CHARITIES FOR THE POOR. (fn. 76)
By will proved
1670 Edward Nicholl of Knightsland, South Mimms,
left £10 a year with interest to the poor of Hendon.
In 1687 his son John was ordered in Chancery to
pay the money (fn. 77) but the charity seems to have
lapsed soon afterwards.
In 1696 Thomas Nicholl of Hendon erected
a single-storeyed brick alms-house at the junction of
Milespit Hill and the Ridgeway, Mill Hill. (fn. 78) He
did not endow the premises, which accommodated
6 pauper residents of Hendon at a nominal rent, and
the parish was forced to undertake repairs. Consequently the building was generally called the
parish alms-house, although it was later known as
Nicholl's alms-house. Trustees were appointed in
1863, under a Scheme for the charities of the parish,
but by 1881 the only income was the weekly rent of
6d. paid by each inmate. In 1892 the executors of
Eliza Holm, the widow of a former resident of Mill
Hill, gave £2,700 stock to provide each alms-person
with a small weekly pension. (fn. 79) Her endowment was
administered separately until in 1910 a Scheme
established the Nicholl and Holm charity, whose
income was administered with that of the Daniel
and Holm charity.
By will proved 1682, Robert Daniel, a London
merchant, instructed his executors to spend £2,000
on land and after ten years to use the accumulated
revenue to build an alms-house within ten miles of
the City for 6 men and 4 women of at least fifty
years of age. Thereafter the income was to provide
each resident with a grey cloth gown, lined with
orange baize, every two years, a shilling loaf at
Christmas, and a weekly pension of 3s. (fn. 80) In 1686
the executors purchased 110 a. at North Aston
(Oxon.) and by 1727 their plans to establish an
alms-house at Hendon had been approved in
Chancery. The building was opened in 1729 (fn. 81) and
sometimes held more women than men, despite
Daniel's stipulations. The women's pensions were
increased to 4s. a week in 1806 and the men's in
1818. The trustees had run short of funds when
Eliza Holm, by will dated 1890, left some £30,000
to such charitable institutions as her executor
thought fit. In 1892 Daniel's alms-houses became
the first beneficiaries and were endowed with £6,100
stock, after the premises had been repaired at the
cost of the Holm estate. The Daniel and Holm
charities were consolidated under a new Scheme of
1910, whereby the Daniel and Holm and the Nicholl
and Holm charities, while retaining their separate
names, jointly contributed towards alms-houses for
16 poor persons who had resided in Hendon for not
less than five years and towards weekly pensions for
the inmates and other parishioners. A detached
portion of Daniel's endowment at Stoke Lyne
(Oxon.) was sold in 1935 and the rest of the
Oxfordshire land in 1959. By 1965 the total investment income of £775 a year was spent mainly on
the alms-houses and on medical services for the
residents. The alms-houses, a gaunt brick building
with a pedimented centrepiece, were largely rebuilt
c. 1800 and extensively repaired in 1854 and the
late 1950s.
Elizabeth Parsons of the parish of St. Anne,
Westminster, by will proved 1758, bequeathed £100,
the income to be used to maintain the family vault
at Hendon and to benefit poor unrelieved parishioners. (fn. 82) After the death of her sister Martha, who
bequeathed £100 on similar terms, the money was
invested in stock. By 1843 the income amounted to
£6 6s., which was spent in bread. (fn. 83) In 1966, when
the charity was administered jointly with the Neeld
charity, £5 10s. was distributed in bread.
An early-19th-century lord of the manor of
Hendon gave a piece of land at Temple Fortune to
compensate the parish for loss of rights on some
recently inclosed waste. The vestry directed that the
land should be sold and some of the proceeds spent
on a stove for the church. The remainder was
invested in stock and by 1854 the annual income of
£5 1s. was distributed as bread at Christmas. From
1863 the charity was no longer administered
separately.
By will proved 1856, Joseph Neeld bequeathed
£500 to be invested in stock; the income was to
maintain Neeld's tomb and benefit two aged unrelieved parishioners. In 1902 the commissioners
declared the former purpose invalid and that henceforth all the income was to benefit the poor. In
1966 each beneficiary received £7 10s.
Elizabeth Bragg Shaw of Dorking (Surr.), by will
proved 1874, bequeathed £100 to be invested, the
interest to supply the inmates of the alms-houses at
Mill Hill, and other old people, with tea and sugar
at Christmas. In 1961 the annual income of £2 13s.
8d. was devoted to the sick and the poor of the parish.
By will proved in 1874 Anne Prince left £200,
which was to be invested and used for the poor as
the vicar of Hendon thought fit. In 1966 the income
of £5 9s. was passed to the vicar for distribution to
the poor. Mary Elizabeth Partridge, by will proved
1902, bequeathed £200 to provide coal for aged
men and women in Hendon or the Hale. In 1965 the
income of £5 9s. was distributed by the vicar.
George Sneath, by will proved 1922, left £200 to
be invested on behalf of aged parishioners. By 1965
the capital had grown to £311 stock and the vicar
received £7 2s. to be given to the poor.
In 1895 Mrs. Eliza Burgess opened a day nursery
at Devonshire Place, Childs Hill. In 1922, after her
death, it was endowed with three houses (one of
which was to be sold) and £2,236 stock. The
nursery had a regular daily attendance of more
than a dozen until it became redundant during the
later 1930s. In 1942 a new Scheme established the
Mrs. Burgess fund for children, to benefit children
under school age in Hendon and its neighbourhood
by helping mothers and by providing remedial
assistance and appliances.
An Air Raid distress fund, established in 1941, (fn. 84)
appears to have been perpetuated after the war as
the mayor's benevolent fund. Registered as a
charity in 1963, its objects are the relief of poverty
and other such works as will benefit the community
of Hendon. It has an annual income of about
£2,000, apparently derived from investments. The
Hampstead Garden Suburb charitable trust was
incorporated in 1968, to apply money raised for
general charitable purposes within the Garden
Suburb. In 1972 the income exceeded £100.