Records of the Charities of Joseph Taylor and the Taylor Family

This small collection contains various records, mainly accounts and minutes, relating to the charities of Joseph Taylor and the Taylor Family. The records provide an insight into the running of the charities, including some detail on the trustees and beneficiaries.

The Taylor family were Quakers from Scarborough.

The Free Dwellings Charity, in Scarborough, was one of the charities established owing to the benevolence of Joseph Taylor. The charity was bequeathed £1000 by Joseph Taylor in his will. The money was used to construct one large house on Cook's Row in 1817, containing fourteen separate apartments. These apartments would be available for the elderly and 'respectable' poor, rent-free. The charity was managed by a group of trustees, two or more of which were members of the Society of Friends, as stipulated in Joseph Taylor's will. Those people who were given an apartment were chosen by the trustees at their general meetings and the preferred candidates were those who lived in Scarborough and were married but without families. The Free Dwellings Charity continued until circa 1927.

Joseph Taylor also left the sum of £100, the interest of which was to be used to pay for the education of poor boys in Scarborough. The money was given to a school, operating on the Lancasterian system of education, to cover the costs of educating thirteen to fourteen boys. The boys would be recommended by the trustees of Mr Taylor's charity and the children who received the funding would change every two years.

A coal charity was also established by Joseph Taylor with the rents raised on a field in Rhea Lane being used to buy coals for the poor in the winter months. Coals were provided for approximately eighty families every year, including some in the Scarborough hospitals. The Coal Charity existed until circa 1879.

Access will be granted to any accredited reader

Donated by Christopher Wordingham, Biggin Hill, 1 March 2000

Printed Rules and Orders of charity for relief of widows and orphans of the clergy in the East Riding and Hull [Ref U DDDU/23/50]

Accounts of distribution of charity of William St. Quintin: Lowthorpe, Harpham, Thornholme, Ruston Parva, Little Kelk, Foston [Ref U DDSQ3/17/6]

Alderman William Cogan's Charity, records [Ref C WC]