A History of the County of Hertfordshire Volume 4 - Layston pages 77 to 88

A house belonging to the brotherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Buntingford was granted in 1561 to Thomas Paynell.(65)

CHARITIES The parochial charities are administered together by a body of trustees appointed by an order of the Charity Commissioners of 8 June 1877. They include the charities of :—

Henry Skynner, founded by will 1558, endowed with houses (including the Angel Inn) and land of the annual value of £140 or thereabouts.

Sir John Watts, deed 1603, consisting of a rent-charge of £4 issuing out of land in Buntingford.

Joan Sandbach, will 1605, trust fund, £80 2 1/2 per cent, annuities arising from the redemption in 1899 of a rent-charge of £2.

Bishop Seth Ward for apprenticing poor boys, will 1687, trust fund, £106 3s. 7d. 2 1/2 per cent. an¬nuities, being part of a sum of £480 stock arising from the redemption in 1899 of a rent-charge of £12, the balance having been expended in 1907 in the rebuilding of a house belonging to the charities.

William Bigg, will proved in the P.C.C. 2 July 1847, trust fund, £179 5s. 1d. consols.

The several sums of stock are held by the official trustees, producing together £9 2s. 4d. in yearly dividends.

John Crouch, deed 12 September 1631, being an annuity of £5 now charged upon land at Alswick Hall and applied in the distribution of bread.

The net income of the parochial charities is applied mainly in the distribution of bread, coal and other articles in kind.

Charities connected with Buntingford Chapel.— In 1642 the Rev. Alexander Strange, a former vicar, by deed granted to trustees land in Great Hormead and Layston, the rents and profits to be employed in the repairs of the chapel. In 1911 the sum of £3 16s., being the net rents of 6 a. 2 r., was so applied; and the Rev. Charles Heaton, by will proved in the P.C.C. 13 March 1754, devised an annuity of £2 charged upon land in Snayles Mead for a similar purpose.

The hospital founded and endowed by Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, for four poor men and four poor women is regulated by orders and constitutions made and ordained by the founder by deed, 4 December 1684, as modified by a scheme of the Charity Com¬missioners of 21 June 1910.

The endowments consist of certain fee-farm rents payable out of lands and hereditaments in the counties of Leicester and Lincoln, in respect of which £89 11s 11d. was received in 1911 ; also .£274 9s. 11d. India 3 per cent, stock with the official trustees, producing £8 4s. 8d. yearly, and £1,000 consols, derived under the will of the late Miss Mary Leader, proved at London 5 February 1909, producing £25 a year. Each of the inmates receives 5s. a week and 1s. at Christmas and an allowance for coals.

The Buntingford Grammar School has already been dealt with.(66)

Select page number:  Page 88