COUNTY of LONDON.

Parishes of ST. MARGARET and ST. JOHN, WESTMINSTER. St. Margaret

I. The Inquiry in these Parishes was held on the 15th, 16th, and 17th November 1899.

and St. John, Westminster.

I.

Date of Inquiry.

11.

2nd March

II. The following is the Report on certain of the Educational Charities of the Parish of St. Margaret, dated the 2nd March 1819, of the Commissioners appointed in pursuance Report of of the Act 58 Geo. III, c. 91, to inquire concerning Charities in England for the Education of the Poor (Vol. 1, p. 177, and Appendix, p. 279).

This Report is herein-after referred to as the Report of the 2nd March 1819.

ST. MARGARET'S.

BLUE COAT SCHOOL (see page 69).

1819.

St. Margaret's.

This school was established by voluntary subscriptions about the year 1688. In 1709, William Blue Coat Greene, Esq. built a school, and schoolmaster's house, on ground of which he was possessed, under a School. lease from the dean and chapter of Westminster, at a yearly rent of 2s. 6d.; and in 1727 he assigned his lease of the premises, which was then for 36 years, from 1723, to trustees, upon trust, to suffer the school, school-house, gardens, and premises comprised in the lease, to be used for educating and instructing poor children, and for the master. The lease has been since renewed, from time to time, by the dean and chapter: the last renewal was by lease dated 16th February 1809, for 40 years, at the annual rent of 38. 6d. The sum of £.36 17s. 6d. was paid for fines and fees on that renewal, and on the 21st March following the dean and chapter made a donation to the charity of £.19, and Mr. Vincent, the chapter clerk, also returned by way of benefaction £.7 18s.

The charity is supported by the dividends of stock in the public funds, by the annual subscriptions of the governors (who are 100 in number) and of some ladies, and by collections at charity sermons. The funded property is as follows:

The sum of £.2 10s. per annum, long annuities, given by Mr. William Henry White, was given about five years ago for beginning a new fund for boarding the children of the school; this stock is standing in the names of Mr. White and others as trustees; no steps have yet been taken for boarding the children, and the yearly sum of £.2 108. is carried to the general account of the charity.

The trustees of the school became entitled to the £.600 four per cent stock, within three months before this inquiry was made, under a bequest of Buckeridge Ball Ackworth, Esq.; the stock was transferred, but no dividend had then been received.

The rest of the funded property has arisen from legacies, benefactions, and savings. The whole income amounts to about £.400 per annum.

of

Fifty-two boys and 34 girls, children of parents living in the parish of St. Margaret, are educated in the school: they are nominated by the governors, and are admitted at 7 and stay until 14 years age: they are taught reading, writing, and the four first rules of arithmetic: the girls are also taught knitting, needlework, and household work. The children are instructed in psalmody, and are brought up in the principles of the church of England. They are sufficiently clothed, without expense to their parents; and premiums of £.4 for a boy, and £.2 for a girl, are given with such of them as are apprenticed by their parents, on leaving school. Each of the children also, on leaving school, receives a Bible, Testament, and Prayer Book, the Christian Monitor, and Lewis's Catechism.

St.

There is an examination of the children in the school-room every Sunday evening, in the presence of Margaret's. the governors and of the public.

The salaries of the schoolmaster, and of his wife as schoolmistress, are £.60, and £.25 per annum; they have also the school-house and garden rent and tax free, with an allowance of coals, candles, and necessary household articles for the use of the house and school. The schoolmaster also receives £.8 a year for teaching psalmody, and £.5 for collecting subscriptions. The schoolmistress is allowed £.5 for cutting out the children's clothes, and gratuities of five guineas each are given annually to the schoolmaster and mistress, if their conduct is approved.

The yearly expenditure is about £.400. In 1816 £.500 was laid out in repairs of the school, which was partly defrayed by a public subscription for the purpose, and by a return of property tax to the amount of £.130; but the fund thus raised was insufficient, and the treasurer is in advance about £.172. The schoolmaster's house requires great repairs.

The schoolmaster is permitted to teach the children of the Grand Khaibar Charity, for which he receives 30 guineas a year.

1

THE GRAND KHAIBAR CHARITY (see page 218).

This charity is of great antiquity, and its origin is unknown; it is for the education of children, who are brought up, to the number of 20, in the Blue Coat school Westminster. The master of that school receives for educating the children, an annual salary of 30 guineas.

The charity has been maintained for some time by voluntary subscriptions alone; the only fund destined to its support, is the sum of £.100 South Sea annuities, the dividends of which have not been received on account of the charity, for many years. It is not known how the stock arose, but it appears from entries in the minute book of the charity, that in 1773 two sums of £.50 each South Sea Annuities, standing in the names of separate trustees, were directed to be transferred as one sum into the names of William Gilbard, and other persons as trustees, and that such transfer was afterwards made. It also appears by a memorandum, at the foot of the late treasurer's account, which was audited the 30th March 1815, that Mr. Gilbard now deceased, was the surviving trustee, and that there were then due 20 years dividends of the stock, amounting to £.60. It is understood that the personal representative of Mr. Gilbard resides in Bedfordshire, and an application is about to be made to him, with a view to obtain a transfer of the stock to new trustees, and payment of the dividends in arrear. The late treasurer died in March 1817.

THE GREY COAT HOSPITAL IN TOTHILL FIELDS (see page 73) AND RAMPAINE'S CHARITY (see page 95).

In 1698, a charity school was erected and supported by voluntary subscription, in the parish of St. Margaret Westminster, by the name of The Grey Coat School, "for the education of poor children in the principles of the Christian religion, teaching to read, and instructing them in the "Church catechism, and discipline of the church of England as by law established, and for teaching "to write and cast accounts; and (when fit) binding them apprentices to honest trades and employments."

By letters patent dated 19th April, 5th Queen Ann, the trustees of the said school were incorporated by the name of the Governors of the Grey Coat Hospital in Tothil-fields, and permitted to purchase lands not exceeding the yearly value of £.2,000, and to grant leases for terms of years, not exceeding one-and-forty years from the time of granting thereof.

With this income 60 boys and 30 girls are entirely clothed and maintained, and are taught to work, read, write, and cast accounts, and instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, according to the doctrine of the Church of England. The same number has been admitted since

St. Margaret's.

1785. The children are bound apprentices, if they stay at school till the proper age. A mathe. matical school was added to the establishment in 1739, and a proper master employed to teach the art of navigation; and several boys so instructed have been apprenticed to the sea service. The The annual charge of each child is calculated at 18 guineas, including salaries of the masters, and wages Grey Coat

of the servants.

Hospital in

The affairs of the charity are entirely managed by the governors, who appoint the children in Tothill rotation; 10 are appointed by the dean and chapter of Westminster. There is an examination every Fields, and Sunday evening, which is open to the public, and is very much frequented.

Rampaine's A statement of the receipts and expenditure of the last year is given in the Appendix, by which it Charity— continued appears that there is now a balance of £.578 14s. 10d. in hand; and as the hospital itself, and the principal farm called Caldecott Hall, in Suffolk, are held on leases, renewable on payment of fines, it is necessary to have a sum in reserve for that purpose

The fine paid in 1815, on renewing the lease of the Suffolk farm, (which is held of Magdalen college, Oxford), was £.1,097 8s. and a fine will be payable this year to the dean and chapter of Westminster, for the hospital and premises adjoining.

RAMPAINE'S CHARITY for apprenticing Children from the Grey Coat Hospital (see pages 56 and 95).

By deed, dated 11th May 1705, Charles Rampaine gave certain premises described in the Rampaine's Appendix, to trustees, upon trust to permit the churchwardens of St. Margaret to receive the rents, Charity for and employ them in binding out apprentices in the first instance, from the Grey Coat school, the fee apprenticing not to exceed £.5 to each boy. Children from the

The premises are now let to three different tenants from year to year, at £.42 10s.; a part of them is in very bad repair, and it is supposed that some buildings formerly existing have fallen Grey Coat into decay; but the scite of the whole premises is in possession of the trustees. Up to 1812, the Hospital. rents have been applied in giving sums of £.2 as an apprentice fee, to each boy put out from the Grey Coat School, when called for. From 1812, no application has been made to the churchwardens for this charity, which has therefore accumulated, and there is now a balance in hand amounting to £.259 Os. 2d. Notice has been given to the treasurer of the Grey Coat school, that there is a balance in hand, and that the churchwardens of St. Margaret are ready to apply it for the purposes of the charity.

It is suggested, however, that a part at least, if not all of this balance, will be required to repair the premises, which must otherwise fall into decay.

ST. MARGARET'S HOSPITAL, OR THE GREEN COAT SCHOOL (see page 98).

Green Coat

School.

This hospital was founded by charter of King Charles the First, dated the 15th November 1633, St. Margaby which, after reciting that divers subjects dwelling within the city of Westminster, had resolved ret's Hosto settle a certain house in which poor boys and girls of tender years might not only carefully be pital, or the maintained with meat, drink and apparel, but also instructed in manual arts, in a certain part of a farm of the dean and chapter of the church of St. Peter's Westminster, and had supplicated his Majesty to found and erect that house into an hospital; his Majesty ordained that that house should be an hospital, and 20 persons therein named, and their successors, were thereby incorporated by the name of "The Governors of the hospital of St. Margaret's in the city of Westminster, in the county " of Middlesex, of the foundation of King Charles."

This hospital has been endowed with various estates, given and devised by different persons, the particulars and rental of which are stated in the Appendix; the governors are also possessed of the funded property mentioned below.

The £.1,875 three per cent consols, was purchased fiom various benefactions and savings. The lands and houses of which the real property of the charity consists, have been frequently, but not in all instances, let by advertisement, and appear, generally speaking, to be let at their full value; but a farm at Essingdon, in Herts, of which one moiety belongs to the charity, let on lease for 61 years from Michaelmas 1773, at a rent of £.130, is considered by the trustees to have been improvidently let, and they have instituted a suit in the court of Chancery to set aside the lease; this suit is now pending, and publication has not yet passed in the cause. Since the commencement of the suit, no rent of the farm has been received.

There are 21 boys in the school, who are educated, lodged, clothed and maintained. The establishment is considered by the governors to be for 20 boys; the supernumerary boy is provided