Gifts for public purposes.—“More than princely, civic munificence” was a happy phrase of Professor Max Müller on the occasion of the opening of the Mason Science College, and it is certain that in proportion as the feeling of citizenship in any community becomes strong it will manifest itself in the establishment or assistance of institutions for public purposes. Birmingham has never been without examples of this kind. The earliest of the existing charities of the town is—
Lench’s Trust, originated by a feoffment, 11th March, 1525, by William Lench, of lands in and near Birmingham to trustees. With this trust many other smaller gifts have been incorporated, and the income of the whole is now applied to the maintenance of four sets of almshouses for aged women, in Conybere Street, Hospital Street, Ladywood Road, and Ravenhurst Street. The total number of inmates is 178, and each of them has a house and four shillings a week. The income of this charity has grown with the growth of the town like that of the Grammar School (see [p. 26].) In 1839 it was £758, in 1886 it is £3,085.
The next endowment in order of time was that of the Free Grammar School (see [p. 26]) to which has since been added one half of the endowment of Milward’s Charity (A.D. 1684). Then came—
Fentham’s Charity (A.D. 1712), part of the revenue of which is appropriated to the maintenance of certain boys in the Blue Coat School, distinguished by a dark green dress.
With the exception of a number of smaller charities for apprenticing boys, relieving poor widows, giving doles of bread, no important public benefactions were bestowed for nearly a century. Almshouses in imitation of Lench’s Trust, twenty in number, were built by Joseph Dowell, in Warner Street, in 1820, and another set by Mrs. Glover, in Steelhouse Lane, for thirty-six aged women, in 1832.
The last twenty years have been fruitful in gifts by our wealthier citizens beginning with—
Evans’ Cottage Homes, Founded in 1867, by Alfred Smith Evans (of the then well-known firm of Evans and Askin), are six cottages at Selly Oak, of a superior kind to the ordinary almshouse, for ladies of reduced means. Each inmate is required to possess an income of £25 a year, and receives £20 a year from the trust. Vacancies in the trustees are supplied by magistrates of the borough, appointed by the Town Council.
The Orphanage and Almshouses at Erdington, completed in 1868, at a cost of £60,000, by the late Sir Josiah (then Josiah) Mason, and endowed with an annual income from landed property, which in 1885 produced £6,400. The Orphanage contains upwards of 300 children, in the proportion of two girls to one boy. The Almshouses contain 30 poor women. Seven of the fourteen trustees are appointed by the Town Council.
Crowley’s Orphanage.—Thomas Crowley, a timber merchant, of Birmingham, who died 28th February, 1869, by deed dated 15th February, 1869, settled £10,000 upon trusts to educate poor orphan girls. No orphanage has yet been built, but temporary homes have been opened in Ladywood Road.