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.