The Parish Magazine

OUR PARISH CHARITIES.

1.-Roger Gillingham.

OGER GILLINGHAM, of the Middle Temple, London, Esq., by Will, dated 2nd July, 1695, devised his annual fee-farm rent of 781. 6s. 2 d., and all other rents whatsoever belonging to him issuing out of the Manor of Shitlington, or elsewhere, in the County of Bedford, which he had purchased of Dr Peter Barwyke, to his cousin, Roger Gillingham, in tail, with remainder to his cousin, Roger Bramble, in tail, with remainder to his cousin, Roger Thurborne, in fee, charged with an annual sum of 10l. to a schoolmaster in the town of Luton, in the county of Bedford, to be appointed as therein mentioned; and he also gave and devised to his said cousins, for the like estates, all his messuages or tenements in Curriers' Alley, alias Stone-cutters' Street, near Shoe Lane, in the parish of Saint Bride's, alias Bridget's, London, then in lease, under the yearly ground-rent of 401.; and he also gave to his executors thereinafter named, and their heirs, his thirty-sixth part or share of the moiety of the New River water brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London, called the King's moiety; and also his copyhold farm in the parish of Hackney in the county of Middlesex, held of the King's Manor there, and also his copyhold tenement, and a field containing three acres, in the hamlet of Bednal Green, held of the manor of Stepney, in the said county of Middlesex, (and which copyholds has been surrendered to the use of his Will,) and also his meadow at Bednal Green, aforesaid, containing five acres, held for three lives, under the Dean of Saint Paul's; and he also gave to his said executors the several actions or shares and stock, and other personal estate or effects therein mentioned; upon trust forthwith to dispose of the said real and personal estate so devised and bequeathed to them, and to stand possessed of the proceeds in trust, to lay out not exceeding 4001. in enclosing as much of one of the closes lying next to Pamphill Green, in the parish of Wimborne Minster, where he was born, containing half an acre, or thereabouts, as his said trustees should think fit, for building thereon a convenient school-house, with a chamber over it for a schoolmaster to reside in, whom he desired should be a widower or single person, and also in building on one side of the said schoolhouse contigious thereunto four convenient ground rooms or almshouses for four poor indigent men, widowers or single persons, and on the other side thereof four other ground rooms or almshouses for four poor indigent women, widows or single women, to inhabit, to be well and completely finished with bricks, tiles and timber, for the comfortable habitation of the master and almsfolks. And he thereby directed that the schoolmaster, who should receive the benefaction thereinafter mentioned, should teach to write a good legible secretary hand, and to read English well and cast accounts well, and should instruct in the church catechism, all such male children of the inhabitants of the said parish, dwelling westward of the town of Wimborne, between the river Stour and the river Allen, commonly called the Brook, along the ham

And

lets from the said town to the end of the said parish towards Shapwick and Witchampton, as should be sent to school to the said master, not exceeding 40 in number, and he directed the said master to read to the said almspeople and scholars every morning at 11, and every evening at 5, in the said school-house, a chapter in the New Testament, with the church prayers, with such other service as the ministers of the church of Wimborne Minster, or any two of them, should direct he directed that the said schoolmaster and almsfolks should continue single, and that none of the latter should be admitted under the age of 60 or 55, at the least, and that four of them, viz., two men and two women, should be nominated out of the poorest inhabitants of the tithing of Cowgrove (where the testator was born,) and the other four from the other contiguous tithings westward of the said town between the said two rivers; the first master and almsfolk to be nominated by his said executors, and all succeeding masters and almsfolks by the governors of the free grammar-school of Queen Elizabeth, and their successors; and he directed his said executors to invest the residue of the proceeds of his said real and personal estate in the purchase of lands and tenements, in fee simple, in the said parish, or other the east part of the county of Dorset, or in Hampshire or Wiltshire, near to the said parish, which lands he directed to be settled by his said executors in the manner thereinafter mentioned, together with the lands next thereinafter particularized (which he thereby also devised to his said executors and their heirs,) viz., his freehold lands, called Bear Lands, in the parishes of Wimborne and Corfe Mullen, parcel of the demesnes of the ancient manor of Bear, and also all his lands at Pamphill, in the said parish of Wimborne Minster, except such part thereof as should be taken out by his executors for erecting the said school-house and almshouses and which part he thereby devised to the said governors of the free grammar-school and their successors for the use of the said master and almsfolks. And he directed his said executors to settle as well the lands so to be purchased by them as the premises lastly devised to them as aforesaid upon his said cousins in succession for the same estates as thereinbefore mentioned, charged with the clear yearly sum of 651. to be applied as follows, viz., 201. part thereof to the said schoolmaster as a salary for teaching the said children and performing other the duties aforesaid and 401. other part thereof, to the said almsmen and almswomen, to each 51. yearly for their maintenance and 57. residue of the said 65l. for the repairs of the school-house and almshouses, if necessary, or if not necessary, then for the increase of the maintenance of the almspeople; the said 651. per annum to be paid quarterly at the four usual feasts; and he directed the school-house and almshouse to be built, and the master and almspeople to be chosen, within two years from his death; and he declared that the said 201. per annum appointed for the said master, with the enjoyment of the said school-house and room should be all his reward for the duties enjoined him. And he appointed the said governors, and their successors, visitors of the said school and almshouses and almspeople; with power to remove them at pleasure for misbehaviour, or other just occasion, without appeal, but

the schoolmaster to have six months' warning before his removal. And he declared that, if the rents of the premises thereby directed to be settled, charged with the said 651 per annum, should be insufficient to answer the same, then it was his Will that the said fee-farm rent of 781. 68. 2 d., and also the premises in Saint Bride's, London, should be thereby charged for making good the said payments, in the following proportions, viz., four parts out of six of such defficiency to be made good out of the said fee-farm rent, and the other two parts out of the premises in Saint Bride's, so that the said charity should be effectually secured, with the proviso that, if either of his said cousins, or any other in whom the inheritance of the said fee-farm rent and messuages in London should be vested, should, with the consent of the said governors testified by writing under their common seal, settle lands approved by such writing as sufficient to be charged with the said yearly sum of 651 then, after such new settlement made, his said fee-farm rent and the said messuages in London should stand discharged thereof. And the said testator gave to the said governors 2001 upon trust, to lend the same to 40 poor tradesmen, and other poor people of the parish, who should be laborious and industrious, by 51 apiece, upon good security, but without interest, but not to remain in one man's hands above three or four years together, at most; and if by any accident 201 of the said 2001 should be lost, the said governors were to call in 1001 of the said 2007, and invest the same on very good security till they should have raised the said 201, the whole to be thereafter again lent out as before directed.

By a codicil to his said Will of even date therewith, the testator bequeathed 51. to be distributed among the poor of Bednal Green, and 101. among the poor of Wimborne, and he gave for the use of the newly-erected library of Wimborne Minster various books, in the said codicil particularly stated to have been bought for the purpose (including among others, the Polyglott Bible and Lexicon,) and also such of his best books, to the value of 101. (not being law books,) as were fittest for the use not only of the clergy, but of the gentry, shopkeepers and better sort of inhabitants in and about the said town, but not to bo delivered until the books already given to the said library by Mr William Stone, and others, should be chained in their places as usual in public libraries, and until chains and places should be provided for the books thereby given, for which purpose he gave 101. to the church

wardens of the said church.

The school-house and almshouses were enclosed from the land at Pamphill, and were built shortly after the death of the testator in 1698.