Charity Schools and Almshouses
Almshouses were buildings erected by private
individuals, religious bodies, trade guilds and livery
companies. Alternatively called Bedehouses and Spital
Houses. (The Local Historian's Encyclopaedia by John
Richardson, Historical Publications, 1989)
John Charley (master of the Coopers Company in 1543)
gave property known as Old Wool Quay in All Saints
parish, Barking to the Ratcliffe charity, which was sold
to the Crown for £400 in 1558. (Known at the Ratcliffe
Charity.)
Tobias Wood left £600 in 1611 to found six almshouses
as part of the Ratcliff charity. Henry Strode also
endowed the charity in 1703. The Ratcliff institution was
burnt down in 1794 and rebuilt. The almshouses were
pulled down in 1898. The Coopers company is still
involved in the charity schools and in the management of
the Cobourn School for Girls at 29-33 Bow Rd.
John Cass was
Lord Mayor of London and had been knighted. He died in
1718 and in his will founded a charity, two schools of
different standards, which scholars could pass from one
to the other, for the inhabitants of Aldgate and Hackney.
Henry Raine, a brewer of Stepney, started a school in
St George in the East in 1719 for 50 boys and 50 girls.
It moved in 1912 to Arbour Square. The boys were taught to read, write
and make accounts and the girls were taught to read and sew.
The Central
Foundation School for Girls in Spital Square was
established in 1726 and amalgamated later with several
other schools. It was re-endowed finally by Alleyn's
College of God's Gift, Dulwich.
The Church of
England school, Whitehorse Rd, Ratcliffe, originally Dame
Mico's Almshouses, were rebuilt in 1857. The two charity
children statues date from 1759.
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