h individual.

4.--JOHN BATES'S CHARITY.

This Charity consists of the sum of 5 pounds, which appears to have
been left by John Bate some time before the year 1701; the interest
to be yearly distributed among the Poor of Willenhall on St. Thomas's
Day.

The principal was placed at interest on 21 December, 1701, in the
hands of Joseph Hincks, on the security of his bond; and the interest
appears to have been duly paid by himself and his heirs successively.
It is now paid by Thomas Hincks on St. Thomas's Day annually to
fifteen Poor Widows of the Township in shares of 4d. each.

The founders of the "lost" Prestwood Charity were doubtless members of
the family mentioned in Chapter VII. as resident in Willenhall as early
as 1409; Prestwood, be it noted, was also the name of an ancient moated
farm and homestead in Wednesfield. The name of Prestwood is again
mentioned, as are also the names of the other Willenhall benefactors,
Bates and Tomkiss, in the endowment deeds of 1607, quoted in Chapter XXI.
As to the Welch family, their homestead in Willenhall stood in the
location known as Welch End.

Concerning Pedley's Charity, which has not been distributed these 50
years, the Churchwardens have, as recently as 1895, made earnest attempts
at its recovery. The lands once chargeable for the dole were identified
as Shares Acres, lying between the canal and the road leading to New
Invention from Monmer Lane. The property, however, was found to be in
the hands of the Trustees of the late W. E. Jones; and as, through the
remissness of someone, the estate had been sold and conveyed without due
provision for the payment of the annuity once charged upon it, the
Trustees had not power to make such payment. While the minerals under
this land have been yielding wealth, the Poor have been defrauded from
their rightful share in the same.

Painstaking inquiries for the other "lost charities" have also been made,
but with no success. For many years the Incumbent and Wardens have
provided and distributed a Dole of 40 loaves, for which there has been no
legal responsibility resting upon them.

In 1881 Jeremiah Hartill gave 200 pounds to the Vicar and Wardens, which
was invested in Consols, and the interest is annually distributed on
January 1st amongst twenty poor people of the township. The Hartill
Charity and the Tomkys and Welch Doles are the only ones now
administered.