Testimonial of several parishioners to the beneficent influence exercised by Richd....

HW/96/10

21 Mar 1771

Testimonial of several parishioners to the beneficent influence exercised by Richd. How I in the parish, written in Silena How's hand, & signed by Wm. Joyce, Sam Wooding, Geo. Wooding, J. Turvey, Geo. Smith, Thos. Hull, Jas. Britain & Wm. Turvey.

We declare that the late Mr. Richd. How was the greatest benefactor to the parish of any person who ever lived in it during our memory, having frequently at his sole expence made chargeable & useful improvements for the public good in the benefits *hereof the other occupiers shared with him, & was constantly ready to serve the parish by his application & advice, that he was a most extraordinary friend to the poor in particular, & found them (proportionable) abundantly the most employ. of any person in the parish, as scarce ever a laborer wanted work even in the depth of winter & applied to him with but success, for lie took pains to find something for them to do rather than let any remain idle. He was a very kind & generous landlord and so forbearing to his tenants that as we have heard & really believe he frequently lost large sums or forgave them, being very compassionate & considerate. We are also well-assured he procured the cottagers exemption from the poor's tax purely from a tenderness towards them, & to free them from the burthen of the house & Church taxes, without any view of advantage to himself, or design to gain an opportunity thereby of raising their rents, which meanness we are persuaded from our knowledge of him for several years, he scorned to be guilty of; & therefore are well assured the assertion is base, false & scandalous, & if cottages have for some years past been advanced in the rents, the true reason is that about 14 tenements have been pull'd down, whereby cottages became scarce. This we are ready to swear, as being according to the best of our knowledge & belief, & as a testimony we in gratitude owe to his memory, finding ill-disposed persons have maliciously sought to asperse his character, tho' all of them, whether farmers, occupiers, or labourers who were inhabitants here during his life, have we doubt not, in some respect or other, profited by him.

English