| Admin History | Under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835 (5-6 W. IV, c. 76), the charities administered by Windsor Corporation were in the following year placed under the management of trustees appointed by the Court of Chancery. In 1853 they became accountable to the Charity Commissioners, by the Charitable Trusts Act, 1853 (16 and 17 Vic. c. 137). A scheme to regulate the various almshouse charities under a board of trustees, including Richard Reeve's and Webb's, took effect in 1860. The sale of Sewell's and Reeve's almshouses, and others in Sheet Street and Park Street, paid for the erection of new ones in Victoria Street in 1862. In 1887 a number of charities were merged, according to provision offered, into three groups: marriage portions, apprenticeship, advancement and education (Laud, Randue, Andrew Windsor, Heaver, Child); poor widows (Thomas, Arabella Reeve, Smith (part)); and the general benefit of the poor (Richard Reeve, Panton, Webb, Smith (remainder)). In a further re-arrangement in 1903, surplus monies of the Municipal Charities were vested in the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds, a body comprising the vicar of New Windsor, and nine elected and seven co-opted members. In addition, the almshouse-related concerns were merged as the Municipal Almshouse Charity, including Field, Gallis, Lister and Osbourne.
Arabella Reeve's (bread) and Church's (for apprenticeship; see WI/QL3/4) Charities were administered as part of the Parochial Charities, under the direction of the vicar and churchwardens of Windsor.
Accounts of Windsor charities are given in Annals of Windsor, vol 2, pp 632-640 (R R Tighe and J E Davis), and Endowed Charities of Berkshire, 1910, vol 2 pt 2, pp 805-885; both available in the Record Office library.
The catalogue begins with Windsor Municipal Charities (section WI/QA); followed by the inter-related charities of Laud and Randue, which seem to have retained a degree of independence (WI/QL); and charities founded before the 19th century mergers, or whose records continued to be filed separately despite being absorbed by the municipal scheme (WI/QX). |