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RefNoKP150/25
AltRefNoP150/25
TitleCharities and schools
DescriptionThe Charity Commissioners Report 1837 lists findings of a commission of Charitable Uses 1730, including details of 4 bequests of land and property for the benefit of inhabitants of Swaffham Prior, namely:
Lands given by William Thompson 1491, lands given by Joseph Haynes (under the Will of William Rolfe) 1577, both for the discharge of fifteenths and tenths, a tenement bequeathed by John Newburne for habitation by the poorest widows and orphans of Parish of St. Mary and lands let to provide income for its upkeep 1629;
31 acres of fen ground allotted by the Commissioners of the Bedford Level to provide funds, by the sale of turf, for the erection of a workhouse.
8 Trustees were to be chosen by the Churchwardens to administer these charities. In 1730 the Commissioners, being unable to trace the heir- at-law of the surviving Trustee, directed that new Trustees should be appointed to administer the funds, for the payment of a schoolmaster (£5 p.a.), poor relief and assistance of apprentices (£4 p.a.) and the maintenance of the workhouse. Allotments of various lands were also made to the Trustees at the inclosure of the Parish in 1814.
A boys' school was erected in 1763 and at the time of 1837 enquiry, had a schoolmaster at a salary of £10 p.a. It was then proposed to appoint a more efficient teacher to undertake the running of a Sunday School as well as the day school for an additional £5 p.a. A girls' school, employing a mistress at £15 p.a. had also recently been erected, for purpose of instructing 50-60 girls in reading, writing and plain work at cost of 1d per head per week. The same charge was also made for the boys' school, where the instruction also included arithmetic. Both establishments were non-denominational and were designed for children aged between 3 and 13, mostly of poor parents.
CreatorNameSwaffham Prior Parish Church
RepositoryCambridgeshire Archives
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