 1806,
and in 1826 it had a total income of £21 10s. (fn. 55) The
poor's moiety was again being used for coal in the
1870s (fn. 56) but in 1887 it was applied as part of the
Marling School endowment. (fn. 57) Under the scheme of
1917 one moiety of the income of the Watts charity
was applied to the Stroud Educational Foundation
and the other to the church towards the salary of the
assistant curate, and in 1971 the total income, by
then derived wholly from investments, was c.
£30. (fn. 58)
Nathaniel Gardner by will dated 1671 left a rentcharge of £1 from land in Painswick for bread for the
poor at Christmas; the rent was being regularly
paid in 1826. (fn. 59) Twenty pounds given for the poor
by William Ruckwood in 1604 and £100 given for
the poor and to supplement the minister's income
by Thomas Webb (evidently a different man from
the founder of the charity school) was used in 1677
to purchase a rent-charge of £6 payable out of the
Badbrook Mill estate; £2 10s. was assigned to the
minister and £3 10s. to the poor. (fn. 60) The poor's
share was usually used for apprenticeships and was
being applied for that purpose in 1826 along with
the funds of William Johns's charity, mentioned
below, (fn. 61) but in 1887 it was included in the endowment of the Marling School. (fn. 62) By 1683 two other
eleemosynary charities had been founded, £10 given
for the poor by John Griffin and Elizabeth his wife
and £30 for the poor given by Daniel Watts,
merchant of London. (fn. 63) No record of those two
charities has been found after the early 18th
century (fn. 64) or of two other charities mentioned then,
£20 given for the poor by a Mr. Waters and a gift
of £1 annually by Daniel Clissold of Pitchcombe to
be applied alternately to the poor of Stroud and
Painswick. (fn. 65)
William Johns, curate of Stroud (d. 1722), (fn. 66) left a
contingent title to 'the house at the Knap' to the
parish; £1 of the annual profits was to go to the
charity school society founded by Johns, £1 for the
maintenance of the church clock and chimes, 10s.
to a man to ring the bell night and morning, 10s. for
the repair of the pump at the Cross, and the surplus
to apprenticeships. The property came to the parish
in 1776, and part of the profits were being used for
apprenticeships in the 1780s and in the 1820s, when
the rent of the house was £40. (fn. 67) The house was
sold in 1858 and the proceeds invested in stock (fn. 68)
which produced dividends of £45 in 1883. (fn. 69) In 1887,
except for the payment for the clock and chimes, the
income was assigned to the Marling School. (fn. 70)
Thomas Gardner by will dated 1713 asked that £3
should be laid out in bread for the poor each
Christmas; after his death £70 contributed by his
family and a like sum by James Winchcombe (to
whom the charity was later solely attributed) was
used to buy land in Paganhill tithing which in 1731
was assigned to the purpose specified by Gardner. (fn. 71)
The charity was being regularly distributed in the
1820s. (fn. 72) Richard Aldridge by will dated 1815 gave
£500 stock, the proceeds, beyond what was needed
to repair his family monument, to be laid out on
coal and clothing for the poor. (fn. 73) In 1887 it and any
surplus on £100 stock given by Aldridge for a
sermon were applied to the Marling School. (fn. 74) A
charity founded by Mary Cox in 1839 to provide
food and fuel for the poor had an annual income of
just over £6 from stock in 1883. (fn. 75)
In 1970 the endowments of the charities of
Nathaniel Gardner and James Winchcombe (which
had by then been converted to stock) and Mary
Cox's charity, together with £447 stock belonging
to a charity founded by the Revd. Edward Mansfield
in 1880, stock acquired with £1,000 left to the poor
of the ecclesiastical parish of the parish church by
Josiah Greathead Strachan by will proved 1892, and
a benefaction made before 1920 by William Thomas
Sims, were amalgamated to form the Stroud United
charities, to be applied in goods or services within
the urban district. (fn. 76) In 1971 the annual income was
c. £134. (fn. 77)
Josiah Strachan also left £1,000 for the poor of
Whiteshill ecclesiastical district in 1892, (fn. 78) and in
1971 the income, c. £60, was being distributed in
grocery vouchers. (fn. 79) A private charity with an
endowment of £654 stock was founded as a memorial
to Henry Adam Holloway, and in 1934 it was agreed
to distribute it in goods or money, giving preference
to former employees of the firm of Holloway Bros. (fn. 80)
In 1971, when the annual income was c. £20, it was
proposed to administer it with the United charities. (fn. 81)