Edward Morton Daniel

“ One-half of the income, after providing for these old pensions, is to be applied in charitable or eleemosynary purposes as follows:— (1) An annual sum of not more than £900 nor less than £700 in the payment of pensions to deserving and necessitous inhabitants of the parish of Kensington, who shall have resided therein for not less than seven years next preceding the time of their appointment, who shall not during that period have received poor law relief, and who from age, ill-health, accident, or infirmity shall be unable to maintain themselves by their own exertions. ”

“ The whole lot of building save the frontage a miserable affair.
“There was no boarding of children in my time. There was free education, but leave was obtained to make a change subject to a small free list being maintained. As to clothing, there was a partial clothing of some children, but as the uniform of charity was distasteful it was dropped, and the saving thereof thrown into the educational fund of the school.
“The question of new schools arose, and what we did was, first, to buy up the house in Church Court next to the police station, and on the site of it build the girls’ schools. ”

“ At the date of the report of 1810, to which I have frequently alluded, the property of the charity consisted of the school premises, occupying an important site in the main road, two sums of South Sea stock, amounting to £2,275 and £925 each, the Royal bounty, five-eighths of the rent of the “Goat” public-house, and the rent of the land at Acton given by Dr. Millington. And the committee recommended that some children be boarded and longed as well as educated, and that more be educated, and that the title be changed from “Charity School” to that of “Free School.” ”

“ Then there is needless complication in dividing the income into eighty-eight parts, splitting it up into small proportions, so that it reaches the hands of those who have to distribute it in driblets, giving an amount of trouble and anxiety out of all proportion to the importance of the sums, or the benefit to those receiving them. ”

“ The trustees are bound, in administering the funds, to have regard to the wants of the poor of every part of the parish of Kensington, and to satisfy themselves that in each case the beneficiaries are, in respect of poverty and p. 7character, deserving of help. And no part of the income is ever to be applied, directly or indirectly, in aid of the poor rate of the parish. ”

“ The co-optative trustees must be persons residing or carrying on business in the parish of Kensington, and are to be provisionally appointed by the trustees, which appointment must be approved by the Charity Commissioners before it is valid. ”

“ Elizabeth, Viscountess Dowager Campden, the widow of the former donor, in 1644 bequeathed another sum of £200 to Sir John Thorowgood and sundry parishioners, and to the churchwardens of Kensington, “upon trust that they should within eighteen months purchase lands of the clear yearly value of £10; one-half whereof should be applied from time to time for ever for and towards the better relief of the most poor and needy people that be of good life and conversation that should be inhabiting the said parish of Kensington ”

“ A Paper read at a Meeting of the Kensington Ratepayers Association, held at S. Mark’s Parish Rooms, Notting Hill, on Tuesday, 21st April, 1891.
[Reprinted from the “S. Mary Abbots Parish Magazine.”]
As everyone has need of charity, everyone exercises charity, and most of us receive charity, the subject is of personal application and importance to us all. This is the case when charity is abstractly regarded ”

“ Single rooms frequently shelter two and even three families. Its choicest district exhibits a return of 40 families to 18 houses; of 160 persons, exclusive of lodgers, sleeping in 39 rooms. The entire population must exceed 1,500 souls. Prior to the erection of the present schools it was impossible for ladies to penetrate its recesses. The police entered its retreats in couples. In 1847 the work of reformation commenced, and since then a steady progress has been made. At first the school was emphatically ‘a ragged school;’ its scholars were literally running wild and half-naked in the streets ”

“ Too much cannot be known about them in order that their benefits may be distributed amongst the fittest subjects and most deserving persons that can be found; and in order that those of us who are blessed with means may learn how carefully and fruitfully any benefaction we may make in the future will be utilised and bestowed, if placed in the hands of those administering the charities already established in our parish. ”

“ Methwold; and this house was charged with the payment of £24 a year to give a pension or subsistence money of £4 a year each to six alms-women by quarterly payments of £1, at Hale House.
The will provided that the parish in Vestry were to appoint three alms women to the three western houses, and the owner or inhabitant of Hale House for the time being to appoint to the three eastern houses.
The alms women were to be single, aged 50, free from vice and of good report, were not to be allowed to receive lodgers, and were to visit and assist one another in sickness. ”

“ Being a cul de sac, unlighted, irregularly-paved, and indifferently supplied with water, its best-disposed inhabitants find it difficult to cultivate the habits of civilized life. The majority give the matter up, and seek in alcoholic and other stimulants an antidote against wretchedness, malaria, and disease. Nowhere are the evils of overcrowded chambers more apparent. ”

“ The order directs that the dividends arising from the £1,477 19s. 10d. new three per cents, representing Margaret Leech’s bequest, shall be applied in the “maintenance, clothing, and support of girls, daughters of deserving persons resident in Kensington, who are inmates of the Girls’ Industrial School established in the parish, and in providing such girls with suitable outfits upon their leaving school and entering domestic service, or otherwise for their benefit or advancement in life ”

“ They (at Kensington he means) breathe in sunshine and see azure skies.”
What Kensington is now we all know; would that its charities had grown in proportion to its population. Perhaps if through your kind exertions more attention can be drawn to the subject they may enlarge, and the history of the future charities of Kensington prove as creditable as the past.
In the year 1807 a joint committee of the trustees of the poor, and of the vestry, was appointed to consider and report, amongst other subjects, upon the charities of the parish ”

“ This stock was duly transferred, and now consists of £105 consols, the dividend on which is £3 18s. 8d.
In 1798 Thomas Reeves, by will, gave to the Vicar, Churchwardens and Overseers £100 5 per cent. bank annuities, to apply the dividends thereof “unto and for the use of, and benefit of, the poor and indigent people, parishioners of Kensington, yearly for ever.” ”