The History of Newbury Almshouse Trust – Part One!

Newbury Almshouse Trust, or Newbury Municipal Consolidated Charities, has a long history of helping the people of Newbury through the many charities we represent.

The oldest charity is St Bartholomew’s Hospital, which was founded in 1215 when King John granted Newbury a charter for a fair to be held at the feast of St Bartholomew, the proceeds of which were to go to St Bartholomew's Hospital. Originally a religious institution and home to a priest and brothers, by the 1500s St Bartholomew’s Hospital consisted of almshouses for poor people. This was a fortuitous change for the time, as during the reformation King Henry VIII seized the assets of many religious houses. In 1578 court proceedings confirmed that the hospital was priory land for the use of the poor and it was saved from dissolution. By the end of the Sixteenth Century St Bartholomew's Hospital was under the sole control of the Mayor and Corporation of Newbury, after the previous master died without a will and with serious debts.

Another important charity for Newbury Almshouse Trust is Kendrick’s Charity, which began in 1604 when John Kendrick bestowed £4,000 for a workhouse for Newbury. At that time we can also find evidence for the St Mary’s Almshouses charity. This is through

Francis Winchcombe, who donated two Cheap Street Houses that were linked to St Mary's Almshouses.

More charities were also founded around this time. In 1613 Margaret Cross, by deed, gave £50 in trust to lend to tradespeople, and the interest from these loans was used to give money, bread or clothing to the poor and pay for a sermon on St Margaret's Day. She also specified that the remaining 10 shillings were to be spent by the trustees for a drinking!

Richard Dixon's 1624 trust provided for the Weaver’s Company to pay for a rector to preach on the day of the weaver's feast and gave money towards poor weavers or weaver's widows. At that time William Deale also gave a property to supply two poor weavers with a gown and 4 shillings.

The Raymond’s Almhouses also have their beginnings in the Seventeenth Century. In 1676 Philip Jemmett left 12 almshouses in trust to his grandson, Jemmett Raymond. Jemmett Raymond the elder died in 1755 leaving the charity to his son Jemmett Raymond the younger. He then left the almshouses to the Corporation of Newbury in 1763. With the funds from this and the will of another Raymond relative, the Corporation were able to build Lower Raymond’s almshouses in 1796. In 1826 Upper Raymond’s Almshouses were built, a terrace of 10 houses on Derby Road.

In 1729 Thomas Hunt's will left land and money to pay for houses in West Mills and weekly payments for three poor widows. The trustees of his will purchased the adjoining tenement in 1817 and built an almshouse. The plaque for which still exists today.

However, scandal was brewing for the Corporation of Newbury and other trustees who were managing many of these charities. In 1801 St Bartholomew's Hospital funds were used as loan to bail out the Corporation although the Council 'declined in any way interfering with the pecuniary affairs of the late corporate body'. Between 1816-1818 George Gray, a local lawyer, wrote and printed a series of anonymous letters accusing the Corporation and Church of corruption, at the same time that James Ebenezer Bicheno wrote 'An Inquiry into the Nature of Benevolence, Chiefly With a View to Elucidate the Principles of the Poor Laws, and to Show Their Unmoral Tendency’. FC Parry, a barrister, also wrote a critical ‘Account of the Charitable Donations within the County of Berks’, specifically including Raymond’s as one of the charities. At around that same time, in 1824, the Newbury Town Clerk died, and his executor refused to release funds held by his estate until he was reimbursed the sums he believed were due, which led to court action linked to St Mary’s Almshouses.

Investigators began to be sent around the country to investigate local charities, with corruptions believed to be on a nationwide scale. In 1835 the Report of the Municipal Corporations Commission for Newbury showed that 'the accounts of the numerous charities for which the Corporation are trustees were blended with one another…. In the most irregular and slovenly manner…. A debt of more that £1,000 is now due from the Corporation to the ... late town clerk, and... not less than £400 to the present town-clerk. By 1839 the Corporation bankrupted and had to sell their assets. Municipal Trustees were appointed for the management of the Municipal Charities after the old Corporation of Newbury ceased to exist.

Find out what happened next for our almshouses in part two, coming soon!