A brief historical account by Dr Christine Agambar
The Feoffee’s Charity in Great Brickhill is active today in providing charitable assistance to residents of the village. It is a significant part of Great Brickhill’s Heritage. It is admired and valued by all residents, not just because of its notably long existence but also because its conduct through six centuries to the present day has been unimpeachable. Throughout its existence it has been greatly valued for its sensitive practice of supporting those residents who are in need of assistance.
The Charity was founded in 1616 and its legal status is described in a number of legal documents (Indentures) over the centuries that are held by the Charity and give fascinating insights into the village and its residents and their needs in times past. Also, throughout its history the Charity has held property and land that these documents describe. They provide a valuable source of information about the economics and health of the village in past centuries and may be of interest to those who wish to gain a greater understanding of the origins and geography of the village.
Of particular importance is the fact that, in the past, the village of Great Brickhill has faced some extreme challenges to its continuing existence through historical events and the Charity was instrumental, at that time in providing support when it was most needed. It is quite probable that, but for the Charity, the village might not have survived to the present day.
The description of the historical documents that follow provide some detailed “flavour” of a typical village charity of the time and one from which current Great Brickhill residents continue to benefit.
A Brief History of the Charity
The Great Brickhill Feoffee’s Charity was created in 1616. English Law, in 1618, required it to be governed by a legally binding agreement, called an Indenture. The Indenture named the trustees of the Charity and required that when a certain number of the trustees had died, then a new Indenture would be required. Each new Indenture named the newly appointed trustees and the legal responsibilities that they held and the property held by the Charity. Today, the Charity continues to hold, in its archives, the Indentures dated 1618, 1661, 1703, 1730 and 1753, all written on vellum and all of which use an arcane form of legal text. Each Indenture describes the Charity’s assets and those who took on responsibility for acting as trustees for the Charity. It describes where the assets (mainly cottages and land) were located in the village and how the distribution to the poor and needy was to be organised. Today, the Charity is subject to a Deed of Trust under the auspices of the Charity Commission.
The Great Brickhill Feoffee’s Charity of 1616:
The Charity was founded by William Sheppard (the younger), probably through a bequest in his Will; he died on February 25th 1616.
The Sheppards – William senior (who died in 1591) had two sons (William and Henry), who both went on to sire an extensive family in Great Brickhill and there are numerous records in the Parish Register. Many of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren died in infancy and the family appeared to die out in Great Brickhill by the early part of the 1700s. William senior’s life was contemporaneous with the purchase of Great Brickhill Manor by William Duncombe in 1534. It is likely that William Sheppard’s lands were acquired from the Manor under the legal practice of feoffment during the Duncombe’s early ownership of the Manor. It was common at that time for well-regarded yeomen/freeholders/tenants to be granted land in a feoff or feudal fee in return for loyalty and support for The Lord of the Manor. This feudal practice died out in the seventeenth century.
William Sheppard (the younger), inherited the feoffment from his father who died in 1591. In 1616 he bequeathed the feoffment as a charity for the inhabitants of Great Brickhill, thus getting round the entailment of this feudal land back to the Duncombes. In 1618, the entailment was replaced by a legal Indenture which passed the land to the Charity.
The Charity name “Feoffees” comes from the original connection with feudal roots.
The 1618 Indenture
On 30th July 1618 an indenture (or deed) was drawn up which named the trustees who would administer the charity. Two of the trustees were Anthony Stanton, gentleman, of Smewnes in Great Brickhill and Henry Sheppard, who was 17 years old and a great nephew of William Sheppard (the younger). There we’re seven other trustees. Feudal law still pertained and it is unlikely that the actual assets of the charity were defined. Each trustee would allocate a proportion of his assets each year to the charity. Clearly this laxness in the ‘rules’ led to widespread fraud against charity assets in various village locations, but there is no evidence that this was the case in Great Brickhill.
The 1661 Indenture
Everything changed for village charities in 1660 when Charles the Second was restored to the throne. Legal changes were made by Parliament to abolish the feudal social system that went before, on which most village charities were based. The Great Brickhill Indenture of 1661 was probably one of the first to be drawn up under this new legal framework. Basically, the new law required each asset of the charity to be defined in detail. That is why Indentures are so lengthy. The Charity owned strips of land in most of the fields in Great Brickhill. Each strip (called ‘one land’) in the 1661 Indenture was identified by listing the owners of adjacent strips to the north, east, south and west. Similarly, the cottages owned by the charity were described by listing the neighbours on all sides. For this reason, the Great Brickhill Village Charity Documents can be used to give a “picture” of the geography of the village and the location of the occupants by their name.
By 1661, Anthony Stanton and Henry Sheppard were the only surviving trustees named in the 1618 Indenture and a new Indenture was required by law to name a new set of trustees.
The 1661 Indenture
This sets out the reasons for the new indenture;
- it names the new trustees;
- It defines the property owned by the charity;
- It describes the process of conflict resolution that should be adopted if the trustees cannot agree on the disposal of the income from the charity;
- It states that a new indenture should be drawn up when ten of the twelve of the trustees named in the 1661 indenture had died.
The indenture is written in an archaic form of legal shorthand in a quill pen on vellum. It is all legible.
The Indenture is officially an “Indenture with Livery Seizin” which means in today’s terms “a binding contract”. The words ‘ Livery in Seizin’ refer to a medieval practice that might interest you. In medieval times the buyer and seller of property or land would meet in the field or at the house and the seller would pick up a clod of earth and hand it to the buyer (or a stone or twig if it is a wood being sold). The handing over was a symbol of the bond being struck and led to the practice today of shaking hands on a deal.
The Indenture is dated 1661 but states that King Charles II has been on the throne for 13 years when he was only restored in 1660. Clearly, the Commonwealth Period of Oliver Cromwell has been wiped from the legal mind!
The 1703 Indenture
By 1703 the social structure of the village had changed, as had the legal structure of charitable status. Most interesting is that the Feoffs (trustees) are no longer “the chiefest and wealthiest” inhabitants of the village that run the Charity but “the Ablest” and these feoffs are required to treat the recipients with respect “peaceably and quietly”. Also the charity has to be accountable to all who live in the village of Great Brickhill and the Feoffs are to be chosen by all parishioners and not by the other Feoffs.
Most significantly, by 1703 the Feoffs owned and ran a village school. And the two people named as living in the school were John Harborow and Ruth North, and were probably the village school’s first teachers.
P.S. Why are legal documents of this time so “wordy”?
Lawyers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were paid by the line in conveyancing. Therefore, the longer and wordier a deed was, the more they got paid! Legal clerks got round this by marking new and important phrases by increasing the size of the text or highlighting the first word of the sentence, making it easier to follow a lengthy deed.
The 1730 Indenture
The 1730 Indenture names the newly appointed Feoffs and is otherwise very similar in form to that of 1703. It is officially a “Lease and Release Deed” which means in today’s terms a “binding freehold conveyance”. It does, however, indicate that there were no major social changes in Great Brickhill between 1703 and 1730.
As in 1703:
- the Feoffs in 1730 are described as being “the ablest” inhabitants of Great Brickhill;
- the Charity property in 1730 is described by the names of those in receipt of charity aid or the tenants of property or those who farmed the land. The property and land owned by the charity appears to be unchanged between 1703 and 1730;
- the feoffs are required to treat the recipients of the Charity with respect “peaceably and quietly”;
- the Charity has to be accountable to all those living in Great Brickhill;
- the feoffs who collected the rents are chosen by the Parishioners and not appointed by other feoffs;
- the Charity owned and ran a school. The same two people are named as living in the loft of the school in 1730, although John Harborow, thought to be one of the teachers, died three years earlier in 1727. It is possible that the replacement teacher had a family and was a tenant in one of the cottages owned by the Charity.
The 1753 Indenture
The 1753 Indenture is very similar in form to that of 1730. It list the Feoffs that are responsible for administering the Charity. There are two key paragraphs that introduce new legally binding rules of governance of the Charity.
The second requirement made it compulsory for the Charity to keep “The Book of Amounts” and other writings concerning their property in the Town Chest in the Parish Church of Great Brickhill. And the keys of the Chest to be kept by the Minister and Church Wardens of Great Brickhill.
This was effectively establishing a forerunner to the Parish Council and the Parochial Church Council of today.
And….the Chest remains to the present day, close to the altar in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Great Brickhill. A picture of the Chest is shown in the Church Artefacts section.
Images of the indenture documents are part of the Document Images Section.
A downloadable version of this document is in the Document Download section.
Photograph by David Marlow Photography