The Endowed Charities of Kensington;

BY WHOM BEQUEATHED,
AND
HOW ADMINISTERED.

EDWARD MORTON DANIEL, Esq.

Reprinted from the “S. Mary Abbots Parish Magazine.”

Printed for Private Circulation

The Endowed Charities of Kensington; by whom Bequeathed, and how Administered.

By EDWARD MORTON DANIEL, Esq.

A Paper read at a Meeting of the Kensington Ratepayers Association, held at S. Mark’s Parish Rooms, Notting Hill, on Tuesday, 21st April, 1891.

[Reprinted from the “S. Mary Abbots Parish Magazine.”]

As everyone has need of charity, everyone exercises charity, and most of us receive charity, the subject is of personal application and importance to us all. This is the case when charity is abstractly regarded; but when we approach the consideration of the charities of our own parish, those which we are bound to support and upon which we have individually a claim, our subject must excite the keenest interest. Too much cannot be known about them in order that their benefits may be distributed amongst the fittest subjects and most deserving persons that can be found; and in order that those of us who are blessed with means may learn how carefully and fruitfully any benefaction we may make in the future will be utilised and bestowed, if placed in the hands of those administering the charities already established in our parish.

Perhaps the point which will strike you most, when you have learned what I have to tell you this evening of the charities of Kensington, is the circumstance that, from small sums of money left for purposes of charity, great and ever growing results may spring, fulfilling purposes of good far beyond the most sanguine anticipations in which the original donors could have ever indulged.

Old Faulkner, to whose quaint and interesting history of Kensington I would refer all lovers of antiquity and curious anecdote, writing in 1820, says: “The amount of benefactions to this parish is highly creditable to the humanity of the original founders, and it is a pleasing as well as an important part of the duty of the historian to record these; perhaps in few parishes in the kingdom have they been more scrupulously observed, or more faithfully administered.” Pleasing as it was to Faulkner seventy years ago to remark upon the then condition of the parish charities, it will be yet more gratifying to us to observe at the present time how greatly they have developed, and how admirably they have been fostered, improved, and administered. Seventy years ago Kensington was really rural, containing only three or four hamlets, or assemblages of dwellings, a few large houses with grounds, some celebrated nursery and market gardens, and a few distinguished inhabitants. This is what Tickell, the poet, says about it:—

“Here, while the town in damp and darkness lies,
They (at Kensington he means) breathe in sunshine and see azure skies.”

What Kensington is now we all know; would that its charities had grown in proportion to its population. Perhaps if through your kind exertions more attention can be drawn to the subject they may enlarge, and the history of the future charities of Kensington prove as creditable as the past.

In the year 1807 a joint committee of the trustees of the poor, and of the vestry, was appointed to consider and report, amongst other subjects, upon the charities of the parish; and that committee undertook a most careful and exhaustive inquiry into the matter, the results of which were recorded in “The Report of the Kensington Committee of the 30th October, 1810.” It is needless to say that this report has now become a very rare document. Fortunately a copy has been preserved in the archives of the vestry, and to that copy—through the kindness of the vestry clerk, although with all due precautions to its safe preservation—I have had access; and thus we are enabled to make an interesting comparison between the condition of the parish and its charities then and now.

It appears from this report (which is as able a document as I ever read) that the parish in 1810 contained about 1,500 rateable houses, and an estimated population of 10,000 souls.

It appears from the report to the vestry of the Medical Officer of Health to the parish for the year 1888, dated July, 1889, that at the middle of 1888 the inhabited houses in the parish numbered 21,566, with an estimated population of 177,000 persons.

In 1810 the main charity of the parish was then, as now, the Campden Bequests. There were also the Methwold Almshouses, the Parish Free School, and some various other bequests of comparatively small amount for specific objects, or for the purposes of the poor of the parish generally.

What are known as the Campden Bequests have a most interesting history, and have grown from very small beginnings into a wealthy institution. They are alike the most ancient and most important of the parish charities.

In 1629, Baptist Viscount Campden, of the family which built Campden House, which has within the last sixty years extended its name to the hill on which its stands, bequeathed the sum of £200 to two gentlemen, and to the churchwardens of Kensington from time to time, “in trust to be employed for the good and benefit of the poor of the parish for ever as the trustees should think fit to establish.” This sum of £200, with £20 added from accumulated interest and otherwise, was in 1635 expended in the purchase of two closes of land containing fourteen acres, called Charecrofts, situate near Shepherd’s Bush Green, a very fortunate investment, as we shall presently find.

Elizabeth, Viscountess Dowager Campden, the widow of the former donor, in 1644 bequeathed another sum of £200 to Sir John Thorowgood and sundry parishioners, and to the churchwardens of Kensington, “upon trust that they should within eighteen months purchase lands of the clear yearly value of £10; one-half whereof should be applied from time to time for ever for and towards the better relief of the most poor and needy people that be of good life and conversation that should be inhabiting the said parish of Kensington; and the other half thereof should be applied yearly for ever to put forth one poor boy or more living in said parish to be apprenticed. The said £5 due to the poor to be paid to them half-yearly for ever at Lady Day and Michaelmas in the church or the porch thereof at Kensington.”

With Lady Campden’s £200 a close called Butt’s Field was immediately purchased, containing 5 acres 2 roods and 30 perches, and the purchase also included 3 roods to be taken out of an adjoining field, called the Middle Quale Field, at the south end of Butt’s Field. This purchase, we shall find, has proved a still more profitable investment than that of Lord Campden’s £200.

The remaining portion of the original property, now known as the Campden Bequests, is of a still more interesting character. In 1651, one Thomas Coppin, in consideration of the sum of £45, sold to the same Sir John Thorowgood and eleven of the parishioners and their heirs, “all that land with the appurtenances at the gravel pits in Kensington, containing two acres, in the occupation of Richard Barton.” No trust was declared in this conveyance, but subsequent occurrences leave no doubt that it was intended for purposes similar to those provided for by Lord and Lady Campden’s wills. And the purchase having been made so shortly after the two others, and at a time when the great Oliver Cromwell was the ruler of the country under the title of Protector, and when he held property in the parish, added to the circumstance that the gift was always traditionally ascribed to him and known as Cromwell’s gift, appear to leave no real doubt that it is to Oliver Cromwell that the parish owes this addition to the charities. It will be seen that this gift and purchase has proved no less profitable to the parish than the two others.

Let us pause for a moment, and see of what the property of the Campden Bequests then consisted.

Purchased in 1635 from Lord Campden’s gift, Charecrofts, 14 acres, costing	£220
Purchased in 1645 from Lady Campden, Butt’s Field (say), 6½ acres, costing	200
Purchased in 1651 from Cromwell, Gravel Pits, 2 acres, costing	45
Total, 22½ acres, costing	£465

Let us now endeavour to identify these properties.

I can make you understand where Charecrofts is situated by telling you that the Shepherd’s Bush Station of the London and South Western Railway now occupies a portion of the site.

Butt’s Field comprises the frontage to the Kensington Road extending from Gloucester Road on the west, eastward about 140 feet to Palace Gate, and from the Kensington Road southwards to and including the whole of the premises known as Kensington Gate.

The Gravel Pits are now occupied by Clanricarde Gardens, and the six shops known as Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, High Street, Notting Hill.

It would take too long to describe the various uses to which these sites have been put, and all the applications of the income derived from them. Suffice it to say, that the whole was always conscientiously applied to the purposes intended by their donors, except, that under an Act of Parliament passed in 1777 the original parish workhouse was built upon that part of Butt’s Field where Kensington Gate now stands, and the Act provided that the then existing rents of the three estates, amounting to £54, should be applied to the apprenticing of poor boys, but that any further rents that might be obtained beyond that sum should be applied in aid of the parish rates until the expense incurred in erecting the workhouse should be discharged. And accordingly they were so applied until Lady Day of 1816. This, no doubt, was a perversion of the fund, because, although the workhouse was for the relief of the poor, still by law all the parishioners were rated for that purpose, the rich as well as the poor; and in proportion as anyone was relieved from the payment of rates, so was the money diverted from the poor intended to be objects of the bounty. However, this distinction in 1777 escaped attention; but in the report of 1810, to which I have alluded, the point was strongly made, and since 1816 the whole income has been applied to its proper purpose.

As we have seen, in 1777 the total receipts from the lands were £54.

In 1810 the Charecroft Estate produced	£103	0	0 per annum.
„ Butt’s „ „	39	17	6 „
,, Gravel Pits „ „	38	0	0
Total	£180	17	6 „

of which £54 was applied to putting out apprentices, £29 to pay two remaining annuities; the amount necessary for building the workhouse having been obtained by the then fashionable expedient of settling life annuities, while the balance of £97 17s. 6d. was applied in aid of poor rates.

Let me now approach much nearer our own times, and, by referring to an elaborate report of the trustees of Campden’s Bequest appointed for the purpose in December, 1853, ascertain what was the income derived from these lands in 1854. Among the trustees at that time there were some well known persons, including the Venerable Archdeacon Sinclair, the then Vicar of Kensington, who many of us now present can well remember; the Rev. Dr. Hessey, Vicar of S. Barnabas; Sir Henry Cole, C.B., well known to many of us in connection with the South Kensington Museum; the Rev. E. P. Denniss, Vicar of S. John’s, Notting Hill; and Dr. Frost, of Ladbroke Square; who, if I mistake not, is the same Charles Maynard Frost who yet remains an active trustee of the charity.

In 1853 Charecrofts was let in two lots, producing	£99	0	0 per annum.
Butt’s Field, let in various lots (among which was the site of the old workhouse, let at £235 a year), producing annually	445	7	0 „
The Gravel Pits, let in various lots, producing	123	0	0 „
Total	£667	7	0 „

In the year ending Lady Day, 1853, £253 had been paid in pensions to poor persons, and £157 10s. applied for apprenticing poor boys, while £373 1s. 5d. remained to the credit of the pension fund, and £308 6s. 7d., to the credit of the apprenticeship fund.

Thus we see that the sum £465 invested in land in the years 1635 to 1651 produced in 1777 £54; in 1810, £180 17s. 6d.; and in 1853, £677 7s. per annum in rents.

And the application of the funds had, except as regards the old parish workhouse for the period mentioned above, been in accordance with the intention of the donors, namely:—

The income from Lord Campden’s Bequest (Charecrofts) in pensions to the deserving poor of the parish.

From Lady Campden’s (Butt’s) half in such pensions, and half in apprenticeships.

And from Cromwell’s (Gravel Pits) three-fourths in pensions, and one-fourth in apprenticeships.

Meanwhile the parish had been increasing greatly in population. Other churches had been built, and other congregations than that worshipping at the Parish Church of S. Mary Abbots had been formed, and districts allotted to them. Questions arose as to distribution of the charity funds as between the inhabitants of the various districts, and in 1852 a petition was presented to the Court of Chancery by the Incumbent and Churchwardens of the District Church at Brompton to have them settled by the Court under the powers of an Act of Parliament of 52 George III. And on the 23rd December, 1852, the Court of Chancery made an order directing that the trustees of the Campden Charities should in future apply the profits therefrom as they had hitherto been accustomed to do; but that in future without interfering with any pensions or contracts of apprenticeship already entered into by them in the proportions following among the various church districts:—

S. Mary Abbots, Kensington	25 parts.
S. Barnabas, Kensington	9 „
Holy Trinity, Brompton	21 „
S. Mary’s, West Brompton	6½ „
S. John’s, Notting Hill	17 „
S. James, Norland	9½ „
Total	88 „

Such order, it is evident, must have embarrassed the actions of the trustees greatly, and considerably interfered with their judicious application of the charity funds. I have not been able to refer to the evidence upon which the order was obtained, but if, on the ground of the distribution of the population of the parish in 1852 it had any shadow of justice then, it would be highly unjust now, when the population of the northern half of the parish, forming the Parliamentary district of North Kensington, and then comprised in the church districts of S. John’s, Notting Hill, arid S. James’, Norland, is greater than that of all the other districts put together.

Between 1853 and 1879 the income from the Campden Charities increased from the £667 7s. to about £3,500 a year.

Several leases of plots of ground had fallen in, and meanwhile the value of the land had been rising enormously. Charecrofts, at Shepherd’s Bush, formerly a nursery ground, was in 1864 let on a building lease for a term of ninety-nine years at a ground rent of £870 per annum. In 1865 the London and South Western Railway treated for and subsequently purchased a part of the estate, 5 acres 2 roods 5 perches in extent, for the sum of £10,000, which reduced the rent of the estate from £870 to £485 per annum.

This sum of £10,000 was for some time invested in consols, but in 1887 was reinvested in the purchase of ground rents in the city of London.

In 1874 a portion of Butt’s Fields was sold to the Duke of Bedford for the sum of £18,500 (a very good price you will think) for the site of Thorney House at the corner of Gloucester Road. In 1875 a further portion of the estate, being 12 and 13, Hyde Park Gate, was sold to Mr. James Watney, M.P., for £22,500. Both of these amounts were at first invested in consols, but have since been invested in the purchase of a freehold estate in the city called Thanet House, and in ground rents in the city.

In 1869 the Gravel Pits Estate was let on a building lease for ninety-nine years at a rent of £1,040 per annum, when Clanricarde Gardens, and Nos. 2, 4, 8, 10 and 12, High Street, Notting Hill, were erected thereon. And advantageous leases of the remaining land were made at greatly increased rentals from time to time as opportunity occurred.

Such being the case, and the trustees being hampered by that curious order of the Court of December, 1852, it was clear that the time had arrived when the affairs of the charity should be placed upon a footing consonant with its increased income and the greater population of the parish. Accordingly, application was made to the Charity Commissioners, who have been provided by the legislature with powers in that respect, and in 1879 that body made an order vesting the lands in the official trustee of charity lands, and approved a scheme prepared under their superintendence, altering the qualification for the office of trustee of the charity, defining the duties and powers of the trustees, and directing the application of the income of the charity. That scheme, which has since been the subject of some further orders, is practically, but not without some important modifications, the same as the one now in force, which I will state at length presently.

But at the time it was objected to considerably, and at a meeting of ratepayers held on the 3rd August, 1879, at the Vestry Hall, it was resolved to petition the Court against it, on the grounds principally that it limited the amounts payable in pensions and to be applied for apprenticing poor boys, and that it abrogated the order of the Court of the 23rd December, 1852, apportioning the distribution of the funds among the districts of the various churches; and a petition against the scheme was presented to the Court. Vice-Chancellor Hall was impressed by the arguments for the petitioners, and set aside the scheme, but the Charity Commissioners appealed, and the Court of Appeal, presided over by the late Master of the Rolls, confirmed the order of the Charity Commission, and, in his judgment, made some remarks of so generally interesting and important a character that I regret time does not permit me to read them to you. You will, however, find them recorded in vol. 45 of the “Law Times Reports,” at page 158.

The decision was given on, the 27th May, 1881, and accordingly the affairs of the charity were, up to the 4th of March, 1890, regulated by that order.

But on the 4th March, 1890, the Charity Commissioners, on the application of the trustees of the charity, made another order, which is the one now in force. It is practically the same, with some important additions, as that approved by the Court of Appeal in 1881. I now state it fully, so that you all may learn how the affairs of the charity are regulated.

The charity is managed by eighteen competent persons as trustees, viz.:—Three ex-officio, six representative, nine co-optative.

The three ex-officio trustees are the Vicar and Churchwardens for the time being of the parish of Kensington.

The six representative trustees are elected—two by the Vestry of Kensington; two by the Board of Guardians of the poor of the parish; two by the members of the School Board for London for the Division of Chelsea.

The co-optative trustees must be persons residing or carrying on business in the parish of Kensington, and are to be provisionally appointed by the trustees, which appointment must be approved by the Charity Commissioners before it is valid.

The representative trustees are appointed for five years, and the co-optative trustees for seven years.

The income of the charity is to be applied as follows:—1st, in the payment of the pensions and apprenticeship fees granted before the 27th May, 1881.

The income is then divided into two portions.

One-half of the income, after providing for these old pensions, is to be applied in charitable or eleemosynary purposes as follows:—(1) An annual sum of not more than £900 nor less than £700 in the payment of pensions to deserving and necessitous inhabitants of the parish of Kensington, who shall have resided therein for not less than seven years next preceding the time of their appointment, who shall not during that period have received poor law relief, and who from age, ill-health, accident, or infirmity shall be unable to maintain themselves by their own exertions.

(2) The remainder of the half, after paying the £900 applicable to pensions, to the general benefit of the poor of Kensington, to such persons and in such way as the trustees shall consider most advantageous to the recipients and most conducive to the formation of provident habits, as follows:—

1. (a) Subscriptions in aid of the funds of any dispensary, infirmary, hospital, or convalescent home, upon such terms as to enable the trustees to secure the benefit of the institution for the objects of the charities.

(b) To provident clubs or societies in the parish of Kensington for the supply of coal, clothes, or other necessaries.

2. Contributions towards

(a) The provision of nurses for the sick and infirm.

(b) The purchase of annuities for the augmentation of any income possessed by the recipients and produced by their own exertions.

(d) Passage money and outfit in aid of emigration.

(e) Maintenance of any reading-room, library, or working man’s club for the benefit of the parish.

3. The temporary relief in money by way of loan or otherwise to an amount not exceeding £200 in one year in case of unexpected loss, temporary illness, or sudden destitution. The pensions above mentioned are not to be less than £10 and not more than £26 a-year.

The other half of the income of the charities is to be applied to educational purposes:—

(a) In payments for the education of the children of poor inhabitants of the parish who are deaf and dumb or blind, or suffering from physical or mental infirmity, and who thereby aggravate the difficulties of their parents or guardians; and

(b) To the advancement of children who are bonâ fide residents in Kensington, who have been scholars in a public elementary school, and who have received certificates of good conduct from the managers, in the following ways:—

(1) In apprenticing children who have attended school for five years, and in providing a suitable outfit.

The apprenticeship premium is not to exceed £30.

(2) In payments not exceeding £10 a-year for the benefit of children who have attended school for not less than five years, and who have attained a standard which releases them from compulsory attendance. Such payment to be made only while the child regularly attends a public elementary school.

(3) Exhibitions for higher education of £30 a-year for five years.

(4) In providing lectures and classes for the benefit of scholars who are attending or have attended any public elementary school in Kensington.

The trustees have power to raise and expend £50,000 in a building for the purpose of such lectures or classes.

The trustees may give rewards of £5 to apprentices for distinguished merit.

The trustees are bound, in administering the funds, to have regard to the wants of the poor of every part of the parish of Kensington, and to satisfy themselves that in each case the beneficiaries are, in respect of poverty and character, deserving of help. And no part of the income is ever to be applied, directly or indirectly, in aid of the poor rate of the parish.

I hope you notice the anxious and thoughtful care which has been taken to secure that the funds shall be properly administered in accordance with the true intention of the original donors, and with the needs and circumstances of the parish at the present time.

The gross annual income of the Campden Charity is now the magnificent sum of £4,382 19s., all derived from the original investment of £465 in land in the middle of the 17th century.

I have pursued the interesting subject of the Campden Charities as long as the time at our disposal will permit, and your patience can endure. I only wish further to impress upon you that the charity has an office at the Vestry Hall, Kensington, and a clerk, Mr. R. C. Green, to whom all applications can be made, and who is ready at all times to give information to anyone properly applying to him for the same.

Those of you who care to go further into the subject, I recommend to obtain the last annual report of the trustees, and to carefully peruse the same.

Some of the most interesting work done under the auspices of the trustees is that of the handicraft classes, both for boys and girls, in which practical instruction and carpentering for the one, and cookery and dressmaking and mending for the other, has for some time been given at S. Clement’s Mission Room and All Saints’ School Room.

And I think that the powers lately given to the trustees to provide a building and equipment for technical education have already been exercised, and active steps are being taken for its establishment amongst us.

Before finally leaving the subject, I may mention that in the year 1889 there were paid £570 in old pensions; £1,566 on the first head of pensions and charitable aid; and £1,566 on the second head for education and apprenticeship.