Pages 219-220
A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1989.
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Charities for the poor
By 1631 the Town Lands charity owned a house with land and common rights, and the residue after repairs to the church causeway went to the poor. (fn. 1) Its trustees were allotted 11 ½ a. at inclosure in 1852. (fn. 2) In the 1830s the residual income was spent on coal. The house, then occupied rent free by two paupers, (fn. 3) was replaced in 1903 by two new cottages, sold to their tenants in 1956. Under a Scheme of 1878 half the income was to be spent on poor relief and half on education. In 1952 the sum of £46 was spent on coal vouchers for pensioners (fn. 4) and coal was distributed in 1970, though by 1985 money grants were made instead. (fn. 5)
An unknown donor's gift of 2 bu. of wheat and 2 bu. of barley annually from an 8½-a. close was converted before the 1830s into a rent charge of 15s. (fn. 6) The income, distributed at 4d. a head in 1868, was added to that of the Town Lands eleemosynary charity in 1923. The charge was redeemed in 1924. (fn. 7)
By will proved 1653 John Ashman left an annual rent charge of £2 from property in London to the poor of his native Rampton; although the subject of a legal order in 1655, there is no record that the charge was ever paid. (fn. 8)