Part 22 (1/2)

The present trust are Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.

CROWLEY'S TRUST.

Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the purpose of supporting a school, consisting of ten children. From an attachment to her own s.e.x, she const.i.tuted over this infant colony of letters a female teacher: Perhaps we should have seen a female trust, had they been equally capable of defending the property. The income of the estate increasing, the children are now augmented to twelve.

By a subsequent clause in the devisor's will, twenty s.h.i.+llings a year, forever, issues out of two houses in the Lower Priory, to be disposed of at discretion of the trust.

The governors of this female charity are

Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_, Joseph Cartwright, Thomas Lee, John Francis, Samuel Colmore, William Russell, _esq_.

Josiah Rogers, Joseph Hornblower, John Rogers.

SCOTT'S TRUST.

Joseph Scott, Esq; yet living, a.s.signed, July 7, 1779, certain messuages and lands in and near Walmer-lane, in Birmingham, of the present rent of 40_l_. 18s. part of the said premises to be appropriated for the interment of protestant dissenters; part of the profits to be applied to the use of a religious society in Carr's lane, at the discretion of the trust; and the remainder, for the inst.i.tution of a school to teach the mother tongue.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Free School_.]

That part of the demise, designed for the reception of the dead, is about three acres, upon, which stands one messuage, now the Golden Fleece, joining Summer-lane on the west, and Walmer-lane on the east; the other, which hath Aston-street on the south, and Walmer-lane on the west, contains about four acres, upon which now stand ninety-one houses.

A building lease, in 1778, was granted of these last premises, for 120 years, at 30_l_. per annum; at the expiration of which, the rents will probably amount to twenty times the present income. The trust, to whose direction this charity is committed, are

Abel Humphrys, _bailiff_, John Allen, John Parteridge, William Aitkins, Joseph Rogers, Thomas c.o.c.k, John Berry, William Hutton, Thomas Cheek Lea, Durant Hidson, Samuel Tutin.

FREE SCHOOL.

It is entertaining to contemplate the generations of fas.h.i.+on, which not only influences our dress and manner of living, but most of the common actions of life, and even the modes of thinking. Some of these fas.h.i.+ons, not meeting with the taste of the day, are of short duration, and retreat out of life as soon as they are well brought in; others take a longer s.p.a.ce; but whatever fas.h.i.+ons predominate, though ever so absurd, they carry an imaginary beauty, which pleases the fancy, 'till they become ridiculous with age, are succeeded by others, when their very memory becomes disgusting.

Custom gives a sanction to fas.h.i.+on, and reconciles us even to its inconveniency. The fas.h.i.+on of this year is laughed at the next.

There are fas.h.i.+ons of every date, from five hundred years, even to one day; of the first, was that of erecting religious houses; of the last, was that of destroying them.

Our ancestors, the Saxons, after their conversion to christianity, displayed their zeal in building churches: though the kingdom in a few centuries was amply supplied, yet that zeal was no way abated; it therefore exerted itself in the abbey.--When a man of fortune had nearly done with time, he began to peep into eternity through the windows of an abbey; or, if a villian had committed a piece of butchery, or had cheated the world for sixty years, there was no doubt but he could burrow his way to glory through the foundations of an abbey.

In 1383, the sixth of Richard the Second, before the religious fervor subsided that had erected Deritend-chapel, Thomas de Sheldon, John Coles.h.i.+ll, John Goldsmith, and William att Slowe, all of Birmingham, obtained a patent from the crown to erect a building upon the spot where the Free School now stands in New-street, to be called _The Gild of the Holy Cross_; to endow it with lands in Birmingham and Edgbaston, of the annual value of twenty marks, for the maintenance of two priests, who were to perform divine service to the honor of G.o.d, our blessed Lady his Mother, the Holy Cross, St. Thomas, and St. Catharine.

The fas.h.i.+on seemed to take with the inhabitants, many of whom wished to join the four happy men, who had obtained the patent for so pious a work; so that, in 1393, a second patent was procured by the bailiff and inhabitants of Birmingham, for confirming the gild, and making the addition of a brotherhood in honor of the Holy Cross, consisting of both s.e.xes, with power to const.i.tute a master and wardens, and also to erect a chantry of priests to celebrate divine service in the chapel of the gild, for the souls of the founders, and all the fraternity; for whose support there were given, by divers persons, eighteen messuages, three tofts, (pieces of ground) six acres of land, and forty s.h.i.+llings rent, lying in Birmingham and Edgbaston aforesaid.

But, in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, 1536, when it was the fas.h.i.+on of that day, to multiply destruction against the religious, and their habitations, the annual income of the gild was valued, by the King's random visitors, at the sum of 31_l_. 2s. 10d. out of which, three priests who sung ma.s.s, had 5_l_. 6s. 8d. each; an organist, 3_l_. 13s.

4d. the common midwife, 4s. the bell-man, 6s. 8d. with other salaries of inferior note.

These lands continued in the crown 'till 1552, the fifth of Edward the Sixth, when, at the humble suit of the inhabitants, they were a.s.signed to

William Symmons, _gent_.

Richard Smallbrook, _bailiff of the town_, John s.h.i.+lton, William Colmore, Henry Foxall, William Bogee, Thomas Cooper, Richard Swifte, Thomas Marshall, John Veysy, John King, John Wylles, William Paynton, William Aschrig, Robert Rastall, Thomas Snowden, John Eyliat, William Colmore, _jun_.

AND William Mych.e.l.l,

all inhabitants of Birmingham, and their successors, to be chosen upon death or removal, by the appellation of the Bailiff and Governors of the Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for the instruction of children in grammar; to be held of the crown in common soccage, paying for ever twenty s.h.i.+llings per annum. Over this seminary of learning were to preside a master and usher, whose united income seems to have been only twenty pounds per annum. Both are of the clergy. The hall of the gild was used for a school-room. In the gla.s.s of the windows was painted the figure of Edmund Lord Ferrers; who, marrying, about 350 years ago, the heiress of the house of Birmingham, resided upon the manor, and seems to have been a benefactor to the gild, with his arms, empaling Belknap; and also, those of Stafford, of Grafton, of Birmingham, and Bryon.