Sarah Brook, in 1760, left a rent charge of £5 per annum, issuing out of certain lands in Uffington, the amount to be paid to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of St. Alkmund, and St. Julian, in Shrewsbury, to each parish 50s., to be by them respectively laid out in twopenny loaves, and given among poor, old, and decayed people of honest life.
Ann Parry gave to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of St. Alkmund £20 to be placed out at interest, and the proceeds to be paid to four widows of the said parish yearly at Christmas. Francis Wingfield, in 1813 bequeathed £20, the interest to be distributed to poor persons of the parish on St. Thomas’s day yearly. These two legacies are held by the churchwardens, for which £2 yearly is paid as interest; the churchwardens and overseers distribute the interest according to the donors’ intentions.
Josina Pemberton, by a codicil to her will, bearing date 17th September, 1817, desired that her sister would pay yearly, during her life, the sum of two guineas, to the churchwardens for the time being of each of the parishes of St. Mary, St. Julian, and St. Alkmund, to be by them respectively laid out in coals, and distributed among the poor of the respective parishes, and she requested that her nephew, Robert N. Pemberton, would continue the annual payment during his life. The amount is laid out in coal, and distributed among thirty poor housekeepers on new year’s day.
PARISH OF ST. CHAD.
Charities.—Millington’s Hospital.—James Millington, by his will, bearing date 8th February, 1734, devised the greater part of his ample fortune for the erection and endowment of an hospital and free school. The hospital is pleasantly situated upon elevated ground in Frankwell, and consists of a handsome pedimented front with a stone portico; the central portion comprises the chapel and school room, and the houses of the master and mistress, and in the wings on each side are the apartments of the hospitallers. The property purchased by the trustees in 1753 and 1794 is wholly situated in the parish of Llanvair Waterdine, in the county of Salop, and in the parish of Beguildy, in the county of Radnor, except an estate of 15a. 0r. 9p., situate in the parish of Kinnerley. The entire property comprises 2,429a. 2r. 9p. of land, and produces a yearly income of £1227. The hospital consists of twelve in-hospitallers and ten out-hospitallers. These persons are appointed by the trustees as vacancies occur. They are required to be parishioners of St. Chad, and inhabitants of that part of the parish called Frankwell. No persons are selected except poor decayed housekeepers, and the preference has usually been given to females. Each of the in-hospitallers has a dwelling house in the hospital, consisting of a room above and another below, with a small garden, and other conveniences. The four senior of the out-hospitallers are allowed to occupy four sets of apartments over the schools, and they generally succeed as vacancies occur to the situation of in-hospitallers. Each of the inmates receives £10 10s. a year by quarterly payments, and three tons of coals, and a sixpenny loaf every Wednesday and Saturday. They are also supplied with a certain quantity of clothing. The out-hospitallers receive £4 per annum, and each has a like allowance of bread and clothing. A clergyman of the church of England is paid a salary of £50 a year as chaplain. He attends at the hospital every school day and reads prayers to the scholars and in-hospitallers, and the first Thursday in every month catechises the children. The minister in addition to his yearly stipend receives one guinea for preaching a sermon on the 12th of August. In the schools twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls are instructed. The schoolmaster receives £50 a year, and the mistress of the girls’ school £42 per annum, and each of them has an allowance of coal. The scholars are the children of parishioners of St. Chad’s, living in Frankwell, and are appointed by the trustees. They are admitted between six and nine years of age, and are allowed to remain till they are fourteen. During their stay in the school they are completely clothed and supplied with books and stationery; and when they are of sufficient age, the boys are bound out to trades, and the girls placed out in service. A premium of £10 is allowed with each apprentice, and £5 is paid to them when they have completed their time. The girls are allowed £3 when going out to service, and a like sum as a reward for good behaviour afterwards. There is a good garden for the schoolmaster and mistress, and a plot of garden ground for each of the twelve hospitallers, which they generally let for their own benefit, being worth about £2 per annum.
St. Chad’s Almshouses, situated on the east side of old St. Chad’s church yard, consist of eleven miserable tenements, containing one room each. They are extremely dilapidated, there being no fund for keeping them in repair. It is stated that they were founded in 1409, by one Bennet Tupton, a common brewer, and that there were formerly thirteen tenements, but that two fell down. They were endowed in 1640, by David Ireland, with a rent charge of £4 per annum, issuing out of land in Lythwood, and a further rent charge of £3. 18s., the gift of the widow of Mr. Ireland, which is also payable out of land in the same place. There is also a yearly sum of £1 6s., payable out of a piece of land in Sutton Lane, left by Robert Owen, and a small payment of 2s. 2d. yearly, made by the Mercers’ company. These several sums amounting in the whole to £9. 6s. 2d. are distributed in equal proportions among the inmates. The Rev. Richard Scott, B.D., bequeathed £150 in 1848, and directed the interest to be expended in coals for the poor of St. Chad’s almshouses.
Richard Lleweylln, who was bailiff of Shrewsbury in 1637, devised certain lands in the township of Shelton, and directed the yearly income to be employed in binding out poor children apprentices born in the parish of St. Chad; the children of his kindred to be preferred. The property left by the testator produces an income of about £12. 12s. per annum.
Thomas Owen, one of the justices of the court of common pleas in 1598, devised to the bailiffs and commonalty of the town of Salop the yearly rent of his farm at Calcott, and directed that they should employ the profits thereof in giving assistance to poor decayed householders of the parish of St. Chad. This gift in after times merged into a rent charge of £20 per annum. The amount is now received by the chamberlain of the corporation, and distributed with the produce of the following charity.
Edward Owen, by will, dated 25th November, 1612, gave to the bailiff and burgesses of the town of Salop a rent charge of £10 per annum, issuing out of his lands in Kilgurgan, in the county of Montgomery, the same to be distributed among 200 of the poorest holders in the parish of St. Chad, wherein he was born. This sum of £10 is carried to one account with that of £20 derived from Thomas Owen’s charity, and £1 10s. from the gift of David Lloyd ap Rogers, and distributed on the first Thursday in the year to poor persons in the parish of St. Chad.
Thomas Edwards, in 1641, charged certain lands in the parish of Middle, with the payment of £12 per annum, 20s. thereof annually to be given to poor maidens at their marriage, £10 to be distributed among the poor of the town, and £2 to be paid to the curate of St. Chad.