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A HISTORY OF TILBURY - THE TILBURY CHARITY
Taken from, called by, but NOT distributed in, Tilbury! |
From:
"An Account of the charities ... of Henley-upon-Thames"
by John Cooper, 1858
"John Stutteridge, by his will, dated the 18th of March, 1627, gave certain estates at West Tilbury and Horndon, in Essex, to his wife Elizabeth, for her life, and to her daughter Joan (a daughter by a former husband), after her decease, for her life; and then, after some legacies and bequests, made the following devise:-
- 'Item: I give to the town of Henley-upon-Thames, in Oxfordshire, the reversion of all my lands for the use of the poor.'
Soon after the testator's death, his widow proved the will, and married one John Scudder; and her daughter Joan married one Henry Scudder.
The mother died in the lifetime of her daughter; and, upon her death, Henry Scudder, in right of his wife, took possession of the estate.
In the year 1632, the Corporation of Henley, by their then style and title of 'The Warden, Bridgemen, Burgesses, and Commonalty of the town of Henley-upon-Thames, in the county of Oxford,' ... filed a Bill in Chancery against Henry Scudder and his wife; and in Easter Term, 1633, a decree was made by [the] ... Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, that the Corporation:
- 'Should, according to the true intent and meaning of the said devise, stand and be seised of all the said lands, messuages, and premises, in reversion after the death of the said Joan ...'
Joan, the wife of Henry Scudder, died a few years after the passing of this decree, and the Corporation of Henley thereupon took possession of the estates ..."
The property takeny by the Corporation of Henley included, in 1858, the following:
- 'A farm house and farm buildings, and 137s. 1r. 37p. of land, at West Tilbury, Essex, let to Mr. Peter Asplin for eleven years, from Michaelmas, 1849, at the annual rent of £150.'
In 1855 Henley Corporation sold a small part of this land to the Tilbury and Southend Railway Company.