Leverton Charities, Waltham Abbey. A manuscript volume in private hands

Thomas Leverton (c.1743 – 1824), architect, left in his Will £6000 to be spent on charitable causes in Waltham Abbey. Invested in annuities it generated an annual dividend of £180 and was allocated as follows: “£80 in clothing 20 boys and 20 girls; £30 to a schoolmaster, and £20 to a mistress, for teaching the said forty children; £10 to provide them with school books and stationary; £10 for apprenticing two of the said children; £5 to be given to five of the children who behaved well in their first servitude; £12 to be given in clothing to six poor men and six poor women; £5 to be distributed in bread among the poor on Christmas day; £3 for keeping his monument in repair, and the remaining £5 to be reserved by the trustees for contingencies.” (Wright, 1848)

A manuscript volume in private hands, to the extent of 285 pages, covers the working of the charities from 1852 to 1863. It provides a list of trustees appointed “by Will” to May 1863. This included at inauguration Revd. William Whalley, and throughout the period members of the Jessop family who were local solicitors. In a separate development, the executors of George Fawbert, “late of Harlow [1824] … purchased a [school] House and Premises [in High Bridge Street], which they presented to the Trustees of the Leverton Charities for the use of the Leverton Trust”. Joseph Jessop Esqr was one of Fawbert’s executors.

Benjamin Howard Merriman and Martha Merriman his Wife were elected as schoolmaster and schoolmistress in 1849 followed by George Smith and Jane Smith a decade later. Children were elected to the school by the trustees as vacancies occurred. They were expected to attend daily from 9.00am to 12pm, and 2.00pm to 4.30pm (4.00pm between Michaelmas and Lady Day) as well as three times on Sunday at Divine Service. “The children to be in the Schools by the striking of the Church Clock … to be sent well washed, their hair combed, their linen and shoes clean, and stockings and clothes neatly mended.“ It was their parents responsibility to “see their Children’s Behaviour at Home and in the Streets, is in unison with the principles taught at School, and that they cause them to say their Prayers Morning and Evening; also Grace before and after Meat.” The master and mistress were also obliged to follow a code of conduct in accordance with the Trustee’s wishes. Holidays were granted “Easter Week (2 Days Church), Whitsuntide Week; Queen’s Birth Day [24 May]; Hay Harvest, a fortnight; Wheat Harvest, a fortnight or 3 weeks; Statute (26th Sep); Christmas, a fortnight; and, from 1859, every Saturday”. The volume then lists the admission of 161 pupils beginning with those already in the Leverton School on 1 January 1852. Five children annually were rewarded the sum of £1 for good behaviour in their first year of employment. One such recipient was James William Turnham, born 22 June 1841 who joined the school at the age of nine, leaving just short of the age of 14 to go to work “as a Cooper at the Powder Mills”. Emma Carr, aged 14 on 15 November 1853 went to work “in a factory”. Jane Carpenter “went into Mr Sidgwick’s Service in Sun Street”. It appears that children stayed until their fourteenth birthday. There are a few records showing “time out”. Other pupils did not make the grade: William Henry Powell at 13 was described as “Boy Impudent. Parents took him away”; Henry Walker, “Clothes Ragged. Taken out by his mother. See Minute April 28 1852”; and, Henry Simpson, age 13, “expelled for bad conduct”. The list ends with a note, “continued Vol 2 p150”.

Towards the end of the volume are reports from ladies on the girls’ school, covering 1853 to 1864, confirming compliance with the founder’s aims. The mistress was required to teach “reading, plain needle and useful housework and writing to ten of the elder girls.” The trustees added that “the Girls are not to be Taught any thing to the neglect of the above, and that if any thing else is Taught, it should be approved by the Ladies, and permitted as a Reward to those Girls”. In 1853 it was noted “that Mrs Merriman informs us common arithmetic has been taught, which, although not provided for by the Founder, we highly approve of. We are also informed that ‘Crochet-Work’ has been taught to some of the children, but we think it desirable that this should be discontinued; we would however suggest that knitting socks or stockings may be taught as being very useful to the humbler classes at an advanced period of life”. In 1855: “We beg to suggest that once a week the Girls’ own Stockings be brought to the School to be darned.” In the boys’ school the Master was required “to Teach Reading, Writing and Common Arithmetic”.

The volume then lists the applicants for and recipients of “Cloak and Gown to 6 Poor Women” and “Coat and Underdress to 6 Poor Men” for the years 1849 to 1859. (1860 can be found in Vol 2, p100).

The distribution of bread follows beginning with a table showing how £5 worth was to be distributed annually. In December 1849 and 1850 it was possible to buy 200 4lb loaves at 6d each. The price varied dramatically with each year being as little as 127 loaves at 9½d in 1853 and as many as 230 loaves at 5¼d in 1858.

Several pages are then devoted to copies of income and expenditure accounts and Balance Sheets for the years 1852 to 1859. There then follows a long table over a number of pages listing the attendance of trustees at monthly meetings between January 1843 and October 1864. The volume appears to be entirely in the same hand, with annotations here and there, but the author is not identified.

Thomas Leverton’s memorial is in the church. He lived in Bedford Square, London, dying aged 81 on 23 September 1824. His second wife, Rebecca, died 4 August 1833, aged 76 and “is buried [with him] in a Vault near this spot. This Monument was Erected not from ostentation, but as an incitement to the youth of his native Parish, to pursue the path by which he rose to Honor, Wealth, & Comfort; by relying humbly on God, acting with Integrity, Industry & true Benevolence.” Other members of his family are buried in the churchyard. The monument erected by Thomas remembers Lancelot, his brother (d.1784), Alice his first wife (d.1802), and “Henry Leverton only Child of Thos Leverton who departed this World Feby 1789 aged 12 years and 10 Months”. They were later joined by William (d.1849) and Sarah (d.1843), his other brother and sister-in-law.

Leverton’s name lives on in Waltham Abbey. Although the Charity School closed in 1942 a Charitable Foundation continues offering students of the town educational grants. The local school, which opened in 1971, is called The Leverton Junior School.