CHARITIES FOR THE POOR
The Charity Commissioners in the 1890s apportioned all the charities which had been established
before partition of the ancient parish among its
relevant subdivisions. Neither Whitechapel (including St. John's, Wapping), whose separation
predated the charities, nor Stratford Bow, for
practical purposes autonomous since 1497, was
entitled to a share; (fn. 1) before Shadwell's separation
only Gibson's almshouses and schools and Fuller's
almshouses had been established. By the 20th
century all the charities managed by the parish had
been divided among the benefiting hamlets or
parishes, most or which drew up schemes to
administer several charities together.
The following account gives the early history of
each charity founded for the ancient parish and
indicates how the charity was later divided
amongst the hamlets; details of its later application
and the collective schemes are reserved for the
accounts of those hamlets.
Almshouse charities.
The Ratcliff charity
originated in almshouses and a school built in
1531 by Nicholas Gibson (d. 1540), citizen and
sheriff of London, on part of his copyhold land
on the north side of Broad Street and the east
side of the later Schoolhouse Lane. (fn. 2) In 1552 his
widow Avice, then widow of Sir Anthony Knyvett, settled Gibson's copyhold estate on the
Coopers' Company of London in trust to maintain the school and almshouses. The profits
were to support seven poor people from Stepney
and seven members of the Coopers' Company
or their widows in the almshouses, each inmate
to receive £1 6s. 8d. a year. (fn. 3) Avice also granted
London property for the same uses to John
Chorley, who left it to the company in 1553. (fn. 4)
The copyhold in Ratcliff was enfranchised in
1774. (fn. 5) Property in London was also given by
Henry Cloker in 1573, to provide is. a year to
each inmate and money for the school, and by
Peter Thelloe in 1599, to maintain the school and
almshouses. Richard Young left £50 for coals in
1665, and Henry Strode left £500 in 1703 to
increase the pensions. (fn. 6) Six more almshouses, for
coopers, were built beside the existing ones in
1613 with money left by Tobias Wood, and
thereafter the original almshouses were used only
for women. (fn. 7) Stepney parish vestry brought a suit
against the Coopers' Company regarding their
administration of the almshouses and school in
1684. (fn. 8) New almshouses were built by the company in 1694 (below). (fn. 9)
In 1818 the whole income of the charity was
£595 and most of the expenditure of £562 was
on the almshouses, where c. 1830 the schoolmaster seems to have acted as unofficial warden for
the company. (fn. 10) An additional house was built in
1826, allowing the number of Stepney widows
to be increased to eight. The payment to each
almswoman was raised from £8 to £10 in 1814
and to £15 in 1826. Income was £1,057 and
expenditure £663 in 1837. Allowances were
again raised in 1846, 1860, and 1876. (fn. 11)
The Ratcliff charity was combined with Prisca
Coborn's school charity under a Scheme of 1891.
The almshouse branch received £1,400 a year
instead of sums from Cloker's and Thelloe's
gifts; with property in the City and in Woolwich,
and £1,027 in stock, its total income was £1,822
a year. In 1894 the almswomen, eight from
Stepney and eight coopers' widows, each received £26 a year besides coal, 10s. at Christmas,
and medical attendance; six former coopers were
supported by Wood's gift. Out-pensions were
paid from 1854; in 1894 ten pensioners received
£20 a year, ten received £15, and ten received
£10, half of each group being resident in Stepney. (fn. 12)
The almshouses were closed and the inmates
given pensions in 1894, when the whole site was
cleared and let by the Coopers' Company. In
1936 c. 60 people received pensions. (fn. 13) In 1964-5
the income of £2,518 relieved 9 poor of the
company (£1,007) and 19 poor of Stepney
(£739). In 1972-3 the income was £3,853 and
the payments were £1,570. A Scheme of 1976
for what had been renamed the Ratcliff Pension
charity allotted 29/52nds of the income to relieve
members of the Coopers' Company and the
remainder to residents of Stepney parish as it
had existed in 1897. The assets of the charity
consisted of 46 per cent of the net sale or rents
of property in Schoolhouse Lane, Ratcliff, belonging to the Coopers and Coborn Educational
Fund, the right to £1,400 a year from that fund,
and £21,987 stock. (fn. 14)
The almshouses of 1694 stood slightly north
of the older buildings, forming with the school
three sides of a narrow courtyard off Schoolhouse Lane; to the north were garden plots for
the alms women. After a fire at Ratcliff the
almshouses were rebuilt in 1795-6, a little farther north and on a similar plan. The central
block had a chapel, served from St. James's,
Ratcliff, and attended by the almswomen twice
a week. The chapel was flanked by two-storeyed
houses, including lodgings for the schoolmaster
and schoolmistress; the wings, after the addition
of 1826, each contained four houses. The main
part of the school, vacated under the reorganization of 1891, was behind the north wing. (fn. 15)
John Fuller by will proved 1592 directed his
wife to build almshouses in Stepney for 12 single
men aged 50 years or more and in Shoreditch
for 12 widows. The almshouses were to be
managed by the Mercers' Company and each set
was to be supported by a rent charge of £50 a
year from lands in Lincolnshire. (fn. 16) The almshouses had been built by 1623, when Fuller's
widow and her husband Sir Thomas Mansell
settled the lands on her for life, the rent charge
to be paid by her husband's two sons. (fn. 17) Stepney
vestry apparently managed the almshouses by
1641, having asked the company in 1639 to
accept responsibility or relinquish it to the parish. Receipts in 1641 were £88 and
disbursements £44 to the churchwardens of
Shoreditch for the women's almhouses, £37 13s.
to the almsmen, and £4 18s. for a lawsuit. (fn. 18) Since
no residential qualifications had been laid down,
in 1662 the six westernmost rooms were reserved
for men from Ratcliff, Shadwell, and Poplar, and
the other six for Limehouse, Mile End, Bethnal
Green, and Spitalfields. (fn. 19) The rent charge was
finally settled on the almshouses in 1687 by
George Kemeys, the landowner, after a Chancery suit. (fn. 20)
In 1837 inmates were chosen by the churchwardens but no longer came from Shadwell.
Ratcliff, Poplar, Limehouse, and Spitalfields
each appointed two inmates; Mile End Old
Town, Mile End New Town, St. George-inthe-East, and Bethnal Green each appointed
one. Married men were admitted and their
widows allowed to stay. Each hamlet paid for
the repairs of its room. The churchwarden of
Christ Church (Spitalfields) received £50 a year
from the managing solicitors, from which he
paid £4 to each inmate, keeping £2 for himself.
Despite a Chancery Order, the charity had not
apparently been incorporated. In 1864 the property and rent charge were vested in the Official
Trustee, and the several churchwardens were
appointed trustees. The almshouses were sold in
1865, after new ones had been built at Harrow
Green, Leyton (Essex). There was no fund for
repairs in 1894, when the rent charge provided
£3 15s. 3d. for each inmate. (fn. 21) Pensions were paid
from the charity between 1922 and 1950.
Fuller's (men's) almshouses, presumably
those built by 1623, stood in 1652 on former
waste given to the parish by the earl of Cleveland
on the north side of Mile End Road, east of
Cambridge Heath Road and bounded south and
west by Mile End green. They consisted of 12
brick dwellings, with a wall in front and small
gardens behind, (fn. 22) and probably formed the
building shown in 1703. (fn. 23) The same buildings
may have survived in 1837 in Eagle Street, called
Spread Eagle Place in 1864. (fn. 24)
Capt. James Cook and his widow Dame Alice
Row left money for four almshouses, providing
eight rooms for seamen of Stepney and their
widows, which were built on land leased to the
churchwardens by Thomas Grimley in 1673;
this may be the waste that Grimley was asked
by the vestry to procure from the lady of the
manor in 1671. (fn. 25) The hamlet of Mile End Old
Town repaired the decayed buildings c. 1815 and
put one person into each room, normally a
seaman's widow who lived rent free. Although
given for the benefit of Stepney as a whole, in
1837 the charity was in practice confined to Mile
End Old Town. Coals at Christmas were provided under the will of Thomas Daplyn, proved
1845, from the interest on £50 stock after repair
of his tomb. In 1871 the charity also received
£20, invested in stock, for a neighbour's use of
the almshouse wall as a party wall.
After the almshouses' site had been leased for
building (below), a Scheme in 1885 for the Cook,
Row, and Daplyn charities furnished pensions
to up to eight seamen or their widows, resident
in Stepney for at least 5 years and not receiving
poor relief. The income was £90 a year from the
builder, besides £1 19s. 4d. interest on stock. In
1894 eight women received 4s. a week with extra
during winter, and the charity was regarded as
exclusively for Mile End Old Town. (fn. 26) In 1976
the charity received rents of £3,000 a year and
held c. £16,000 in stock and c. £20,000 on
deposit. From 1977 the income was administered under Mile End Old Town's Scheme for
Stepney Relief in Need Charity. (fn. 27)
The almshouses in 1845 stood on the north
side of Mile End Road opposite York Place, in
1871 called no. 391 Mile End Road. They were
dilapidated in 1880 and taken on a 70-year
building lease by Abraham Barnett, who built
six houses (nos. 1-6 Barnett Market or nos.
391A-F Mile End Road) on the site. (fn. 28)
John Pemel by will dated 1681 left £1,200 to
the Drapers' Company to buy land, using the
rents to pay for a single-storeyed almshouse in
Mile End and £4 a year to each of the eight
almspeople, besides coals and gowns with the
company's badge; the residue was for repairs and
sick relief. Four rooms were for widows of
freemen of the company and four for widows of
Stepney seamen. Land was bought in Southwark
and the City in 1694 and the almshouses were
completed in 1698, situated near Stonebridge
(Mile End Gate), the four easternmost rooms
being used for widows nominated by the eight
Stepney hamlets in turn. Rents produced £52
12s. a year in 1861. Money from the sale of the
almshouses in 1863 provided new ones in Bromley (Mdx.) and then in Tottenham (below).
Additional land in Tottenham produced a rental
income of £130 16s. in 1892, when four of the
almshouses were still appropriated to Stepney,
although the rotation of nominations had been
abandoned in 1884. In 1894 each of the four
widows received £25 4s. and 2 tons of coal a
year, with medical care. (fn. 29)
Pemel's almshouses were called the Drapers'
Almshouses in 1813, lying on the north side of
Whitechapel Road in the parish of Bethnal
Green. (fn. 30) They were sold in 1863 for £5,133 in
money and stock, spent partly on those built in
Bromley on land held by the Drapers' Company
for Sir John Jolles's and Edmanson's almshouse
charities, which were compensated. The Bromley site was taken for the N.L.R. in 1867 and
Elmslea in Bruce Grove, Tottenham, was
bought with 50 a., where new buildings for
Pemel's, Jolles's, and Edmanson's charities were
later known as the Sailmakers' almshouses. (fn. 31)
Mary Bowry, by will proved 1728, left the
residue of her property to buy land between
Stepney church and Bow and to build as many
almshouses as possible for mariners or their
widows, to be nominated by the minister and
churchwardens after the death of her trustees.
Under a Chancery order of 1740 land was
bought in 1742 (fn. 32) and eight almshouses were built
in 1744 (fn. 33) for which each parish or hamlet nominated an inmate. Stock purchased for a
maintenance fund was valued at £2,555 in 1810.
The inmates received £5 a month between them
until 1836, later increased by 12s. a month to
each. Repairs to each house were defrayed by its
respective hamlet. By 1894 the almshouses had
been sold and the whole income was distributed
as pensions of £21 12s. with £2 for coal to each
of the eight widows. (fn. 34) In 1939 the charity was
divided and each hamlet or parish received c.
£763 in stock, the income to be paid as before
in pensions to poor seamen or their widows. (fn. 35)
Bowry's almshouses stood in the parish of Bromley on the south side of Bow Road, next to the
Drapers' Company's almshouses (Jolles and Edmanson charities). (fn. 36)
Apprenticing charities.
William Curtis by
will proved 1670 left a rent charge of £60 from
which £24 was to apprentice eight boys and
eight girls in alternate years, two to come from
Poplar, one from Mile End, two from Limehouse, and three from Ratcliff and Shadwell; the
remainder was to be distributed among the poor
(below). (fn. 37) In the ten years to 1894 no suitable
apprentices were found in Mile End and only
four in Ratcliff, all apprenticed to watermen.
Between 1891 and 1893 the whole income was
distributed among the poor. (fn. 38) The later history
of this charity is uncertain.
Samuel Butler by will proved 1837 created
an accumulating fund for charity schools of 23
parishes, including St. Dunstan's, Stepney.
Chancery in 1844 declared the gift legal, but the
sinking fund was found impractical in 1852 and
Schemes of 1853 and 1875 provided scholarships and apprenticeships for boys and girls. In
the five years to 1894 seven scholarships worth
£8 each were awarded to pupils at Stepney
Parochial and Ratcliff Charity schools. Thereafter the scholarships were held at a secondary
or technical school. (fn. 39)
Penelope Vicars by will dated 1732 left £200
for placing out children and other poor in
Stepney. It was mentioned with her similar
gift to the poor of Davenham (Ches.) in 1837
but the Stepney charity apparently had lapsed
by 1894. (fn. 40)
Distributive charities.
John Matthew, citizen and merchant tailor, by will proved 1569
left 40s. a year to the poor of Stepney, with 3s.
4d. to the churchwardens for distributing it.
Payment was received in 1586 but had lapsed
by 1786. (fn. 41)
William Curtis by will proved 1670 left £24
of the residue of his rent charge after apprenticing (above), in the first year to relieve debtors in
prison and thereafter for annual distribution
among 48 poor: 12 in Poplar, 6 in Mile End, 12
in Limehouse, and 18 in Ratcliff and Shadwell.
A further £8 was to be distributed in bread to
the aged poor of Poplar. £1 to be used for a
sermon, and £3 for a dinner for the trustees. By
1894 the capital produced £55 a year and the
apprenticing share was spent on the poor, distributed in gifts of 10s. to women in Mile End
Old Town, Mile End New Town, Ratcliff,
Shadwell, Limehouse, and Poplar, in addition
to prison charities. (fn. 42)
Richard Underhill by will dated 1671 left £60
to buy land, the income to pay for bread and an
annual sermon. His gift was mentioned in 1786-
8 but nothing was known of it in 1837. (fn. 43)
Prisca Coborn by will dated 1701 left a manor
and 250 a. in White Roding (Essex) in trust to
relieve seamen's widows in Stepney. From 1733
half the income went to St. Dunstan's and the
other half was divided among the new parishes
of St. George-in-the-East (5s. 6d. in the £),
Spitalfields (2s. 6d.), and Limehouse (1s.). After
the creation of more new parishes, Stepney's half
was divided in 1737-6 between Ratcliff (8s. in
the £), Poplar (5s. 6d.), Mile End Old Town
(3s.), Mile End New Town (1s. 6d.), and Bethnal
Green (2s.). In 1894 the average net income of
£110 was divided among the eight parishes or
hamlets in the same proportions. (fn. 44)
Dame Sarah Pritchard by will dated 1707 left
the income of £32 from £800 held by the
Orphans' Fund of the City of London, for
several parishes including Stepney, where £2
10s. was to be paid at Christmas to ten single
women. Stock was bought in 1812 and Stepney
received c. £2 17s. 8d. a year, (fn. 45) paid from 1824
to 1837 to the churchwarden of Ratcliff and
distributed usually within the three remaining
hamlets of St. Dunstan's: in Mile End New
Town it was distributed in sums of 2s. to poor
widows not receiving parochial relief, in Ratcliff
among the most needy aged persons, and in Mile
End Old Town it was put into the hamlet's
common fund. In 1871, however, the parish was
ordered to appoint trustees to receive the sum,
then £3, and in 1894 all eight hamlets of Stepney
(excluding Shadwell) received 6s. 3d. each. (fn. 46)
Robert Radford (fn. 47) by will dated 1750 left the
interest on £100 to provide bread for the poor
of Stepney. In 1837 Ratcliff, Mile End Old
Town, Mile End New Town, and Poplar each
received 15s. and distributed it independently.
In 1894 £110 stock yielded £2 15s., divided
evenly between the four hamlets. Each hamlet
received £2.76p in 1976-7.
Susanna Wilson by will dated 1784 left the
income from £50 for repair of her tomb, the
residue for bread to be distributed by the
churchwardens of Stepney. In 1837 £67 stock
yielded £20 8d., divided equally between Mile
End Old Town, Mile End New Town, and
Ratcliff. The income was £1 17s. 4d. in 1894 and
£1.68p for each hamlet in 1976-7.
Elizabeth Gordon by will dated 1790 left the
interest on £100 stock for bread every Sunday.
Until 1833 the money went into the church rate
account but was spent fully on bread in the four
hamlets. In 1837 Mile End Old Town's share
was put into its common fund. In 1894 £110
stock yielded £2 15s., divided unequally according to the number of loaves previously
distributed; the Charity Commissioners requested an equal distribution or one according
to population. In 1976-7 each hamlet received
£2.76p.
Dorothy Smith by will dated 1792 left the
interest on £250 stock, from which £5 was to
provide flannel petticoats for ten industrious
women in Stepney and £2 10s. was for roasting
beef for 20 women. The income was divided
between Mile End Old Town, New Town,
Ratciff, and Poplar, which distributed it independently. In 1837 Poplar had not received a
share for four years but was to do so in future.
In 1894 £275 stock yielded £6 17s. 4d. divided
between the four hamlets. Each received £6.88p
in 1976-7.
Capt. Timothy Mangles by will proved 1800
gave £100 in stock to Trinity House Corporation,
the interest for the poor of Stepney. Stock bought
with arrears of interest in 1825 increased the
endowment to £257, yielding £7 1s. 4d. Bakers
were invited to tender for bread distributed once
a year at Trinity almshouses. In 1893 the 377
recipients were seamen or their widows and
daughters residing in Stepney and recommended
by local clergy; Poplar received no benefit.
Nicholas Undeutsch by will dated 1812 left
£33 year for the poor not receiving alms, which
was secured by the purchase of £100 stock. The
gift was added to Gordon's charity until 1834,
but thereafter the income was divided between
Mile End Old Town, New Town, and Ratcliff.
In 1894 £100 stock yielded £2 15s. In 1976-7
each hamlet received £2.76p.