Charities for the poor
Margaret Wise, by will proved 1640, Edmund Cole, by
will proved 1664, and Robert Abergenney, at an
unknown date, each left £5 for the use of the
poor. (fn. 8) The money appears to have been added to
the three bread charities founded by Francis
Greenway (d. 1717) who left £40, Francis Seale
who by will dated 1720 left £50 for bread or
money for 5 poor men, and James Tuckey, who
left £80 by will dated 1740. In 1740 £170, later
assumed to be the capital of the three bread
charities, was spent on land in Eynsham which
was exchanged at inclosure in 1802 for c. 37 a.
let for £13 6s. a year. By 1825 the rent had risen
to £18 5s. (fn. 9)
Edward Johnston, by will proved 1683, left a
rent charge of 20s. for a weekly distribution of
bread to the poor on the Sundays after All Saints' day (1 November). (fn. 10) The vicar Jasper
Mayne, by will proved 1673, left £100 to the
poor of Cassington. The money was invested in
a rent charge of £5 a year from land in the
parish, which at inclosure in 1801 was exchanged for 6 a., part of a plot of 20 a. allotted to
the poor. The plot produced £15 a year between
1804 and 1817 and £17 from 1817 to 1825. (fn. 11) In
1713 Thomas and Anne Peachman gave the
parishioners of Cassington the reversion of a
cottage, a close, and land in the open fields. In
1728 the life tenant, Elizabeth Cave, assigned
the cottage, tenement, and close to the parish
officers, and the remainder of the land reverted
to them on her death in 1730. The open field
land was exchanged for 4 a., part of the 20-a.
poor's plot, at inclosure in 1801. In 1825 the rest
of the estate comprised three cottages and gardens, occupied by paupers, and ¼ a. called the
poor's orchard, occupied by poor parishioners. (fn. 12)
Half of the income of the charity founded by
William Plasterer by will proved in 1711, 13s. a
year, was usually added to the general parish
charity account in the 18th and 19th centuries. (fn. 13)
In the 1820s the income from all the charities,
£37 8s. a year, was distributed in money, fuel,
and bread to the 'poor belonging to or resident
in the parish' by the churchwardens and overseers, assisted by some other inhabitants. Cash
allowances totalled £9 or £10 and ranged from
9s. to 4d., the largest being given to families
settled in but living outside the parish and who
received no help in kind from the charities. Coal
worth between £10 and £16 was distributed in
lots of 2 cwt.-6 cwt., and the remaining money,
between £9 and £12, was distributed in bread
on the Sundays after St. Thomas's day (21
December). (fn. 14)
In 1838 the churchwardens sold two of the
five cottages near the church which they owned,
presumably as part of Peachman's charity. The
sale was apparently carried out to raise money to
rebuild the remaining three cottages. The cottages were repaired in 1870, partly with the £23
capital of Plasterer's charity. In 1886 the trustees of the parish charities bought back the two
cottages sold in 1838 and remodelled all five as
three larger cottages; part of the gardens was
used to widen the road. (fn. 15)
By deed dated 1859 Archdeacon Cotton, presumably Henry Cotton (d. 1879) who had been
vicar 1812-24, gave £54 8s. 5d. stock to the poor
of Cassington. The charity had an income of £1
12s. 7d. in 1871, but the capital was later used,
probably in 1886, to improve Peachman's charity cottages. Another vicar, Thomas Forster, by
will dated 1861, left £47 4s. stock to the poor of
Cassington. The charity had an income of £1 8s.
3d. in 1871, but was lost some time after 1877. (fn. 16)
A Scheme of 1877 for the Cassington parochial charities provided for an expenditure of
not more than £50 on education, £3 3s. to the
Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, £20 for apprenticeships, and £40 for pensions or annuities of
between £5 and £10 each for parishioners over
60 years old. The residue of the income of £152
was to be spent on fuel for the deserving poor
and on the establishment of a provident club.
Cassington Educational Foundation was separated from the other parochial charities in 1905.
A new Scheme of 1969 for the parochial charities provided that nos. 3, 4, and 5 Church Lane,
belonging to the Peachman and Plasterer charities, should be used as almshouses, and the
income from all the other charities should be
applied to relief in need in the parish. In 1979
the total income of the charities was £2,013. (fn. 17)
Henry Alnutt, by will dated 1724, in addition
to an educational charity, provided places for
two Cassington men in his almshouse at Goring,
where each received £11 12s. a year and clothes
as well as accommodation. (fn. 18) New Schemes for
the Alnutt almshouses were made in 1907 and
1955. There were still places for two people
from Cassington in 1979. (fn. 19)