In 1652 Mr. William Methwold by will gave six cottages or almshouses, in the will called “an hospital,” to form residences for six poor women.
These almshouses were situated in what is now called Cromwell Lane, and adjoined a house and grounds called Hale House, which had been owned and occupied by Mr. Methwold; and this house was charged with the payment of £24 a year to give a pension or subsistence money of £4 a year each to six alms-women by quarterly payments of £1, at Hale House.
The will provided that the parish in Vestry were to appoint three alms women to the three western houses, and the owner or inhabitant of Hale House for the time being to appoint to the three eastern houses.
The alms women were to be single, aged 50, free from vice and of good report, were not to be allowed to receive lodgers, and were to visit and assist one another in sickness.
Difficulties occurred in executing the provisions of the will, necessitating an application to the Court of Chancery, and by a decree of the Court dated 17th July, 1758, the charity was established according to the will, except that the rent charge upon Hale House of £26 a year for pensions was reduced to £18. The charity continued in this condition for a great number of years, and the rent charge duly paid by the proprietors of the Hale House Estate, who in 1810 were the Countess of Harrington and Lady Fleming, both descended from John Fleming, the purchaser of Hale House from the Methwold family.
The committee of 1810, in their report of which I have made so much use in preparing this paper, point out the necessity for a very careful and vigilant attention in the selection for the benefits of this charity, from that class of respectable poor “who may justly be entitled to accommodation of this kind,” and the report quaintly proceeds:—
“The committee do this the rather as the charity has been for many years past shamefully abused by a woman in one of the eastern houses, who has suffered a man to reside with her in direct violation of one of the express rules of the original foundation, and in defiance of repeated remonstrances to the contrary.”
Thomas Goodfellow, by his will dated 1597, gave a rent charge of 20s. a year out of the same property as that charged by Methwold to be paid annually to the Vicar and Churchwardens of Kensington, and this bequest was duly established of the same decree of the Court as established Methwold’s gift.
The Methwold’s almshouses continued to exist until about 1871, when both the almshouses and the Hale House Estate, out of which the rent charges were paid, were compulsorily acquired by the Metropolitan Railway Company, who paid a large sum to the vestry for the purchase thereof. This put an end to the almshouses. The money received from the purchase was invested in Government stock, and now consists of the sum of £4,922 11s. 10d. 2¾ per cent. consolidated stock, purchased for £4,563 4s. 9d. in cash. Application was then made to the Charity Commissioners for an order establishing a scheme for the future regulation of the charity, which was accordingly adopted, viz.:—That the net income of the charity be applied in pensioning poor widows or single women of good character and reputation, and not less than 60 years of age, whose income from all sources does not exceed £30 a year, who have resided in the parish for not less than ten years, and have never received parochial relief.
These pensioners are appointed by the Vestry. It appears from the Vestry report of 1888–9 that there were then seven women, whose ages varied from 78 to 84, in receipt of pensions from this fund, amounting in the aggregate to £118 6s.