Trustees of Piper's Charity 1816-1893

DBH 28

Trustees of Piper's Charity 1816-1893

Arrangement of list

Introductory notes

DBH 28/1. Trusteeship papers

DBH 28/2. Chancery Case re. the school master's salary

DBH 28/3. Piper's Soup Institution

DBH 28/4. Investment of funds

DBH 28/5. Minutes

DBH 28/6. Correspondence

DBH 28/7. Accounts, bills and receipts

DBH 28/8. Mrs Benson's bequest

DBH 28/9. Printed material

English

Matthew Piper, a member of the Society of Friends, died on 24 October 1821 aged 91. His obituary (Cumberland Pacquet 22 October 1821) stated that he had 'amassed a considerable fortune by parsimonious economy' and with his money he founded and endowed a soup kitchen in Whitehaven, and also three schools in Whitehaven, Kendal and Lancaster.

Marine School. The Trust deed of Whitehaven Marine School was dated 1816 and the school established in 1822. The Cumberland Pacquet (8 April 1822) reported a meeting held on 2 April at which 60 boys aged 8-12 were admitted to the school: 'the situation of the school is very eligible, and the room commodious and neatly fitted up'. The curriculum (outlined in DBH 28/1/1) seems to be in accord with the subjects studied in Whitehaven with a view to boys becoming seamen or apprentices on merchant ships.

Problems arose over finance and the schoolmaster's salary but the school continued 'turning out ... well educated lads, whose reading, writing and 'rithmetic at Piper's School never cost their poor parents one penny' (see newspaper cutting in DBH 28/6), until 1908 when the school was sold and the money realised was used to purchase the site of the grammar school which was built in the same year.

Soup Kitchen. The Trust deed of the Soup Kitchen was signed in 1817 and the kitchen was run from rented premises by Mr John Gibson until 1855. A site in Mill Street was then rented on a 99 year lease from Lord Lonsdale and a soup kitchen and dwelling house built from funds raised by public subscription. A store house was added later.

The kitchen was organised by a committee of ladies and new equipment was bought and building work carried out while the institution continued to provide soup in the winter months. This was made possible by public donations and new legacies which supplemented the relatively small founding bequest. A newspaper article (D/BH 28/6) mentions the work of the soup kitchen in terms of enthusiasm, and donations were forthcoming, but the entry in Bulmer's Directory of 1883 comments on the kitchen 'these charitable institutions are deserving the sympathy and assistance of a generous public. If instead of relieving the vagrants who infest the suburbs of our towns, and who are almost without exception professional tramps and would not work if it were offered to them, the charitably disposed would contribute towards the funds of these societies, they would have the Satisfaction of knowing that their charity was bestowed upon deserving objects'.

The Soup Kitchen was still open in 1901 (Bulmer's Directory).