Catalogue description Records of the Charity of Elizabeth Turton and Others (Whitchurch)

The records of the charity give a clear picture of its workings, consisting of:-

Trust Deed 1859 5104/1

Ledgers/Minute Books 1800-1979 5104/2/1-4

Receipts and Payments Accounts 1800-1979 5104/2/1-4 and 5104/3/

Statements of Accounts 1898-1949 5104/4/1-25

Correspondence 1897-1981 5104/5/1-63

Local Government Act 1894 5104/6

Misc. receipts 1938-1939 5104/7/1-6

The receipts are mainly in the name of Gregory's Charity, which also operated in Whitchurch, one of whose trustees, a Mr. Galloway, was also a trustee of Turton's Charity. He must have included the receipts in these records in error.

[see the Reports of Commissioners on Charities (Shropshire), 1819-37; Report of the Review of Local Charities in Shropshire, 1975, (S.R.O. 3525)]

Elizabeth Turton Charity, Whitchurch, Shropshire

Elizabeth Turton, widow of William Turton of Knolton Hall in the parish of Overton, Co. Flint, by her will dated 28 May 1794, gave to John Hand and eleven others, £500 upon trust, to place out on government or real securities, or in the purchase of land, and to dispose of its profits amongst poor widows, poor housekeepers or other poor persons of and belonging to the parish of Whitchurch, in such shares and proportions as they should think fit, yearly on 19 January, or as soon after as might be convenient; and she directed that whenever the trustees should by death or removal out of the parish of Whitchurch be reduced to two, the remaining trustees should assign the said sum to ten other persons resident in the parish of Whitchurch, to act with them in the execution of the said trust; and that the rector of Whitchurch, for the time being, might act with the trustees in the execution of the trusts, should he think fit.

By a codicil to her will, dated 1 September 1796, Elizabeth Turton directed that all the residue of her estates and effects, subject to the payment of her debts and legacies, should be converted into money, and the produce paid to the same trustees for the same purposes.

Elizabeth Turton died in 1797 and her will was proved in 1798. Her legacy was duly invested by the trustees in three per cent consolidated bank annuities and records of disbursements from the charity begin in 1800.

The charity was augmented several times: first by John Hand of Dodington in the parish of Whitchurch, one of the trustees named in Elizabeth Turton's will, by his own will of 1804; then by Elizabeth Langford of Dodington, niece of John Hand, by a codicil to her will of 1837; and lastly by Archibald Worthington, one of the trustees, in 1859 (see 5104/1 and 5104/2/1-2).

The charity was administered in the same way, according to the terms of Elizabeth Turton's will, for over 180 years, with the trustees meeting annually to draw up lists of those who were to receive money (usually a small sum) from the charity, and then distributing it personally. In 1984 Turton's Charity amalgamated with a number of other local charities to form Whitchurch Relief In Need.

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