When we contribute to charitable organisations in the 21st century, the likelihood is that we are supporting a national or even an international organisation. But in the past charities were usually local and set up to help specific groups of people. The Ruislip Combined Charity was formed in 1995 to simplify the organisation of two groups, the Ruislip Non-ecclesiastical Charities and Ruislip Cottagers’ Allotment Charity.
The Ruislip Non-Ecclesiastical Charities
The Ruislip Non-ecclesiastical Charities 1896 combined several charities founded by individuals in the 18th and 19th centuries: Cogges Charity 1717, Bright Charity 1721, Hawtrey Charity 1724 and 1803, Howard Charity 1847, Hume-Campbell Charity 1886.
Cogges Charity, left two closes of land (now a single field) in Fore Street to be let and stipulated that two thirds of the income should benefit poor folk living in the Eastcote part of the parish of Ruislip and the rest was to go to those in Westcote (modern Ruislip). Two other charities were specifically for Eastcote families: Henrietta Howard of York Place, Portman Square, who died in 1847, provided for beef and bread to be given to 25 households on Christmas Day and for blankets to be given to another six families on New Year’s Day; while Lady Juliana Hume-Campbell of Highgrove left £10 per annum for coal in 1886.
The vicar and churchwardens of St Martin’s were often charged with carrying out the terms of a charity by distributing money or goods to suitable recipients. Elizabeth Rogers of Eastcote House, who died in 1803, directed her executors to invest £380 in 3% consols. From the interest, the vicar was to receive 2 guineas on the first Sunday after Easter, provided that he had preached a sermon on Good Friday morning and the residue was divided among such poor families as most regularly attended divine service. Elizabeth also ensured the continuation of the wishes of her great grandfather, Ralph Hawtrey, who in his will of October 1724 had bequeathed £200 to the poor of the parish to be disposed of ‘as the minister of the parish and those that live here (Eastcote House) and those that live at Sir Thomas’s (Haydon Hall) shall think fit’. During her lifetime, the £200 had been vested in Elizabeth and had been producing £8 annually. In 1803 she directed that £287 should be invested in stock to produce the same sum.
Bright Charity incorporated 1721, Jeremiah Bright, who was a son of a vicar of Ruislip, lived in the parish of St Andrew’s, Holborn and was master of the Leathersellers’ Company. Several of his children, who sadly died young, are buried at Ruislip. In 1697 he gave the church the handsome bread cupboard that now hangs in the north aisle. It is decorated with a shield bearing the Bright coats of arms surrounded by beautifully carved ears of corn. 12 twopenny loaves were to be placed st of the charities depended for their income upon the investment of sums of money, but Richard Cogges, in 1717, left land in Fore Street, on the north side of the track into Park Wood, to be rented out by the Churchwardens.
These charities were amalgamated in 1897 to become the Ruislip Non-ecclesiastical Charities and continued to be overseen
by the vicar and churchwardens. When the vicar could not obtain blankets for 5 shillings in 1918, he gave the money to
the recipients instead and gradually small money payments became the norm, although loaves of bread continued to be placed on the shelves of the bread cupboard until 1955, being given to the inhabitants of the Almshouses on Monday mornings.
The Ruislip Cottagers’ Allotment Charity
The Ruislip Cottagers’ Allotment Charity was instituted in 1882, to administer the income from the three pieces of common land that had been set aside for cottagers to graze their animals at the time of the enclosures of the common fields and waste in 1814, rights that were not much used by the poor who could not usually afford to own animals. The 1882 scheme set up under the Charity Commission, vested the land (Ruislip Common/Poors Field; a small area behind the Six Bells, part of which is now within the Crematorium grounds; and land near the top of Joel Street) in the Official Trustee of Charity Lands. The trustees were permitted to use the income that was raised by renting the pasturage and hunting rights, in a variety of ways: subscribing to hospitals and dispensaries to secure their benefits for Ruislip poor, the maintenance of a reading rom provided with suitable books where coffee and other refreshments approved by the trustees could be drunk; contributing to the cost of tools, or an outfit for young people entering a trade or going into service.
Nowadays everyone has access to NHS hospitals and public libraries and benefits are available to all, but there are still needy people. The non-Ecclesiastical Charities and the Cottagers Allotment Charity were joined to become the Ruislip Combined Charities. The trustees include local councillors and at least one clergyman and others with local knowledge. After allowing for investment, the income is distributed in the form of monetary gifts. Such are given to the vicars churches within the old parish of Ruislip, to disburse to disadvantaged members of their flock and social workers suggest named suitable recipients. The trustees from time to time assist organisations to enable the disabled to participate in sport of various kinds and pay for young people to attend creative courses that their families cannot afford. The aim of the Trustees is to safeguard the charity and to administer it in the spirit intended by those who gave the money or land in the first place.Search for: