CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.

One of the John Drivers of Aston gave £50, the interest to be used to bind apprentices, and a further £100 was added by Elizabeth Coxe by the same gift which established her educational charity. The money was apparently placed in the parish stock and included in general expenditure on apprenticing. In 1793 one of a row of cottages, intended for use as a poorhouse, was purchased by the parish for £75 and the residue of the capital was absorbed in purchasing the remaining cottages in the row before 1817. The misapplication of funds was corrected in 1821, from which time £7 10s. a year was applied out of the rates for apprenticing. In 1828 it was suggested that the income should be used to apprentice one boy every two years. (fn. 82) In 1897 a Scheme provided that the interest be used in apprenticing or in clothing poor children on entering a trade. (fn. 83) In 1972 the charity, which had a yearly income of c. £2, was used as occasion arose for incidental expenses of boys on apprenticeship. (fn. 84)

Ambrose Webb left £4 to provide loaves at Christmas for widows and widowers; it was augmented by a bequest of £2 from Ann Burge of Aston. The charities, together with that founded by Richard Cambridge of London who left £20 for the benefit of Nailsworth tithing, were applied for parish purposes. In 1828 the rates were made liable for the interest on the capital sum at 5 per cent to provide bread for the poor. (fn. 85) The charities are not recorded after that date and were declared lost by the Charity Commissioners in 1970. (fn. 86)

Thomas Poulton of Tetbury gave £100 in 1851 to provide coats for poor parishioners over 40. (fn. 87) In 1853 the charity was doubled in value by a bequest by Octavia Cholmeley, and the annual income, amounting to £4, was distributed among the poor in 1972. Viscount Lee of Fareham (d. 1947) left £1,000 to be used in cases of need during the 10 years following his death. The sum, augmented by a grant from his widow Ruth, was largely unused and in 1970 was registered as a permanent charity with a capital sum of £700. The income was later used as need arose in individual cases. (fn. 88)

Footnotes