Houghton-le-Spring St. Michael Parish
Reference: EP/Ho Catalogue Title: Houghton-le-Spring St. Michael Parish Area: Catalogue Category: Ecclesiastical Parish Records Description: 12 Charities
Covering Dates: 1546-2005
Catalogue Index
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- Houghton-le-Spring St. Michael Parish
- Houghton le Spring, St Michael (Ref: EP/Ho)
- Charities (Ref: EP/Ho (12))
- Kepier Free Grammar School (later Kepier Hall) and Kepier almshouses (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Deeds of title (Ref: EP/Ho section 01)
- Cocken (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Houghton White House (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Penshaw and Pelaw (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Revenues of Kepier Hospital: garb tithes of Easington and Hardwick (Ref: EP/Ho )
- School foundation and endowment (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Bequests and endowments (Ref: EP/Ho section 02)
- Estate leases and administration (Ref: EP/Ho section 03)
- Bainbridge Holme, Sunderland (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Chester le Street (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Cleadon (Ref: EP/Ho )
- East Rainton (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Houghton Moor (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Houghton le Spring (Ref: EP/Ho )
- West Boldon (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Wolsingham (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Legal Disputes (Ref: EP/Ho section 04)
- Attorney General v. Thomas Griffith, master of Kepier School, and governors, in Chancery, 1747-1755 (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Governors v. Richard Hartburne re. Jack Walkers Field, Wolsingham (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Governors v. Robert Grey, D.D., rector of Bishopwearmouth, in Chancery re Bishopwearmouth gillytithes, 1665-1666 (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Governors v. Thomas Chamber and others, in Chancery, re Whitburn and Cleadon gillytithes, 1616 (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Governors v. William Carr, in Chancery, re Cocken rent arrears, 1609-1611 (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Governors (Ref: EP/Ho section 05)
- Appeals for funds (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Appointment of governors (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Board of Education (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Ralph Robinson, governor (Ref: EP/Ho )
- School accounts and administration (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Heath Legacy (Ref: EP/Ho section 06)
- Tithe income (Ref: EP/Ho section 07)
- Schoolmaster, Head Teacher (Ref: EP/Ho section 08)
- Miscellaneous correspondences (Ref: EP/Ho section 09)
- School buildings and site (Ref: EP/Ho section 10)
- Pupils (Ref: EP/Ho section 11)
- Mining School (Ref: EP/Ho section 12)
- Prospectus (Ref: EP/Ho section 13)
- Rules (Ref: EP/Ho section 14)
- Library (Ref: EP/Ho section 15)
- Photographs (Ref: EP/Ho section 16)
- School magazine (Ref: EP/Ho section 17)
- Kepier Project (Ref: EP/Ho section 18)
- Other grammar schools (Ref: EP/Ho section 19)
- Other Charities (Ref: EP/Ho )
- 20th century charities (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Bagshaw's Charity (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Carr's Charity (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Church House (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Davenport's Charity (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Frankeleyn's Charity [Frankland's Charity] (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Lilburne's Charity (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Miscellaneous papers concerning charities (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Various charities (Ref: EP/Ho )
- Wheler's Charity (Ref: EP/Ho )
Catalogue Contents
Scope of Kepier School Records
The records here represent a substantial part of the school's records as listed in an inventory of 1658 (EP/Ho 613), and in a further inventory of 1749 (EP/Ho 647) when they were used as evidence in Chancery proceedings.
It is clear that some original bundles have been disarranged and many papers have been badly affected by damp. Despite this, there remains evidence of all the principal endowments of Kepier School, a patchy series of accounts for almost a century after the school's foundation, and papers for the majority of the legal disputes in which the school was involved up to the mid-eighteenth century.
The sealed letters patent of Queen Elizabeth, 2 April 1574, founding the Free Grammar School and Almshouse of Kepier are missing, as are the school statutes in imperfect draft form on parchment. However, there is an exemplification of the foundation charter issued by Richard Barnes, bishop of Durham, in 1587 (EP/Ho 598) and a seventeenth century copy of the school statutes (EP/Ho 270). Transcripts of both the letters patent and the statutes appear in the Return and Digest of Endowed Charities (parish of Houghton-le-Spring) in Endowed Charities (Administrative County of Durham), London: H.M.S.O., 1903.
Other missing papers fall into two categories. Several fines relating to the White House in Houghton and Jackwalker Field in Wolsingham are lacking. There are also minor deficiencies in the papers of legal proceedings, perhaps the most significant being those of the Governors v. Carr, tenant of Wolsingham, and tenants of Wearmouth, in chancery, c.1650, for which no papers survive.
There are few papers representing the routine administration of the school from the late seventeenth century onwards.
Estates
The endowments of Kepier School under its founders Bernard Gilpin and John Heath fall into three main groups:
- Lands of the former Kepier Hospital (dissolved in 1546)
John Heath purchased the lands of the former Kepier Hospital from John Cockburn in 1568. The portion of the estate used to endow Kepier School in 1570 and 1577 comprised pensions from the rectories of Gateshead, Whickham and Ryton, and the gillytithes of Bishopwearmouth, Whitburn and Cleadon, Easington, Chester-le-Street and Ryhope.
- Penshaw and Pelaw
Heath and Gilpin purchased two annual rent charges from land in Penshaw and Pelaw from Thomas Melot in 1574.
- Cocken
Two annuities from the manor of Cocken were given by William Carr of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1570. One was for the benefit of Kepier School, and the other for the parish poor of Houghton.
Other endowments
To these estates Gilpin added the White House, Houghton, purchased from Roger Rawe in 1574, a fine lying to the east of the churchyard and at the end of the school, purchased from James Lisley, and a fine called Jackwalker Field in Wolsingham, purchased from Sir R. Browne.
The school received two other benefactions from subsequent rectors of Houghton.
- Rev. Henry Bagshaw provided revenue from two closes in Houghton called Broadmeadows and Slipperthorne in 1708
- Sir George Wheler bequeathed a sum of money to be laid out by the rector in land (a leasehold estate at East Rainton), half of the rent being directed to the use of the school in 1719.
Records of Kepier Free Grammar School and Almshouse
N.B. The numbers endorsed in an 18th century hand on many of the Kepier School records correspond with the inventory of 1749
554-555
Ref: EP/Ho 554269-271,556-573, 765-766, 781-782
School Foundation and Endowment with the revenues of the former Kepier Hospital (dissolved 1546): pensions from Gateshead, Whickham and Ryton rectories, and the gillytithes of Easington, Bishopwearmouth, Whitburn and Cleadon, Chester le Street and Ryhope. Also an annual rent from the rectory of Durham, St. Nicholas, not part of the former hospital revenues.
574-585
Ref: EP/Ho 574586-592, 597-598
Ref: EP/Ho 586593
Ref: EP/Ho 593545, 673-675, 797, 886, 932
For copies of other wills relating to Kepier School, see EP/Ho 650-654
For accounts of revenues from school estates see EP/Ho 610-625
West Boldon (Ref: EP/Ho )594
Ref: EP/Ho 594595-596, 820
Ref: EP/Ho 595599-600, 807
Ref: EP/Ho 599601
Ref: EP/Ho 601676
Ref: EP/Ho 676777-778
Ref: EP/Ho 777788, 819, 822, 888, 891
Ref: EP/Ho 788843
Ref: EP/Ho 843629
Ref: EP/Ho 629630-631
Ref: EP/Ho 630632
Ref: EP/Ho 632633-639, 767-776
Ref: EP/Ho 633640-672, 690-693
The dispute between the rector of Houghton, Dr. Richard Stonhewer, and the master and governors of Kepier School, originated when Stonhewer withheld the salaries of the master and usher, payable from Wheler's charity, after his demand for the issue of two separate receipts had been refused in May 1746. The school governors appointed the master, Thomas Griffith, to receive all revenues of the school until further order, but the rector refused to pay the charity rents and produced a copy of the school statutes in support of his case.
The Chancery action before Lord Hardwick developed into a test of the governors' powers and the validity of the school statutes, which lasted from 1751 to 1755, resulting in a complete victory for Griffiths and the governors, saving that the trust of Wheler's charity was to continue in the rector. The Lord Chancellor decreed that the governors were not bound by the statutes but might act under the charter of foundation.
272-273, 602-608
Ref: EP/Ho 272610-625, 795, 798-799, 804-805, 808, 811-814, 816, 823-829, 834-836, 838-841, 846, 853-856, 860-861, 864-869, 873-875, 878, 883
The loose papers in this section were formerly filed on strings at the top left hand corner. Owing to their poor physical condition and disarrangement, it has not been possible to reconstruct the order of the original bundles.
626-628
Ref: EP/Ho 626892-923
Ref: EP/Ho 892689
Ref: EP/Ho 689817-818, 821, 830-832, 844-845, 859
Ref: EP/Ho 817784-787, 790-791, 793-794, 802, 815, 858, 872, 877, 879-880, 884-885, 887, 925-926
Ref: EP/Ho 784266, 609, 806, 809-810, 833, 837, 850-851
Ref: EP/Ho 266275-279, 299, 541-544, 779-780, 783, 882, 933-934
Ref: EP/Ho 275260-261, 935-986
Ref: EP/Ho 260789, 848-849, 881
Ref: EP/Ho 789862-863, 870
Ref: EP/Ho 862274, 852
Ref: EP/Ho 274678, 847
Ref: EP/Ho 678298, 677, 1109
Ref: EP/Ho 2981211-1222
Ref: EP/Ho 1211/1924
Ref: EP/Ho 9241011
Ref: EP/Ho 1010889-890
Ref: EP/Ho 889300-307, 442, 792, 857, 871, 927-931
Ref: EP/Ho 300308-313, 992
Ref: EP/Ho 308314-327, 796, 800-801, 803, 987, 990
Ref: EP/Ho 314328-331, 989
Ref: EP/Ho 328332-334, 365, 988
See also 335 (Vestry)
336-337
Ref: EP/Ho 336338-341
Ref: EP/Ho 338342-350
Ref: EP/Ho 342351-356, 991, 993-994
Ref: EP/Ho 351357-364, 366
Ref: EP/Ho 357