EDWARD WALTON'S CHARITY. Edward Walton is another individual who may justly claim a notice in the annals of our town. Of his private character we have little to tell, any further than that he was a member of the Society of Friends, and lived in the curious old Elizabethan-looking mansion which stands at the south side of the road at the upper end of the village of Old Shildon. If we may judge, however, from his public acts of charity, we may come to the conclusion that he was a firm believer in the education of the people. With respect to the charity now known as the Friends' School, endowed by him, we extract the following particulars from the " Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring Concerning Charities," printed by order of the House of Commons : — Edward Walton, a member of the Society of Friends, having made a will whereby he had given to his executors^ John Walton, Samuel King, James Backhouse the elder, and Thomas Richardson, all the residue of his real and personal estate not otherwise disposed of, at the quarterly meeting of the society held at Durham 1 9th September, 1 768, gave the following instructions to the persons whom he had appointed his executors, as to the uses to which he wished his bequest to be applied, and which instructions are entered in the minute book of the society. The testator stated, that according i» his computation, his bequest would amount to £2,000 and upwards, and he declared it to be his request to his executors, that the said residue, as soon as it should be received, should be paid to the quarterly meeting of Friends in Durham, and that the Friends of the said quarterly meeting at Durham should, as soon as they received the same, pay to the Friends of the monthly meeting at Newcastle one-fourth part ; to the monthly meeting of Friends at Durham, one- fourth part ; and to the monthly meeting of Friends at Raby the other half part.** And he directed that £250 part of the first-mentioned quarter, should be put out by the said monthly meeting of Newcastle, and the interest thereof paid to a schoolmaster or schoolmasters at Sunderland-by-the-Sea, for teaching 12 poor children, and that the choice of the schoolmaster or mistress should be in the power of the Friends at the monthly meeting of Newcastle, as also the nomination of the children ; and that as often as the Friends at such meeting should find it necessary or proper to remove or change any schoolmaster or schoolmasters, they might make such removal, and immediately nominate another ; and that the residue of such quarter should in like manner be put out, and the interest, or so much thereof as should be necessary, applied by the said meeting in buying books for such poor children ; and what should remain, in binding boys or girls apprentices to such trades or business as the Friends of the aforesaid monthly meeting should think fit or proper. And as to the quarter to be paid to the monthly meeting at Durham, he gave such monthly meeting the same directions as to the application of the interest of £250 in providing for the instruction of 12 children at Shotton, as he had before given to the meeting at Newcastle with respect to the School at Sunderland, with the like power of nominating and displacing the schoolmaster and schoolmistress ; and he further desired that a cottage in Shotton, which he had by his will given to his executors, and one end whereof was used as a schoolhouse, with a garth adjoining thereto, should be for ever for a house and schoolhouse for the schoolmaster or schoolmistress during the time they should teach children there. And he gave to the said monthly meeting at Durham the same directions with respect to the application of the residue of the last-mentioned quarter in Shotton, as he had with respect to the application of the residue of the quarter to be paid to the monthly meeting at Newcastle in Sunderland. And as to the half part of the said money to be paid t9 the monthly meeting at Kaby, he appropriated £500 for the educating 1 2 poor children at Bishop's Auckland, and the same number at Shildon, and gave the like directions and powers to the Raby meeting with respect to these schools, and as to the appropriation of the residue in Bishop's Auckland and Shildon, as he had before given to the other monthly meetings as to the other portions of his benefaction. The property left by the testator was laid out in the purchase of £3,350 three per cent. consgUdated annuities ; but in 1826 this stock was sold, and the produce was laid out in the purchase of £3,000 new four per cent stock, in the names of Jonathan Backhouse, Thomas Richardson, and George Coates. There is a school and schoolhouse at each of the places pointed out by the testator. In Shildon, Bishop's Auckland, and Sunderland, they have been purchased, or built, at different periods, from the income of the charity. In Shotton the testator had himself provided a school and house, as stated in the directions given to his executors. Although the management of each quarter of the funds was left by the testator to the monthly meetings, the whole has in fact been under the general superintendence of the quarterly meetings, the treasurer of which receives the dividends, and pays them over, in the proportions directed, to the monthly meetings. Hie two monthly meetings formerly held at Newcastle and Durham are now both held at Newcastle, and the monthly
- The Society of Friends had a chapel at Old Raby, with a burial ground attached. George and Jeremiah Dixon, two most remarkable
and ingenious men, deservedly occupying prominent places in the annals of local history, were both interred in this burial ground. The Duke of Cleveland's dog kennels now occupy tiie site of the chapeL Digitized by Google
