John Blagrave's charity records

John Blagrave, by his will dated 30 June 1611, provided for the sum of £10 in a new purse of leather to be paid to the Corporation of Reading, out of his lands in Swallowfield, Eversley and Reading, £6 13s 4d from this sum to go to one poor maidservant; the rest to be given to the parish churches' bell-ringers and to the poor. This rent charge of £10 was still paid in 1962 (see Blandy, page 14). Under the reorganisation of charities in the 19th century (see General Introduction to D/QR), Blagrave's charity became one of the Consolidated Charities for Female Servants within the Municipal Church Charities group, where it has remained until the present day.