Fulford miscellania
Random items to be followed up by interested people....
Hutchinson's Charity
In White's Directory of the West Yorkshire for 1837, there is a description in the history of Wakefield of a charity which mentions Fulford: "HUTCHINSON'S CHARITY."
James Hutchinson bequeathed one moiety of the rents of a house, and about 24 acres, of land at Gate Fulford, and of Fishergate close of 3 and 26P. (see below) near York, for the maintenance of a free school at Fremington.
In 1663, his relict, Mary Hutchinson, bequeathed the other moiety of the rents of the said property to be paid yearly to two poor decayed clothworkers of Wakefield, "the most honest and of best report for godliness."
The property now lets for £106 per annum, but is subject to a fee-farm rent of £1.16s.1d. to the crown. Messrs. Wm. Naylor, Thomas Johnson, Chas. Steet & Wm. Holdsworth were the surviving trustees in 1827."
A Rood is an English unit of area equal to one quarter of an acre or 10,890 sq. feet (1,012 sq. m.)
A rectangle that is one furlong (i.e. 10 chains, or 40 rods) in length and one rod in width is one rood in area, as is any space comprising 40 perches.
I always wonder what happens to the old charities? When all the trustees die does it just get forgotten about? Who was James Hutchinson and how did he come to own 24 acres of Fulford in the 17th century? And where is Fishergate Close?