HART'S CHARITY, WATLINGTON

Scope and Content

These records were deposited in April 1988 and allocated the accession number 2761.

The charity was set up by John Hart of Cottisford in his will of 1664. He left a yearly rent of £9 charged on the manor of Easington in order to apprentice two 'honest godly poor boys' to 'good trades. The money was usually left to accumulate until there was enough to bind out one boy. Between 1846 - 1881 eighteen boys were apprenticed. From 1884 the charity was applied to apprenticing a boy to an occupation, trade or service or failing that, to the payment of exhibitions to educate the boys at an elementary school in the parish for technical, professional or industrial instruction or towards the cost of outift. As recently as 1953 the rent was still paid and in 1952 a grant of £10 was made.

It is not clear how the two legal documents regarding the dispute over land at Hampton Poyle tie in with the charity.

Catalogued by Madeleine Simms, July 1993.

Access Information

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