The Endowed Charities of Kensington: By Whom Bequeathed, and How Administered

by Edward Morton Daniel

The Methwold’s almshouses continued to exist until about 1871, when both the almshouses and the Hale House Estate, out of which the rent charges were paid, were compulsorily acquired by the Metropolitan Railway Company, who paid a large sum to the vestry for the purchase thereof. This put an end to the almshouses. The money received from the purchase was invested in Government stock, and now consists of the sum of £4,922 11s. 10d. 2¾ per cent. consolidated stock, purchased for £4,563 4s. 9d. in cash. Application was then made to the Charity Commissioners for an order establishing a scheme for the future regulation of the charity, which was accordingly adopted, viz.:—That the net income of the charity be applied in pensioning poor widows or single women of good character and reputation, and not less than 60 years of age, whose income from all sources does not exceed £30 a year, who have resided in the parish for not less than ten years, and have never received parochial relief.

These pensioners are appointed by the Vestry. It appears from the Vestry report of 1888–9 that there were then seven women, whose ages varied from 78 to 84, in receipt of pensions from this fund, amounting in the aggregate to £118 6s.

I now come to various other gifts of small amounts, most of them of very great antiquity, to the poor of the parish of Kensington, to all except one of which the following remark applies:—These were gifts to secure which the donors charged specific sums annually upon certain properties, or left specific amounts of Government stock.

They were not gifts of land or of money which could be or was, except in one case, applied in the purchase of real property. Consequently the parish has not derived the benefit from the marvellous increase of value in lands due to the modern development of the parish which has happened in the case of the Campden bequests.

In 1560 Thomas Young gave for the use of the poor of the parish a rent charge of 20s. a year, and of two houses in High Street, Kensington, occupied in 1810 by Mr. Gunton, a plumber, and Mr. Cock, a shoemaker. I have not been able to trace all the vicissitudes of this gift, but I now find it converted into £37 18s. 2d. consuls, from which a yearly dividend of 11s. 2d. only is derived, so that this gift, instead of increasing in value to the poor of the parish since 1560, has actually decreased.

In 1617 Lady Berkeley charged a house at Kensington Gravel Pits with a rent charge of £10 a year, payable half-yearly, to be disposed of by the Vicar, Churchwardens, and Overseers of the poor within ten days after being received, “to, and amongst, and for the benefit of the most aged and impotent poor of the parish as they should see convenient.”

In 1658 Thomas Sams left a rent charge of £5 a year charged upon property in Church Lane and Holland Street, to be distributed among the poor of Kensington by the Vicar, Churchwardens, and Overseers, and this has ever since been regularly paid and distributed. I see that in March in the year 1890 it produced the sum of £4 16s. 10d., so this is another instance of a standstill property.

In 1805 Mary Carnaby left £40 for the use of the poor, and in 1707 the parish officers with £80, £30 of which was out of Mary Carnaby’s £40, and the remaining £50 was a gift by Catherine Dickens in 1702, for the specific purpose of education (as to which I shall have something to say presently) purchased the freehold of the “Goat” public house in the High Street in trust as to three-eighths of the rent to be distributed among the poor. The “Goat” public house still remains, and three-eighths of the rent now amounts to £54 12s. 1d., which is another instance of how profitable early investments of land in the parish have proved.

In 1794 James Mackintosh, by will, directed his wife to transfer £100 4 per cent. annuities to the Vicar and Churchwardens of the parish, for them “to apply the dividends thereof every Christmas in the purchase of coals, or bread, or both, for the relief of ten poor families of the parish who did not receive alms, as they from time to time may think most deserving.” This stock was duly transferred, and now consists of £105 consols, the dividend on which is £3 18s. 8d.

In 1798 Thomas Reeves, by will, gave to the Vicar, Churchwardens and Overseers £100 5 per cent. bank annuities, to apply the dividends thereof “unto and for the use of, and benefit of, the poor and indigent people, parishioners of Kensington, yearly for ever.”