Stanton Harcourt: Charities for the poor

Charities for the poor (fn. 35)

In 1707 eleven gifts or bequests totalling £106 were used to buy 7 a. of meadow called Dedewick, later the Poor's Land, in Northmoor. Dorothy Smith had given £33, (fn. 36) William Enstone, William Pencot, Henry Clanfield, Elizabeth Wood, and Alexander Pencot £10 each, Simond Simmons, Susanna Applegarth, John Lee, and Thomas Wood £5 each, and Henry Boulton £3. (fn. 37) The rent was distributed annually to families with at least two children. In 1815 there were 20 recipients in Stanton Harcourt and West End, and 20 in Sutton; in 1823 several families received as much as 30s. (fn. 38) By then the rent had fallen from £20 to £15 a year; it fell to c. £11 in the 1890s, was raised from £14 to £32 10s. in 1965, and was £50 in 1972, when c. £350 accumulated rent was invested. In 1964 £16 was distributed. (fn. 39)

Anne Hawkins (date unknown) gave £10, the interest to be given yearly in bread on Good Friday; (fn. 40) Esther Langford by will proved 1774 (fn. 41) and Mary Prior by will proved 1779 (fn. 42) each gave £15, the interest to be spent on bread. Catherine and Mary Flexney by wills proved 1724 and 1726 (fn. 43) left £10 each for the poor, the interest to be given out on Good Friday. In the late 1790s those sums, together with educational bequests and a subscription raised in 1765, were invested in South Sea stock, and were later known as the United charities, yielding £ 13s. 10d. a year; c. £3 15s. was distributed annually in bread, and £1 for the Flexney bequests was distributed with the rent from the Poor's Land. The United charities were divided into educational and eleemosynary branches in 1901. (fn. 44)

Daniel Flexney by will proved 1754 left £106, which was never received. (fn. 45) The vicar John Slatter by will proved 1810 left £100 stock in trust for the poor of Cumnor (formerly Berks.) and Stanton Harcourt. (fn. 46) Elizabeth, Lady Harcourt by will proved 1826 left £200 stock, producing £5 10s. to be given in clothing to two elderly men and two women at Christmas. (fn. 47) Ernest Walsh by will proved 1921 left £400 invested to provide £10 a year for the poor of Stanton Harcourt. In 1967 Harcourt's and Slatter's charities, reduced to £4 10s. and £1 2s. respectively, were allowed to accumulate before distribution. A Scheme of 1972 combined them with Walsh's: all the eleemosinary charities were then represented by shares in the Charities Official Investment fund. In 1973 a total of c. £123 was distributed to the poor. (fn. 48)