The Walcot Educational Foundation [Provides funds to support the education of young people (aged <30) who live in the London Borough of Lambeth. Made 590 grants totaling £719,279 in 2002]

The Walcot Non-Educational Charity  [Provides funds for individuals in need, hardship or distress and for projects that tackle social deprivation in or benefit the local community. Made 624 grants totaling £115,394 in 2002]

Hayle's Charity  [Provides for items, services or facilities to reduce need, deprivation or promotes social inclusion in the local community. Made 165 grants totaling £164,205 in 2002]

Ann Siderfind's Charity (1706)
Alice Easton's Charity
Barnaby's Charity (1728)
Bryan Turberville's Charity
Earl Thanet's Charity
Edmund Walcott and his Will
Eleanor Dobson's Charity
Elizabeth Edridge's Charity
Elizabeth Lambert's Charity
Grace Fenner's Charity
Harry Clapham's Charity
Hayes Fortee's Charity
Hayle's Charity
Jacob Vanderlin's Charity
Jane Wakeling's Charity
John Course's Charity
John Pickton's Charity
John Scaldwell's Charity
John Vaux's Charity (1612)
Margaret Oakley's Charity
Mary Chapman's Charity
Mary Oakley's Charity
Ralph Snow's Charity
James Spencer's Charity
Richard Lawrence's Charity
Richard Roberts's Charity
Robert Frost's Charity
Roger Jeston's Charity
School Prizes
Sir Noel Caron's Almshouse
The Benson and McArthur Charity
The Countess of Gower's Charity
The Lambeth Endowed Charities
The Walcot & St. Thomas' Bursary
Thomas Cooper's Charity (1695)
Thomas Rich's Charity
Valentine Wanley's Charity (1612)
William Hind's (1655)

The 'Lambeth' charities were mostly administered by the rector and churchwardens of St. Mary's Church, one being relayed to the parish by the Haberdashers' Company, and one by the Mercers' Company.

The period of these endowments stretches from the first quarter of the seventeenth century to the twentieth century, and in the space of those four hundred years there were considerable changes.

Many of the buildings which provided the wherewithal for some of the charities became uninhabitable in time and either fell down or had to be demolished, resulting in building leases having to he granted, or some other means found for the utilization of the land. Poverty was relatively widespread, but many people in the area were employed by small business owners, market gardeners etc" worked as clerks, or managed small businesses themselves.

One can infer from many of the wills that the donors were anxious to provide lasting help to the poor, and the words 'for ever' appear in those wills whose makers were long-sighted enough and wealthy enough to recommend that their endowments be used to purchase 'ground, tenements, or hereditaments' (hereditament= property that might pass to an heir) in order that the value might increase from year to year and continue to do good. The records of the charities themselves should have been kept in good order, but they needed to be checked or questioned from time to time.

In the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries inquiries into charities were in the hands of the Court of Chancery. In the early 1800s inquiries were made into charities all over the country, and special Commissions were initiated. One such inquired into the charities in the trust of the Parish of Lambeth:

1. The Inquiry in this Parish was held on the 29th and 30th November, and the 1st, 2nd, and 8th December 1897.
2. The following is the Report on the Educational Charities of this Parish, dated 2nd March 1819, of the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of the Act 58 Geo.III c.91, to inquire concerning Charities in England for the Education of the Poor ...

This report is hereinafter referred to as the Report of 1819.

The following is the Report on other Charities of the Parish, dated the 24th (month unreadable) 1826, of the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of the before-mentioned Act 58 Geo.III c.91, and 59 Geo.lllc.81, as continued by the Act 5 Geo.IV...etc.

The following is a brief account of records being handed over to the Archive from the office of Lambeth Endowed Charities, dated October 1979:

Under the 1893 scheme of the Charity Commissioners, following the publication of the enquiries, twenty-six small charities, the majority of them with incomes of less than £50 per annum, were administered by a single body of trustees (the Rector of Lambeth ex officio, eight elected and four co-optative) as United Charities. Four of these were consolidated as the Noel Caron Almshouses and thirteen as the Consolidated Charities.

As for the changes in money and its value: just before the second world war, in the late 19305, a new semi-detached house (three up and two down and all the 'cons' that were 'mod' at that time) in a desirable area in the provinces cost about £350; in London and the home counties such a house would have cost more -possibly about £500. Less than fifty years later houses of similar size in London and the Home Counties were priced in tens of thousands, rising over the next decade to hundreds of thousands.

It can be seen that inflation whittled away the monies that the charitable gave for the poor, and changes in methods of administration were due.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the charities, after much scrutiny and consideration, were reorganized. Many of the small charities became The United Charities; the Walcot Charity became the Walcot Educational Foundation. An offshoot of the larger charity, called the Walcot Non-Educational Charity, came into being in 1939; small grants from a fixed income are donated annually to individuals in need.

In recent years some of the houses on the Walcot Estate have been sold, with the consent of the Charity Commissioners, in order to purchase other assets, thus increasing the amount to be used for the charity.

After similar deliberations, in 1853 it was decreed that the annual income from the Hayle's Estate was to be given for medical relief; pensions and the support of schools, as the fund permitted. In 1903, the latter use was designated as the Hayle's Educational Foundation.

By 1978 the Trustees realized that the income from the estate was being consumed by the ever- increasing costs of estate maintenance and that little remained for charitable allocation. With consent the Hayle's Estate was sold to the London Borough of Southwark, and the capital reinvested in commercial properties and securities.

The Walcot Educational Foundation is administered by Governors.

The Co-optative Governors are also Trustees of the Walcot Non-Educational Charity. All Trustees of the Hayle's Charity are also Trustees of United Charities; the Benson and McArthur Charity; the Harry Clapham Charity; The Robert Forest Charity; the Lawrence & Spencer Charity.

By his will dated 3 January 1667, Edmund Walcott left seventeen acres of land in Lambeth in trust for the poor of St. Mary Lambeth and St. Olave Southwark: thus the income from the estate would go to those in need in the ancient parishes. (There was also an acre of copyhold ground, which had previously belonged to his uncle Richard Walcott, sometime bailiff of the manor of Kennington, but this acre reverted to the Archbishop of Canterbury as Lord of the Manor after Edmund's death.) Edmund left his property to his father William Walcott for life and the reversion to the charity. He died on 4 February 1667 (It is not clear in the register whether the date was 1667 or 1668, i.e. Old Style or New Style), and his father died on 31 December 1668. Both Edmund and William asked to be buried in St. Olave's Church, and entries of their deaths appear in St. Olave's registers. They were both haberdashers (Edmund was made a freeman of the Haberdashers' Company on 8 June 1649).

The chief archivist of the Haberdashers' Company says there was a cluster of haberdashers' shops on London Bridge at its Southwark end, and that William and Edmund probably lived above the shop. This is confirmed by the Bridge House records for 1666: under 'Rentals' an entry reads: William Walcott - 53s. 4d. for the quarter: Below is Edmund Walcott, On a separate list of 'inhabitants' their names are to be found under: Bridge Ward Within - first Precinct on London Bridge - William Walcott and Edmund Walcott, also in the year 1666. It could be for this reason that Edmund divided his charity between the two parishes-the one where he owned land and the other where he lived.

In a codicil to his will, Edmund talks of bequeathing the contents of his little chamber situate in a messuage or tenement in Clapham to Henry Minchard, the reversion of which belongs to me, and that he have free use of it ... during the lifetime of Ellenor, the late wife of my loving uncle Francis Walcott deceased ... From the description he uses, it could well have been the equivalent of a 'place in the country', to be used occasionally: or perhaps it has some connection with his illness, in that he states in his will ...I Edmund Walcott Citizen and haberdasher of London being somewhat weak in Body but of sound and perfect mind and memory ...

While St. Olave's church registers are still available, the church and its graveyards (two of them) are long gone. The last register of burials is shown as 1853, though baptisms and marriages went on till 1918, an indication of the large number of deaths in its parish. It became united with the parish of St. John Horsleydown in 1918. This was a 'younger' church than St. Olave's (which functioned from 1582), its records beginning in 1733. It was damaged in the Second World War, and the last marriage register closed in 1956, because it was at that time united with St. Mary Magdalene Bermondsey. St. John's graveyard has also gone. It appears, sadly, that records of headstones and other identifying markers are lost, and there is no information in the registers other than the entries of Edmund's, and later William's, deaths. We know that the plague was active in the area in which they lived and worked between 1665 and at least 1666, but there were many other infections and illnesses rife at that time. One cannot, therefore, assume that their deaths were connected with the plague or its aftermath.

Edmund's seventeen acres lay between Walnut Tree Walk and Brook Drive on either side of Kennington Road (the two latter roads did not then exist). The area was a rough oblong perched more or less on one of its comers. An old map shows very few buildings and the land is marked as for market gardening. At the time of Edmund's death the estate was tenanted, eventually passing to John Ram say, grocer and alderman of London, and thence to his daughters and their husbands Baron Herbert of Cherbury and Sir William Broughton.

It was partitioned in 1713 between the parishes of St. Olave and St. Mary so that it might be more conveniently developed, and by agreement Lord Herbert paid rent to St. Mary's parish and Sir William to St. Olave's. The present line of Kennington Road formed the line of demarcation, St. Mary's taking the north-eastern and St. Olave's the south-western portion. (There was a small adjustment between the parishes in 1815, involving 112-114 Kennington Road.) The estate was obviously sub-let since the records show that the partitioned lands were in the occupation of John Gold, Simon Hardy, Edmund Goldegay and Thomas Ellisome. Gold and Harding were gardeners, and probably the whole estate was used for market gardening.

Westminster Bridge was built in 1750 and the new road, then called Walcot Place (poor Edmund appears to have lost his final 't' when Walcot Place was built), later to be Kennington Road, lay between the partitioned grounds. Both St. Olave's and St. Mary's sold land to the Turnpike Trust for the laying out of the road. The frontages opened up by the making of the new road increased the value of the estate; consequently the Trustees took advantage of this by leasing land for the building of houses.

By an Act passed 'in the reign of his present Majesty' (King George IV) dated 1828, the partitioning of the land was confirmed and the charities regulated, and the trustees nominated as the rector and churchwardens of St. Mary's parish; the same was confirmed for the parish of St. Olave, making also a sharing of that portion with the parish of St. John Horsleydown on a three-fifths/two-fifths basis. The Act also dealt with the regulating of Robert and Ann Hayle's estate (q.v.).

The inquirers were meticulous in rehearsing in their report all the details of the Act, and the proceedings of the Court of Chancery; they inspected and reported upon the leases and the terms on which they were currently held. The Court had also ordered that a proper Bill should be prepared ...to vest a complete legal estate in the said respective parsons and churchwardens and their respective successors, of and in all and singular the premises in the said property ...such Bill to contain proper clauses for the regulation of the said charity for granting building or other leases ...This was to enable the Trustees to obtain building leases for houses to be built in what became Walcot Square, St. Mary's Walk, St. Mary's Gardens and Bishop's Terrace.

A schedule from St. Mary's written in the mid-to-late 1800s reads:

Gross annual rental at present: £1485, to be disposed of amongst the most needy and poor people in the Parish of Lambeth.
In accordance with an order of the Court of Chancery dated 17 March 1834, the funds of the Charity are now annually applied as follows:

To schools in various parts of the Parish: £600
To pensions for 20 old men and 20 old women: abt. £630
To clothing poor old men and women at Christmas: £50
To apprentice fees: £50

With the exception of the building of Walcot Gardens, the block of flats on the comer of Walnut Tree Walk, the Walcot Estate, like the rest of the Lambeth area, remained more or less unchanged until the second world war. It was extensively damaged in relation to its size. Some of the buildings either received a direct hit or were rendered irreparable. Many more were uninhabitable because of damage from blast, and families had to be moved out of one house into another so that repairs could be carried out. Repairs were necessarily makeshift-it was impossible to get building materials and labour during the war; as late as the 1960s the damaged walls of the odd numbers in Walcot Square were being repaired. Considering the age of the houses, it is astonishing that they withstood so much! The Borough of Lambeth erected prefabricated houses on the bomb-sites, and it was some years before the larger gaps were built on by St. Thomas' Hospital under lease.

Extract from Lambeth Endowed Charities Annual Review:

The Walcot Educational Foundation is the largest of the Lambeth Endowed Charities ... Between 1835 and 1839, the Trustees of the St. Mary's portion of Edmund Walcot's endowment established Walcot Square, St. Mary~ Walk and Bishop~ Terrace on the east side of the newly constructed Kennington Road. These properties, together with adjacent houses on Kennington Road, have been known as the Walcot Estate and have remained until very recently the total assets of the Walcot Charity.

The income from the whole endowment-other than an annual £624 for pensions (which later became the annual allocation for the Walcot Non-Educational Charity) and the cost of maintaining and improving the Estate-was to be allocated for educational purposes. This is the basis on which the present polity of the Governors (called so rather than 'Trustees', because of the educational nature of the Trust) is funded.

In recent years, the Governors of the Walcot Educational Foundation gave serious consideration to whether the assets of the Charity were providing the right level of income for their value. Following professional advice and with the consent of the Charity Commissioners, the Governors agreed to the managed sale of residential properties as and when they become vacant, in order to purchase other assets, including commercial properties. This has, over the years, helped to retain the capital value of the original assets, whilst providing more income for distribution. The polity of diversifying the assets began in 1981, and by 2000, of the 150 or so residential properties originally belonging to the Estate in Kennington, only 70 now remain, with the rest belonging to new freehold owners.

As a result of the changes in asset management and investment polity, the income available for distribution for charitable purposes rose .from £116,000 in 1986 to over £1,000,000 by December 2000.

It seems that the origin of this charity was different from that of Edmund Walcott's, in that a parcel of ground was granted to the rector and churchwardens of St. Mary Lambeth for the sum of £300, and the income from this ground used for the poor of the parish of St Mary. Mr. Charles Barker, a former Assistant Overseer of Lambeth and Clerk to the Charity, reported on 19 December 1881 that the funds for the purchase appeared to be from monies remaining in the hands of the churchwardens, and probably from a balance of the subscription raised for making improvements to the churchyard and Church Street (now Lambeth Road). There was an over- subscription of £400 by the people of Lambeth for the repairs to the parish church at the Restoration, after the depredations of the Commonwealth. The assumption is that £100 was spent by seven men of the parish, who were ...appointed to act with the church- wardens, with full power to contract, bargain and make an agreement with what workmen they thought fit for the repair of the church ...the remainder being the £300 used for the grant of land.

An entry in the Vestry Book dated 10 November 1667 shows that a parish meeting ordered ...that Mr. Cuyper and others be empowered to inquire after some purchase whereupon the stock of the Parish may be laid out and improved to the best advantage of the poor of the Parish. In April 1670 the Head Churchwardens and others were appointed to ...meet the Commissioners from the City to treat about a purchase at Garlick Hill, London.

However, as a result of inquiries and reports of the committee appointed by the parish, the decision was eventually taken to obtain from Robert Hayle, a citizen and haberdasher of London and Ann his wife what was an open, undeveloped field in Southwark just across the parish boundary; for on 1 December 1671 a conveyance was obtained by the-rector, churchwardens and certain other public men of Lambeth from Robert and Ann Hayle ...all that piece or parcel of ground lying in the St. George's Fields, in the Parish of St. George the Martyr; Southwark, called Six-Acre Piece. The price, as already stated, was £300, and at the time of the conveyance the estate was under lease to Edward Fletwood, or Fleetwood.

Apart from the 1667 reference to the best advantage for the poor of the parish, the intention of the trust does not appear to have been recorded in writing until some 30 years after the deed of conveyance. Doubtless it was thought to be useful that a record should be made, for by an indenture of 11 January 1700, the rector and 13 other persons, after reciting the deed of 1 December 1671, declared and acknowledged ...that by virtue of that Deed they stood seised of the premises upon trust and confidence that they and their heirs, or some of them, should manage, dispose, and pay the rents issues or profits of the said premises to the Rector and Churchwardens for the time being of the said parish of Lambeth, to be from time to time disposed of for the relief of the poor inhabitants of the same parish, as the Rector and Churchwardens for the time being should think fit.

St. George's Fields covered a large area, now within the borough of Southwark, only a small part being enclosed (roughly that now occupied by Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park and the Imperial War Museum). The Dog and Duck was there (fronting on to what is now Lambeth Road/St. George's Road), almshouses, and a few broken-down hovels. The rest of St. George's Fields, early in the seventeenth century, was a place of recreation. However, by 1746 there were strong agitations for enclosure, because waggoners would drive over the open fields in order to avoid the weighing machines at the tollgates. During the Commonwealth there were three or four forts, one of them near the Dog and Duck. The area, which is now the corner of the park and St. George's Cathedral, at the junction of the present roads, was the site of the Gordon Riots. They lasted for six days from 2 to 8 June in 1780.

They began with a petition by Lord George Gordon to Parliament against recent concessions to Catholics, but violent and criminal elements soon took over. Prisons were attacked and their inmates released, Catholic chapels were destroyed, breweries, taverns and distilleries plundered, and the houses of Catholics and magistrates set on fire. The troops were called out, and the fighting took place finally in the area where the park now is. Many members of the mob were shot by the soldiers, engulfed in flames, or buried in rubble. (See Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens.)

The Hayle's 'six-acre piece' was a comparatively small part of St. George's Fields. It covered what is now Elliott's Row, Hayles Street, part of St. George's Road at the ends of these streets, and smaller side 'rows'. None of the ground was built on at the time. The intention appears to have been to use up all the money obtained from this source for the benefit of the poor, so that each year, by 31 December all should have been used up.

In 1822 a petition was presented by Thomas Lett and one other, inhabitants of the parish, to the Master of the Court of Chancery questioning the lack of proper method of disposal of the charity, since there were no clear accounts and no proper scheme to be followed. In the course of the century and a half from the time of purchase these roads and their houses were built, in tightly packed rows: Elliott's Row, Elliott's Court, Gibraltar Row, Castle Place, Gibraltar Place, Prospect Place, Mount Place, Smith Place, Caroline Buildings, Union Place.

A map dated 1790 shows most of the ground already built upon; then in 1851 the Trustees decided to build flats on the remainder for well-to-do artisans. These became known as Hayle's Buildings and St. George's Buildings. In 1853 it was decreed by the Commissioners ...that the annual income of the estate was to be given for medical relief, pensions and the support of schools as the fund permitted ...

Besides administering the charity, the rector and trustees appeared to hold a watching paternal brief. In the minutes there is recorded on 5 May 1902 a conviction in respect of a house on the estate used as a brothel. Advice of Counsel was sought; and he, having advised that there had been a breach of covenant and also that evidence would have to be obtained and formalities would have to be gone through to enable an action of ejectment to be successfully maintained, the committee gave authority for efforts to be made to obtain the necessary evidence. The Committee recommend that they take such steps on behalf of the trustees as to the Committee may appear desirable, and Counsel may advise ...

1. Costs of ordinary repairs, insurance, administration and management;
2. extraordinary repair fund investment -10% of rents;
3. *£450 to Waterloo Hospital (ceased to be payable from 5 July 1948);
4. *£413 4s. 0d. to Medical Relief;
5. £436 16s. 0d. to Pensions;
6. £600 to Hayle's Educational Fund;
7. £200 to Apprenticing;
8. Optional, 10% to Extraordinary Repair Fund;
9. If any residue:
   1. 26/45ths to Medical relief;
   2. 13/45ths to Pensions;
   3. 6/45ths to Apprenticing.

Under the 1935 Educational Scheme: Grants in either or both of the following ways:

1. maintenance, insurance, and improvement of any Public Elementary Non-Provided School in Lambeth;
2. Educational benefit of qualified children in need of financial assistance.

No provision is, or ever has been made, for the retention out of profits of any 'Working capital; the Scheme requirement is to allocate and distribute the 'Whole of the net balance as on the 3lst December in every year and to start 'With nothing in hand on the 1st January, and this need for a 'Working capital, always difficult in pre-'War years, was much accentuated by the War... written by Mr. Garnish in 1953.

Extract from The Lambeth Endowed Charities Annual Review 1996:

By 1978 the Trustees realised that the income from the estate was being consumed by the ever- increasing costs of estate maintenance and that little remained for charitable allocation. They decided to sell the estate to the London Borough of Southwark for £600,000, and to reinvest the capital in commercial properties and securities in approximately equal proportions. By the end of 1996 these assets were valued at over £2,500,000. In 1990 the Charity Commissioners sealed a revised Scheme for the Charity which widened its objects:

...for relief in need in relieving either generally or individually persons resident in the area of benefit who are in condition of need, hardship or distress, by making grants of money or providing or paying for items, services or facilities calculated to reduce the need, hardship or distress of such persons.

By the end of 2000 the assets were valued in the region of £4,000,000 and now provide the Hayles Charity with its income for distribution.

THEN: Sir Noel Caron was Dutch Ambassador in England from 1609 to 1624, and must have become very attached to this country, for he built for himself a large house in South Lambeth, with grounds (presumably between Clapham Road and South Lambeth Road, where Fentiman Road now lies).

In his will dated 20 June 1623 he ...thought it necessary to declare that he some years before had caused to be built in his grounds adjacent to the Kingston Road an almshouse containing seven different apartments with dining room above and below, in which he had placed seven old women of 60 years of age and upwards, to whom he gave 20s. a quarte1; viz., at Christmas, Ladyday, St. John the Baptist and Michaelmas, and intended to continue the same as long as he lived, but in case he died before he had secured that annual rent of £27 (28) his mind was that his executors should do it for the subsistence and maintenance of the said seven women, and that with the best and most ready goods of whatever kind he should leave at his death, that the said 20s. per quarter might be duly paid to the said women, the payment whereof should belong to him who should chance to inhabit the testators house, which he built in South Lambeth, who should also have the providing and appointing of the said poor women without fraud or guile; and it was his mind and will that as soon as might be all the goods which he should leave, viz. his house, lands, moveables, gold and silver plate and jewels should be sold and applied to the securing and settling of the before-mentioned three parts of his goods, viz for Philip de Caron, £120 per annum, for Peter de Caron, £60 per annum, and for the rent of his hospital of poor women; and if the before-mentioned goods should not suffice for all these, that the rest of his goods and moveables should be applied to complete them, namely the houses which he had in the city of London.

It is very sad, therefore, that what amounted at the time to a substantial endowment should not have lasted in perpetuity, because a note in Endowed Charities -London Vol. IV, being an inquiry following a Report on the Educational Charities in England for the Education of die Poor dated 1819, states that ...the payments thus described have long since ceased, but they have been succeeded by an annual allowance out of the churchwarden s account of half-a-guinea to each of the poor women, for supplying them with coals, which they still continue to enjoy. They have also the benefit of the charity called Countess Gower's, and a part of that of Hayes Fortee. (q.v.) It is good to know that Sir Noel's wishes were carried out by other charitable persons.

NOW: Extract from The Lambeth Endowed Charities Annual Review 1997: An important responsibility of the Hayle's Trustees was the ownership of seven attractive Almshouses in Fentiman Road ...Unfortunately the cost of capital repairs and running the houses was far more than the Charity could afford. After many years of negotiations with the Charity Commissioners and various Housing Trusts, the Trustees handed over the leasehold of the properties to the Family Housing Association. The houses have been fully repaired and refurbished and are let to local women in need (in the spirit of the original benefaction).

Noel Caron, who had provided die properties, was a Dutchman, and it was appropriate that the Dutch Ambassador came to re-open the newly refurbished houses in February 1997. The lease runs out in fifty years' time, and the Trustees will then have to decide what die next stage will be. The almshouses are still die ultimate responsibility of Hayle's Charity.

Please see the separate entry on this website about the Almshouses

THEN: Roger Jeston, by Will dated 2 April 1622, gave to the churchwardens and overseers, and some of the ancientest of the parish of Lambeth in the county of Surrey yearly, towards the relief of the poor there £3, (Jeston was a member of the Haberdashers' Company who administer his Will) and the payment is received .from them annually, and forms part of a disbursement in the purchase of bread, for distribution on Sundays in the church, after morning service, amongst a certain number of old women selected by the churchwardens .from amongst the most needy poor of the parish, and who continue to enjoy the benefit for their lives.

According to William Herbert, who wrote a History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies (published 1837), there is a Jeston, a Jesson and a Jetson mentioned as benefactors. Since 'Mr. Jesson' bequeathed to six poor trimmers of hats, and to the minister at Lambeth and the poor there certain payments to each, by Will dated Apri1 1622, it is reasonable to suppose that this would be 'our' Roger Jeston. The money for these, according to the Schedule in the book ... came from two Alleys in Grub Street* formerly worth £100 per year; of late laid into a court, and let out to a carpenter to build ...These were not his only bequests: under the spelling 'Jeston' there appear ...three of £6 13s. 4d. each, per annum, to Trinity College, Cambridge ...(for exhibitions or temporary pensions to poor scholars) ...and six hatters or other .freemen £2 12s. each ... (The Haberdashers' Company website)

N.B. This charity appears to have been joined with Margaret Oakley's Charity (£15 per year), and distributed weekly in the form of bread.

NOW: Hayle's Charity continues to receive an annual donation from the Haberdashers' Company.

*Grub Street: a former name of Milton Street, Moorfields, London, once inhabited by booksellers' hacks and shabby writers generally -it was certainly called Grub Street in Pope's time (1688-1744).

By his will dated 30 July 1721 Thomas, Earl of Thanet gave ...divers large sums of money to be applied to divers charitable uses ... His daughter and executrix Mary, Dowager Countess Cower, finding that there was still money arising from his estate, felt ... that there were in Lambeth certain almshouses commonly called Vauxhall Almshouses, founded about the year 1623 by the will of the Honourable Noel Caron, which were inhabited by seven old women, appointed according to his will, and were very insufficiently provided fo1; as well as the reparation of the said almshouses; and making better provision for the same was thought by her to be a charity very useful and advantageous ...

Accordingly she purchased £1,150 three per cent consols and transferred them immediately to-the rector and churchwardens ofSt. Mary's in trust, such part of the half-yearly interest to be used in maintaining the houses and to pay the residue of the interest half-yearly among the seven old women inhabiting them. The annual income stood at £34 10s. in the early 1800s.

This charity also was set up by the will of Hayes Fortee on 15 February 1783 to the rector and churchwardens of Lambeth Parish Church in trust, one moiety to be paid to the poor widows in Sir Noel Caron's almshouses at Vauxhall, and the other moiety to and for the relief of such other poor people within the parish. The amount when the trust was set up by the rector amounted to £746 5s. 4d. in three per cent consols, rendering an annual income of£22 7s. 8d., £14 14s. of which was paid to the inhabitants of the almshouses.

NOW: The above two charities were amalgamated with that of Sir Noel Caron, and are now administered by the Trustees of Hayle's Charity.

THEN: Henry Smith, in 1627, decreed ...for the relief of the impotent and aged poor: to be bestowed in apparel of one colour; with some badge or other mark, that the same may be known to be the gift of the dono1; or else in bread and flesh, or fish upon each Sabbath Day publicly in the Parish Church. The money is applied in gifts of apparel according to the directions of the donor... by the churchwardens and overseers. The money for this was forthcoming from the rents of certain estates being held by trustees and the rents paid into the hands of the Accountant General. This charity was still functioning according to the original bequest, 'the poor' being selected by the churchwardens from among the most aged and deserving of the parish.

N.B. There is a discrepancy in the dates of this endowment: the inquirers wrote ... This charity, in respect of which there was received in 1824 the sum of ...for coats for men and cloaks for women ...whereas the old Parish Schedule gives the date as 1627.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: Alice Easton willed to provide £4 per year for the churchwardens of the parish of Lambeth, to be distributed for the use of the poor of the parish. This was a charge upon her nephew, who was her beneficiary, and his heirs and assigns for ever. There was also a bequest of 40s. by the year to the parson for preaching four sermons on the four Wednesdays next following the usual feasts; and if the said parson or vicar and their successors should not preach the said sermon then the 40s. should cease, and her nephew John Norton should have the benefit thereof. (The inquirers). It was found by the Commissioners inquiring into the charities of the Parish of Lambeth ...that the sum of £4 in respect of the charity is last credited in the accounts for the year 1808 and in each of the four subsequent years it is stated that Marinus Price, the possessor; refused to pay the charity. In the accounts of 1813 there is a memorandum that Marinus Price had become bankrupt; which is repeated in the three subsequent years, and from that time no mention of the charity is made in the accounts. Having seen one of the assignees and having learnt from him that the premises in question were sold to Mr John Chatsfield, subject to the charges, we communicated with the latter gentleman, who has in consequence satisfied the arrears of the annuity to the poor for the last four years, and assures us that both annuities shall in future be duly paid.
The Commissioners were very thorough!
NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: The wherewithal for this combined charity (£24 per year), for the benefit of the poor of Lambeth, came from the rents of two pieces of copyhold ground of the manor of Kennington situated in Prince's Street, and was usually distributed in gifts of money. It came about from an agreement that William Hind should derive an income jointly with Thomas Scott (who was at that time Lord of the Manor of Kennington), Thomas Scott the rent of 4s. per year from the copyhold and William Hind the rent of £10 per year. Any profits were to be used for the benefit of the poor of the parish of Lambeth, and this was to continue after their deaths. As time went by the houses were occupied by poor people, in the nature of almshouses, but became so decayed that the vestry ordered that they be pulled down in 1729. The person who agreed for the lease proving to be insolvent, he was unable to rebuild, and the estate remained in ruins, then was let to the Company of Miners at £4 per annum.

At about that time the same fate overcame some adjoining buildings, which had been owned by the late Thomas Cooper (will dated 1656), and were also ordered to be pulled down in 1729. This land was also let to the Company of Miners, for a total rent of £30 per year, being used as a spare courtyard. Up till the year 1813 the rent had been £24 per year and had hitherto been appropriated to the use of eight poor women above 60 years of age, to continue during their respective lives. In consequence of the increase of rent ...it is intended to add two poor women to the former number. The two extra women were chosen from the Jacob Vanderlin Charity, when appropriate (q.v.).

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: It is recorded that Mr. Jacob Vanderlin, merchant, who was buried in 1704, gave a legacy of four almshouses, which he had built on the Narrow Wall, for poor people, and also money to be distributed among them (£5).

The record goes on to say that there were formerly standing on a part of Narrow Wall, in the parish of Lambeth, four small almshouses, known by the name of Vanderlin's, which were reputed to be destined for the habitation of four poor women about the age of 60, of the Marsh and Wall district, and were accordingly so appropriated. Having at length become untenable for want of repair they were taken down, and the site, containing about eleven and a half perches, was demised upon a building lease to George Hodgson for 75 years from Lady Day 1794, at the annual rent of eight guineas.

A house was duly built on the site according to the covenants of the lease, and the rent applied to the upkeep of four poor women above the age of 60, in half-yearly payments at Michaelmas and Lady Day. These poor woman are appointed by the churchwardens and receive the allowance during their respective lives, unless previously removed to places on the pension-list of Cooper and Hind's charity … which course has been latterly adopted when a vacancy in that list occurred (q.v.).

THEN: Richard Lawrence, by his will dated 3 July 1661...gave the houses built by him in the Dog House Field to the parish of Lambeth, to see maintained in one of the houses a free school where should be taught to write and read 20 poor children of Lambeth Marsh, or so many as could conveniently be taught not exceeding that numbe1; and he willed that the rents of those houses where the school was not kept should be employed in paying him who should teach the children, and the remainder to be for keeping the house in repair; and that four able men of Lambeth Marsh and the upper ground within the parish should be overseers of the school...

In 1814 a new school house was built at the expense of the subscribers to the Lambeth parochial subscription school, on the site of the old school house belonging to Lawrence's Charity, which had fallen into decay.

In accordance with an order of the Court of Chancery dated March 9th 1838, the Trustees now place ten boys at the School on Lambeth Green and ten boys at the School of St. John s Waterloo. They clothe the boys and pay the Masters for their instruction ...

THEN: James Spencer by his will in 1787 directed that the annual monies of £9 13s. 10d. be used to put out boys belonging to Major Lawrence's School as apprentices to some trade, under the order in Chancery which regulates Major Lawrence's Trust. The Trustees are to keep in repair Mr. Spencer's tomb in Newington Churchyard. In 1847 the estate was sold to the London and South-Western Railway Company, who rebuilt the school elsewhere and re conveyed some of the lease to the Trustees with the addition of a railway arch!

NOW: In recent years the Lawrence and Spencer Charity was amalgamated with the Walcot Educational Foundation as a result of a revision of the Scheme of the Charity.

THEN: In 1672 Margaret Oakley left in her will an annual amount of £15 to supply gifts of bread to be distributed on every Sunday among twenty poor persons of Lambeth ...who shall on those days have attended Divine Service, in the Parish Church, and also to provide gifts for poor children of the Parish who shall be catechized in Church on twelve Sundays in the year... from the rents of houses and ground in Back Lane, which became in later years Lambeth High Street. In time the houses became dilapidated and had to be pulled down. Building leases were granted with provision for the rents of one of the houses (£10 per annum) to go to the charity. Later there was a school house and room, till it was rebuilt in another place, and the site was partly occupied by the parish clerk of Lambeth as undertenant at £5 per annum. This made the annual amount £15.

N.B. Roger Jeston's Charity was combined with this after the 'Inquiries Act'.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: Thomas Rich bequeathed in his will dated 21August 1672... his dwelling-house, ground, orchard, gardens and appurtenances at West Ham, in Essex, to the wardens and commonality of the Mercers' Company, and their successors ...one moiety of the net produce to the headmaster of Mercers' Chapel School where he had been a scholar; and apply the other moiety to the educating of so many poor men s children, in the parish of Lambeth, where he was born.
The annual amount received from the Mercers' Company who held the estate was £18 5s., and the school was 'The Boys' School, Lambeth Green'.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: John Scaldwell's bequest in his will dated 9 June 1678 was to procure coats for four or five poor ancient men or women of the outside of the parish -viz. Lambeth Dean and Stockwell. The initials of the benefactors name J.S. are to be set on each of the coats. The annual amount of £4 6s. 8d. was to be a charge on some mills at Wandsworth, which had provided Mr. Scaldwell with this sum as an annuity.
NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: By his will dated 9 June 1707... Ralph Snow gave to the poor of the parish where he should be buried, which he wished should be Lambeth, £200, the annual income to be employed in buying Bibles and Common Prayers for the poor children of Lambeth .By a codicil to his Will dated 17 June he empowered his executors if they should so please, that of the said £200, £100 should be applied towards the building of a gallery in the parish church of Lambeth.

The remainder forms a fund of £147 6s. 7d. in three percent consols, in the names of the Rector and Churchwardens, and the dividends are duly employed in the purchase of Bible and prayer books. The words 'the gift of Ralph Snow Esq' and the year in which the book is given, being stamped on the outside cover: The dividends amounted to £4 8s. 4d.
NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: Bryan Turberville of the parish of St.James, Westminste1; by his Will dated 10 October 1718, gave to the Rector and Churchwardens of the parish of Lambeth on trust the sum of £100, to be used to purchase lands, tenements or hereditaments to put out the same upon good security, the rents to be applied yearly for ever to the putting forth of two poor boys of the town of Lambeth (whose parents were not able) apprentices to such trades (fishermen, chimney-sweepers and watermen only excepted), as the Rector and Churchwardens should see fit.

It appears from a document dated 11 May 1721 that the living executors gave a further £ 100 towards this purpose, believing the original bequest to be too small for its purpose. The two sums were subsequently laid out in the purchase of £293 Ils. 7 d. three per cent reduced annuities in the names of the rector and churchwardens. The dividends amounting to £8 16s. per annum, are applied to apprenticing poor boys of the town to useful trades, excluding those excepted by the testator, the usual premium being £5.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: By her will dated 28 January 1786 Jane Wakeling, widow, gave the sum of £300 reduced annuities to the Rector and Churchwardens of the parish of St. Mary Lambeth on trust, to layout the dividends thereof in good and wholesome bread and meat annually and distribute the same on the day of St. John the Evangelist in every yea1; among the poor inhabitants of Lambeth Marsh and Narrow Wall not receiving alms.

The dividends, amounting to £9 per annum, are duly distributed by the churchwardens in bread and meat on St. John's Day, made by tickets for a quartern loaf and two or three pounds of meat each, as the funds will permit.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: By his will dated 6 October 1786, John Course gave the sum of £100 three per cent reduced annuities to the Rector and Churchwardens of the parish of St. Mary, Lambeth, on trust, to apply so much of the interest thereof as they or their successors should from time to time think necessary, towards keeping in repair the family vault; and after the necessary repairs, to distribute the rest on 17 June in every year among the poor inhabitants of the Narrow Wall not receiving alms, as the Rector and Churchwardens should think fit. The dividends of £3 per annum is applied in the same manner as those received in Jane Wakeling's charity.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: Mary Oakley died on 25 September 1812, and gave by her will to her trustees £100 three per cent reduced annuities to pay the dividends to the churchwardens of St. Mary Lambeth, in order that they might be used by the churchwardens to purchase coals to be distributed for the benefit of twelve poor families of Lambeth on 24 December. The amount to be used came to £3 per annum.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: John Pickton left in his will (proved 28 Apri11821) a sum of money to provide an iron railing around the vault in which rested his father and mother and himself, and when it should be completed, he gave to the rector and churchwardens of the parish a sum of money in trust in the first place to keep the vault in repair and then to distribute the remainder among the most poor and indigent of the parish.

This legary was laid out in the purchase of £235 13s. three per cent consols, in the names of the rector and churchwardens. The dividends, amounting to £71s. 4d. per annum have been hitherto allowed to accumulate, the vault not being in want of repair; and a doubt being entertained as to the particular description of poor persons intended by the testator to partake of his charity. There was consequently at the time of our inquiry in February 1826 a sum of£3115s. 4d. in the hands of the churchwardens. We have suggested the propriety of applying this accumulation and such surplus which may from time to time remain after defraying the expenses of the tomb, amongst the most poor and indigent persons of the parish ...according to the directions of the testator:

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

These four charities, apart from the original descriptions of the benefactions, show no evidence of ever having been applied for their purposes, nor evidence that the bequests were ever paid to the parish. (This is not evidence of peculation on the part of rector and churchwardens; it is more likely that the executors of the wills did not implement the bequests for reasons which are lost for ever, and the relevant rectors and churchwardens may not have been able to pursue the possibilities.)

THEN: This charity appears to have been missed by the inquirers, for I cannot find it in their reports. In 1807 an annual income of £6 was to be presented to the officiating minister, the clerk and the sexton assisting at the administration of the Holy Communion at an early hour on the third Sunday in the month; or, in the event of the administration of the Holy Communion at that time being discontinued, to be given to a girls' school or to a Sunday school.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: From 1831 Mary Chapman willed that an annual income of £15 4s. 8d. from £468 18s. 10d. three per cent consols was to provide pensions to two poor Protestant widows of the parish of Lambeth who have kept house therein ten years or upwards, and have not received parish relief.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: Elizabeth Lambert's £60 Is. 2d. three per cent consols brought an annual income of £1 16s. to provide bread to be distributed among the poor of the Hamlet of Brixton at Christmas.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: From 1828, £140 9s. 8d. provided an annual income of £4 4s. 2d. for gifts of coals to be distributed in December, January, February and March, among six poor widows of Lambeth, 70 years old who do not receive parochial relief. Also the stone of Mrs. Fenner's family vault and a Tablet erected to her memory in the Church Porch are to be kept in repair out of the yearly interest of this fund.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: In her will dated 1847, Eleanor Dodson left an annual income from £360 three per cent consols of £10 16s. to be distributed among deserving aged women of Lambeth who are not receiving parochial relief.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

THEN: By her will of 1848, Elizabeth Edridge left £1788 9s. 9d. three per cent consols, providing an annual income of£53 13s. to be applied for the benefit of poor persons of the parish of Lambeth being 60 years of age or upwards.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

Information on the following charities is taken from a Lambeth Endowed Charities Review:

The income from this endowment, made in 1860, provides small pensions for up to seven women over the age of 60. These pensions were paid to the Almswomen of the Noel Caron Almshouses during the years before the leasehold of the Almshouses was transferred to the Family Housing Association in 1996/97.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

Two memorial endowments, made in 1891 and 1980, provide an annual income which makes it possible to donate one or two small grants annually to women or girls in special need.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

In 1948, the Lambeth Endowed Charities took on the various charitable activities which the Reverend Harry Clapham (formerly vicar of St. Thomas, Westminster) had instituted. The Trustees are now able to make a few gifts at Christmas to those in special need.

NOW: Hayle's Charity.

After the first world war the 24th Battalion the London Regiment (the Queen's) set up a fund to buy book prizes for children attending Walworth and Kennington schools (these Territorial Army regiments being formed from local volunteers and known, therefore, as pals' or friends' regiments). To this end, they passed the administration of the fund to the then London County Council. The plan was carried out each year until it was passed to the Inner London Education Authority; and when time overtook that organization, the charity was transferred to the 'umbrella' of The Lambeth Endowed Charities.

The Walcot & St. Thomas' Bursary was established from the proceeds of the sale of the building in Lambeth Road which had housed the old St. Thomas' youth Club. In 1996 the former Trustees of the Club agreed a deed of gift to the Walcot Educational Foundation. Following consultation with the former St. Thomas' Trustees the then Clerk to the Governors, David Jones, suggested that the fund income be used to provide a number of larger grants each year to young people who demonstrate exceptional promise, possess special talents or have special needs.

The Governors of the Walcot Educational Foundation established the Walcot & St. Thomas' Bursary at their meeting of 1 December 1998 and Kate Hoey MP formally launched the Bursary in November 1999.

The Walcot & St. Thomas' Bursary is the latest initiative in a long history of grant making for the Lambeth Endowed Charities. The Bursary has in the three years since its inception granted over £65,000 to forty-seven young people. This has helped provide instruments for talented musicians, ICT equipment for children with special educational needs, supported the training and competition expenses of young athletes and given many young people in Lambeth the chance to participate in new and exciting challenges. Edmund Walcott would, no doubt, have approved and perhaps be pleased to have his second 't' back just this once as a final salute!