The Almshouses.—Dame Ellen, widow of Sir Francis Eure, by will bearing date 20th August, 1626, devised six tenements in William street, to the bailiffs and burgesses of Oswestry, and their successors, to be used and employed for the habitation of six poor men and six poor women, to be appointed by the said bailiffs and their successors. Jane Owen, in 1732, bequeathed to the twelve poor persons, inmates of the almshouse commonly called Porkington almshouses, the sum of 18s., to be paid to them yearly for ever; and she ordered her executor to charge her real and personal estate with the payment thereof. It does not appear that this gift was ever in any way settled to the use of the almspeople, Mrs. S. Ormsby, by her will in 1805, requested her daughter (now the wife of W. Ormsby Gore, Esq.), and those who should succeed her in the Porkington estate, would pay, “as she had done,” the poor people in the almshouse for ever. Mrs. Gore distributes £3 among the inmates on Christmas day, that being the sum her mother had previously given. The almshouses are kept in repair by Mrs. Gore, and she appoints the inmates.
Margaret Godolphin, in 1748, gave a messuage and shop, and other premises to the use of the vicar of Oswestry for the time being, provided he should live in the said house; and if the vicar should not reside in the said dwelling, the same should be let yearly, and the rents paid to the churchwardens, to be applied in placing out poor fatherless children apprentices. The premises above were exchanged in the year 1823, for other premises situate in Brook street. Before this exchange took place the house originally devised was not occupied by the vicar, but was let by the overseers, and the rent improperly carried to the general account of the poor’s rate. Owen Morgan, in 1604, gave certain property to the Haberdashers’ Company, London, subject to the payment of £20 yearly, for the relief of the poor people of the parish of Oswestry, to be distributed where most need should appear, by the parson, curate, and the churchwardens of the said parish. The yearly sum of £20 is received from the Haberdashers’ Company, through the Oswestry bank. This forms part of a general fund, which is distributed as hereafter mentioned.
Hugh Yale, by his will bearing date 2nd January, 1605, gave a messuage and garden adjoining the churchyard of Oswestry, with a croft near the Chapel Fields, and the reversion of a house and garden adjoining the school, in trust, to bestow the rents among the necessitous poor of the town; and he directed that if any preacher, lawfully licensed, should upon that day preach in the Welsh tongue in the parish church of Oswestry, he should receive 6s. 8d. out of the rents. The property belonging to Yale’s charity consists of a field called the Poor’s Croft, let for £8 per annum; two small tenements in Upper Brook street, producing a rental of £5 yearly; two plots of ground near the churchyard, demised to Richard Price for a term of 99 years, from 1st May, 1809, at a yearly rent of £2. 12s. 6d.; a piece of ground near the churchyard, let on lease in 1808 for a term of 99 years, to Thomas Davies, Esq., for 20s. per annum; two small cottages adjoining the churchyard, one let for £2 a year, and the other for £3 a year. A garden, for which a yearly rent of 2s. 6d. from the year 1688 till 1825 was received, when the party holding it disputed the right of the claim; the churchwardens, however, intended to take proceedings for possession of the land. In 1782, 10s. is entered as received of Thomas Griffith, for one year’s rent for a yard and a saw-pit adjoining the Lawn House. The same rent was afterwards paid by the Rev. Mr. Maurice, and, in 1804, by John Bonner, Esq., who succeeded to Mr. Maurice’s property. Nothing, however, has been paid since 1806, and the piece of ground could not be satisfactorily identified when the charity commissioners published their report. The income of this charity is added to the general fund, disposed of as hereafter mentioned. There seems to have been great negligence in the management of this charity, in admitting tenants who were unable to pay the rent; in not keeping up the boundaries of the land; and in not preserving the counterparts of those leases which appear to have been granted.
John Morris gave an annual payment of £1. 10s., issuing out of lands at Crickheath, for the use of the poor of the town of Oswestry. The amount is paid by the agent of W. Eyton, Esq., as the owner of the land upon which the payment is charged.
Richard Witcherley gave a parcel of land in Beatrice street, and directed 1s. per week to be expended in bread out of the rent thereof, and the overplus to be applied in apprentice fees. The premises consist of a croft, containing 1a. 2r., let at a yearly rent of £7.
Mrs. Dorothy Southey’s Charity.—A yearly sum of £2. 12s. is paid from a field in the liberties of the town of Oswestry, as the gift of Mrs. Southey, for a distribution of bread.
William Gough, in 1669, left a rent charge of £5. 6s. 8d., charged on certain lands in Trevlach, and directed £5 per annum to be applied in placing out poor children apprentice, born in the parish of Oswestry, and the remaining 6s. 8d. to be paid to the minister for a sermon on St. Stephen’s day.
A donor unknown gave a small plot of land for the use of the poor of Oswestry. A yearly payment of 5s. is made by William Ormsby Gore, Esq., out of a piece of land near Llwyn gate, in respect of this charity. There is also a yearly payment of 5s. issuing out of a house and premises in Cross street, the property of D. O. Cooper, which is distributed in bread among the poor.
Winifred Matthews, in 1709, left a yearly sum of £2. 10s., payable out of a piece of land in Trefonen, called Maes-y-Benglog, towards putting apprentice one poor child of the town of Oswestry one year, and the next year from Trefonon, Treflach, Sweeney, or Trever clawdd. The property from which this payment is made belongs to Sir W. W. Wynne, and the amount is paid by his agent.
Mary Lloyd, in 1727, bequeathed £100, and directed the yearly interest thereof to be laid out in woollen cloth for the poor of the town of Oswestry, and apprenticing a poor boy of the said town alternately. Mrs. Peacock, in 1732 gave £5, the interest to be distributed among poor decayed housekeepers. These two sums are laid out upon the security of the tolls of the turnpike road leading from Oswestry to Selattyn, called the Willow Gate Trust; and £5. 5s. is paid as the interest.