STATEMENT <f the ACCOUNTS of the CHARITY bearing no name, amounting to Ten pounds per annum, charged by the WORSHIPFUL COMPANY of SCRIVENERS on Four Houses in Noble Street, in the City of London belonging to the Company, which sum of Ten Pounds per annum they distribute with a larger sum out of their private funds quarterly between three poor persons, viz., Mrs. Ashfield, Mrs. Francis, and Miss Loveday, whose relations have been connected with the Company of which Charity the Company in its corporate character is the Trustee for the Year ending on the 29th day of September 1880.

TO THE CHARITY COMMISSIONERS FOR
ENGLAND AND WALES.

In pursuance of a minute of the Board of the 1st of November 1864, I have inquired into the condition and circumstances of the following Charities under the management of the Spectaclemakers' Company of the City of London, and I have stated in the report under the head of each endowment the result of my investigation.

YARWELL'S CHARITY.

TITE'S CHARITY.

The style of the Company is "The Master, Wardens, and "Court of Assistants of the Worshipful Company of Spectaclemakers of the City of London."

The Court is composed of one master, two wardens, and eight assistants. The liverymen of the Company are nearly 400, but there are about 1,300 freemen. There was power in the Charter to apply for the of the livery, which was not done until 1809. Many of the members of the Company are opticians.

YARWELL'S CHARITY.

John Yarwell, by his will of the 13th February 1711, gave to the Company 100l. to purchase 5l. yearly, of which 31. 10s. to be paid towards a dinner at Michaelmas, and 30s. among six poor members at the same time. The Company have given up all claim to the dinner, and apply the whole to charitable purposes. The sum of 1667. 13s. 4d. 31. per cent. Consols was invested in 1855 in the corporate name of the Company, being sufficient to pay 57. per annum.

The Company after paying the income tax gave 15s. 6d. annually to six poor freemen chosen by the Court of Assistants.

TITE'S CHARITY.

William Tite, by a deed of 31st day of December 1862, gave to the Company 1,000l. 41. per cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock of the London and South-western Railway Company, to form a perpetual stock for endowment of pensions, to be called the "William Tite's Pensions," of 101. each to four poor widows of liverymen of the Company, to be paid half-yearly in March and September, and in the event of the cessation of any pension between two halfyearly payments no apportionment of the current half year should be paid; if from any cause the fund should not yield 107. the pension to be reduced pro ratâ. The pension to be discontinued in case of misconduct or by reason of accession of property. The donor to have the power to make any new regulations with respect to said pensions as to number, value, &c.

There are four widows on the list elected in conformity with the rules of the foundation, and receiving 101. a year each in half-yearly payments.

One person (the widow of William Hare) has recently died.

In addition to the Charities paid under these foundations, the Company out of their proper funds distribute about 1007. a year amongst poor widows of members of the Company.

All which I submit to the Board.

2nd June 1865.

THOMAS HARE,

Inspector of Charities.

The master, wardens, and commonalty under the Charter of 3 & 4 Philip and Mary constitute the Company. There is a master and two wardens and court of assistants, consisting on the average of about 30. There are at present a smaller number, being only 24. The master and wardens are elected from the senior members of the court. There

are about 360 liverymen. The number of freemen is upwards of 1,000, but is not accurately known. The freedom is acquired by birth, servitude, and purchase. The Company do not allow any sale of the freedom to persons not connected with the trades of stationer, printer, bookbinder, bookseller, printseller, and engraver. On cases in which other trades acquire the freedom by birth or servitude, the Company of late, on admission to the livery, require them to consent not to claim participation in the stock until they are members of one of the above-named trades.

The sum of 3447. a year is applied in quarterly pensions to 80 freemen and widows of freemen, the greater part of the recipients being widows. The highest rate of pensions, at which rate there are four, is 81. a year, and the remainder are 41. a year. This fund is derived partly from an appropriation of the profits of the monopoly of almanacks given to the Company, and which appropriation was made by a resolution of 1681, whereby 2001. a year was set apart for pensions. It has been increased in recent times.

LAMBE'S CHARITY.

William Lambe, by deed of the 7th July, 9 Elizabeth, granted to the Company an annuity of 61. 13s. 4d. charged on his chapel of St. James', Cripplegate, and the messuage adjoining, the Company covenanting to give weekly to 12 poor persons 12 penny loaves and 12d., and 6s. 8d. for a sermon yearly at St. Faith's.

The Stationers' Company receive 6l. 15s. 4d. a year from the Cloth workers' Company, deducting income tax. Twelve widows of freemen who have been already selected as quarterly pensioners receive quarterly 2s. in money, and one twopenny loaf, making 51. 4s. a year. The remaining 11. 4s. 4d. is carried to the account of the Company.

Whittingham's Charity

Davis and Barlow's Charity

And he gave to the Company 1,000l. to be laid out in lands, and the yearly produce applied in loans as in the will of Wm. Norton.

The sum of 1,000l., the loan fund, of 1501. for the bread and sermon and St. Faith's and the poor of the Company, and the sum of 507, part of the gift of 521. by John Billage, making together 1,2007, were laid out in the purchase of property in or near Wood Street, in the city of London.

An ex-officio information was, after the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry, filed by the Attorney-General against the Stationers' Company stating the foregoing devise, and also stating the several gifts and bequests of Wm. Norton, Wm. Billage, and George Bishop, and stating the investment of the 1,0007. and 1507. and Billage's bequest of 501. in the purchase of a tenement in Wood Street, and that the rent thereof was then 4017. a year, which, subject to the specific payments mentioned, the Company treated as their own property. The information stated also the gifts of Christopher Meredith and Evan Tyler, and that no sums of money had been for many years applied in loans according to the direction of the several wills, and it prayed that an account might be taken of the several lands, tenements, hereditaments, premises, rentcharges, funds, and other charitable donations and bequests therein before respectively mentioned, and of the rents, &c. of the same respectively received by the said Company or by their order or for their use from such time as the court should think fit to direct, and of their application thereof respectively, and that the defendants might be decreed to account for and refund such rents, &c. belonging to the said several and respective charities or any of them as had been received by the said Company or by their order or for their use, and not specifically applied by them to the purposes of the several and respective charities according to the express directions of the several donors from such time as the court should think fit to direct, and that the trusts affecting the said estates and hereditaments respectively might be ascertained and declared by the court. And that the estate, &c. might be ascertained and distinguished, and in future kept separate, and that distinct accounts might be kept thereof and of the rents, &c. thereof respectively, and that, if necessary, the said master might approve of a scheme for the future regulation and distribution of the said rents, profits, and proceeds of the said charity property respectively.

The answer raised the question of the right claimed by the Company to hold the Wood Street estate subject only to the specific charges, and it also set forth the circumstances under which 2001. a year had been appropriated to the poor of the Company out of the profits of the English stock or trading stock arising from printing and publishing certain books to which an exclusive right had been granted to them by a charter of James I., and insisted that such appropriation was voluntary. At the hearing of the cause on the 26th May 1830, before the Master of the Rolls, the court declared that the defendants, having with respect to the charities in question acted according to the practice of their predecessors, there being no special circumstances from which misconduct could be imputed to the present