Spaldens
April 16,1710, Nicholas Spalden, by will, gave to the Governors and Assistants of the school, all his messuages, and lands, &c. in Dublin or elsewhere in Ireland, in trust, to purchase land in Ashbourn, and build thereon ten almshouses, to keep the same in repair, and pay each of the poor alms-people a weekly sum of 2s. 6d. and give them every year on St. Thomas’s Day, a new gown, of the value of 20s.
The front of the Indenture between John Spalden & Thomas Barns, and the Governors and Assistants of Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School dated 8th April 1722, for the building of the ten almshouses.
Thomas Barns bill for Spaldens 1723 – 25 is 3 pages, shown are the last items in 1725
Total cost for building Spaldens 1723 – 1725 560 : 0 : 0
Some easily read items from the 3 pages:-
| For 853 feet of oak piles | 23 : 10 : 8 |
| For 15,600 bricks at 11s per 100 | 8 : 11 : 8 |
| For 1649 footof boards for the floors and doors at 2d. per foot | 13 : 14 :11 |
| Paid for 8 loads of lime at 3s 4d per load | 2 : 6 : 8 |
Here is a receipt dated 18th September 1770 for ten new serge gowns under the will of Nicholas Spalden.
February 20th, 1811, Thomas Chatterton, left a weekly sum of £500 in stock, the dividends from which were sufficient to pay a weekly sum of 6d each to the ten Spaldens almspeople and the balance of 3s 4d is equally divided between them at Christmas
Owfields
June 28th, 1630, Roger Owfield, by will, gave £100 to erect an Almshouse for poor inhabitants of Ashbourn, but that sum not being sufficient, the buildings were completed by his widow, Thomasin Owfield, at her own expense.
January 28th ,1630, Thomasin Owfield, by deed, made over a sum of £100, to be placed out at interest for raising £8 per annum, to pay the eight poor almspeople 20s each.
December 24th, 1640, Paul Taylor, by will, gave £12 10s, that the interest thereof, (if would make so much) should be paid by 2s. 6d. each to the poor alms-people every Good Friday: but as it was not sufficient for that purpose, it was made up by Robert Webster, as will be seen subsequently.
N. B. More than half an acre of the ground on which the almshouses are built, is let to William Webster, Esq., as a garden, for which he pays £4 a year, which is equally divided amongst the poor almspeople of this charity.
March 28th, 1659 Robert Webster, by deed, granted a rent-charge out of a close called Little Field, in Offcote, to the Governors and Assistants of the school, to enable them to pay 20s. yearly on every Good Friday to the eight poor alms-people as directed by Paul Taylor’s will. The field is now called Field Close, and is the property of Sir William Boothby, Bart. Who pays the rent charge upon it.
July 13th , 1669, Jane James gave to her nephew two closes in Roston called Dakin’s Closes, subject to the payment of 5s a piece yearly on St. Thomas’s Day, to the eight poor people of Owfields. The sum of £2 is duly paid by the tenant of the land, and is divided amongst the eight inhabitants of these almshouses as directed.
May 18th, 1708, Richard Peters, by will, gave out of his lands in the parish of Uttoxeter, the yearly sum of £4, to be distributed to the eight poor people of the old almshouses every Midsummer-Day. This sum is paid by John Harrison Esq. of Snelston, who is the owner of the property at Uttoxeter, and is paid in sums of 10s to each of the eight alms-people
April 16th , 1710, Nicholas Spalden, by will, gave to te Governors and Assistants of the school his lands in Parwich, in trust, for the benefit of the poor people inhabiting the eight almshouses in Ashbourn.
The lands contain 13 acres 34 perches and are occupied by William Ellis at the rent of £39 per annum.
The whole rents allow the weekly sum of 2s. 6d. each to the eight alms-people; and the surplus of £5 is applied for repairs of the houses, and other things.
Pegg’s
June 12th , 1699, by will, directed six Almshouses to be erected on property of his in Ashbourn, for six poor persons inhabiting the town, to be chosen by the Governors and Assistants of the school with the consent of his trustees. And for their maintenance he gave his farm, &c, in Ashover and Wingerworth, occupied by Mathew Briddon, in trust that the Governors and Assistants should pay the rents thereof at Martinmas and Whitsuntide, by even portions to the six alms-people. And he gave another farm in Ashover and Wingerworth, in possession of William Needham, in trust, that half the rent thereof should be paid at the above periods in even portions to the said almspeople.
These farms were in 1777 exchanged, under an Act of Parliament for that purpose, for lands in the parish of Brailsford. Three-fifths of the rent is applied towards the support of the almspeople. The other two-fifths go to the school account.
October 6th, 1682, German Pole, by will, gave to the Governors and Assistants of the schoolhis land at Mercaston Mill, (subject to his heirs getting gravel and other necessaries for repair of the mill-dam, and for floitering the same) in trust, to apply the rents towards the maintenance of these six almspeople.
This property contains 29 acres, 0 Rods and 30 perches and is occupied by George Mounteney, and the rent is applied as above directed.
Part of the ground on which the almshouses are built, and not wanted for the use of the alms-people, is let as a garden to Edward Walker Esq., for two guineas a year, which is equally divided amongst the six almspeople, and is in addition to seven shillings per week which they each receive from the rents of the Brailsford and Mercaston estates. Twenty shillings’ worth of clothing is also given to each poor person every two years, out of the surplus.
Clergymen’s Widows
April 16th , 1710, Nicholas Spalden, by will, directed the Governors and Assistants of Ashbourn Free Grammar School in case there should be any surplus arising out of certain property mentioned in his will, to purchase land, and build thereon four neat and pretty houses for the widows of four clergymen of the Church of England, and to pay £10 yearly to each of such widows so long as each woman should continue a widow.
May 27th, 1754, the Governors and Assistants purchased the land from Jane Watson for the sum of five shillings.
From the record it would appear that she also received a further sum of £50, an annuity of £10 for life, and the use of a small house in the yard belonging to the same premises.
In May, 1755, the four almshouses were built at a cost of £1,006 8s 9d. by the will of Mr Spalden and the £10 paid annually to each of the widows.
Receipt from three of the widows for a sum of £5 each for half a years income, 7th April 1770
Issac Hawkins, by will, gave a sum of money to trustees, to be laid out in charitable uses as they should think proper, and part thereof was in 1804, laid out in the purchase of £400 stock in the four per cents, (now reduced to tree and half) in the names of three of the Governors and Assistants; the dividends, being £14 a year, are duly paid to the widows in these almshouses in equal shares, as directed by the will.
In addition to the above Almshouse charities mentioned in The Charities of Ashbourne 1838 there were further items as follows:-
Spaldens
November 29th, 1843, by indenture Edward and Uriah Corden gave from dividends a weekly sum of 2s. to esch of the ten almspeople.
Owfields
November 29th, 1843, Edward and Uriah Corden, by indenture, gave to the eight occupants of Owfields Almshouses out of their legacies a weekly sum of 2s.
The charity payments (stipends) given to the occupants of the almshouses were paid until the following communication was received concerning the lack of money for repairs to the almshouses
Recommendation from Mr Hackett from the National Association of Almshouses
June 1956
Mr Hackett advised in his letters that the stipends paid to the almshouse occupants should be discontinued and several Governors took the view that these should be discontinued in order that all available monies could be concentrated on the maintenance and possible reconstruction of the almshouse properties so that these could remain as occupational dwellings for as long a period as possible. After much discussion, it was eventually decided to notify the almshouse occupants that stipends would be discontinued after the exhaustion of a period of three months’ notice.