Catalogue description Records of the Ware Charity Estates

Details of the properties held under the trust in 1612 are given in D/EWe/4/93 and in 1905 in D/EWe/5/1. The charities were amalgamated in 1909 and details of the Charity Commission Schemes can be found in D/EWe/3/1-2. In D/EWe/5/6 are [19th century] plans of charity properties.

Documents in the first deposit refer to the building of the Harrison Almshouses in Park Road in 1909; the sale of the Saracen's Head Inn in 1921, of the former almsrooms at Elm Green, Wareside, in 1923, of Bell Close, Park Road, and Popes or Doulton's Pightle, Watton Road, in 1932, of Kibes Lane in 1935 (this house was subsequently demolished with the rest of the street in a clearance scheme), and of the Priory Street almsrooms and their site in 1940 (they were demolished and old people's flats were built on part of the site). The Harrison and Crib Street almshouses remain in use.

Items D/EWe/4/16-91, 5/8-10 and 8/4 form the second deposit and include the early deeds of the Ware Charities; the White Hart and Saracens Head in Ware and other lands in Ware, Great Amwell, Great Munden and The Lamb and Flag, Colliers End, Standon. Items D/EWe/1/2-5; 2/7-12; 4/93-215; 5/11; 6/3; 7/4 and 8/5 form the third deposit and include later deeds of properties already mentioned as well as Trustees minutes and correspondence. D/EWe/4/16-215 were calendared at the request of the depositor. The calendar, giving more detailed descriptions of the lands, as well as the parties to the deeds, is to be found in the Appendix at the end of this list.

Numbers in square brackets in either the list or the appendix indicate the original numbering of the documents.

CONTENTS

D/EWe/1 Trustees

D/EWe/2 Financial Records

D/EWe/3 Charity schemes and related papers

D/EWe/4 Deeds and related items (see contents list)

D/EWe/5 Property

D/EWe/6 Recipients of Charity

D/EWe/7 General Correspondence

D/EWe/8 Miscellaneous

D/EWe/4 Deeds and related items: Contents list

Ware

Trust Deeds D/EWe/4/1-3, 45, 93, 95-106, 137-138

White Hart Inn D/EWe/4/5-6, 46-79, 123-136, 213

Saracen's Head Inn D/EWe/4/8, 16-28, 107-122

The Bear Inn D/EWe/4/181-211

Mill Lane D/EWe/4/37-40, 139

Bell Close D/EWe/4/33-36, 140-146

Widows Meads D/EWe/4/9, 115, 153-166

Monks Meads D/EWe/4/9, 115, 153-166

Mill Mead D/EWe/4/9, 115, 153-166

Dalton's Pightle D/EWe/4/10, 147-152

Chuck Memorial School D/EWe/4/174

Humphrey Spencer, Uplands Charity and Wareside Grammar School D/EWe/4/31-32, 94, 167-171, 214-217

Kibes Lane D/EWe/4/11, 178-180

Crib Street D/EWe/4/14, 175-177

Other properties in Ware D/EWe/4/4, 7, 12-13, 15, 29-30, 41-43

Ware, Great and Little Amwell D/EWe/4/80-82

Great Amwell and Stanstead St Margarets D/EWe/4/83

Great Munden D/EWe/4/84-85

The Lamb and Flag, Colliers End, Standon D/EWe/4/44, 86-92, 172-173

[Unidentified D/EWe/4/114]

The calendar is in numerical order

For further documents relating to the charities see D/ECh/B12-17 and T143, which consist of records of N G Chalmers-Hunt acting as clerk to the trustees of the Ware Charity Estates. Cross-references to these records have been supplied where necessary in this list. Other Ware charity records are listed with the parish records under reference D/P116. These include minutes of meetings of the feoffees, 1808-1845 (ref. D/P116/25/1), with accounts and details of the distribution of the charities in the same volume.

Ware Charity Estates, Hertfordshire

Ware Feoffees, Hertfordshire

Ware Town Land Rents, Hertfordshire

deposited in October 1982 by Mr C O Harrison, Clerk to the Trustees (Acc 1954) and in November 1987, March 1991 and September 1992 (Acc 2322, 2626, 2742)

Accessions 1954, 2322, 2626 and 2742

• Hertfordshire
• Nonprofit Organisations

The Ware Charity estates and trustees originated in the medieval Guild of Corpus Christi and the Guild of Jesus; they were also known by other names such as the Ware Feoffees and the Trustees of the Ware Town Land Rents. The trustees manage a number of the Ware parish charities.

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