PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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ROBERT HEWER'S GIFT
By his will dated 1743, Mr Robert Hewer gave £100 to Plymouth Corporation for the benefit of twenty poor inhabitants of the Town. How it was originally invested is not recorded but the sum was earning an interest of £4 per annum. At the time of the Charity Commissioners' Inquiry in January 1821, Hewer's Gift had been combined with those of Bounde, Burroughs, Gayer and White to create a fund amounting to £73, from which shirts and shifts were purchased and distributed to the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, common councillors, Town Clerk, Coroner and Receiver for onward distribution to the poor at Michaelmas and Christmas. In the year 1815 the fund spent £66 2s 0d; in 1816, £65 3s 3d; in 1817, £55 7s 4d; 1818, £59 8s 0d; 1819, £60 0s 0d; and in 1820 they spent the full £75. The Commissioners found that although these figures would appear to show that the fund had not been exhausted each year except the last, the Corporation had in fact been giving the balance in clothing to the twelve widows inhabiting the Old Church Twelve's Almshouses. An Order of the Charity Commissioners dated October 20th 1905 combined Hewer's Gifts with others to form a single municipal charity. Principal Source:
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