Wickersley Charities.

WICKERSLEY:

p. 936 Wickersley - pp. 936-940

The Inquiry was held on the 29th October 1894 in the Infants' Schoolroom at Wickersley.

There were present - The Rev. Frederick Freeman, the rector; Mr. John Thomas Bell, and J. Trickett, churchwardens; Mr. George Turner, caretaker of the museum; and Messrs. James Cavill, Albert Street; J.Osborn; Alfred Baker; W. E. Wild; W. H. Roddis; J. G. Young; and others.

p. 938 Wickersley - Mrs Yates's Charity for the Christian Institute By her will dated 4th April1882, and proved in London 31st May 1889, Amelia Mary Yates of Rotherham, widow, bequeathed all the furniture and fittings (with the exception of the books) in and about the Wickersley Christian Institute, and also the objects in the museum attached to and forming part of the said Institute, to the treasurer for the time being thereof to be held by him upon trust for the purposes of the said Institute. The testatrix further directed her executors to purchase or set apart and appropriate in their names the sum of £3,000 in 3% annuities, and to stand possessed thereof upon trust so long as the said Wickersley Christian Institute at Rotherham should continue to be maintained and carried on for the same or like purposes as those for which it was then maintained and carried on, to pay the annual dividends and income arising from the Consols to the treasurer for the time being of the said Institute, to be applied by him for and towards the support, maintenance, and management thereof, in any way which the said income might lawfully be applied for such purposes and not otherwise. And she directed that in case and whenever the said Institute should cease to be maintained and carried on for the same or the like purposes for which it was then maintained and carried on, then her executors should stand possessed of the said Consols upon trust to transfer the same in equal thirds to the treasurers of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Church Missionary Society, and the London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution respectively, for the benefit of those institutions.

The Wickersley Christian Institute was established on the 3rd December 1862 in a building erected by him for the purpose by Mrs Yates's late husband, Dr. Holt Yates, owner in fee of the Wickersley estate "for the promotion of useful knowledge among the working classes." Dr. Yates never parted with the ownership of the building, and it is now vested in Mr. William Holt Yates Titcomb, who is tenant for life of the Wickersley estate under the will of Dr. Yates.

Owing to certain legal difficulties experienced by Mrs Yates's executors relative to the bequest of the £3,000 Consols, it was thought necessary to commence an action in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, of In re Yates deceased, Grierson v Titcomb and others (1890 Y. 488) The action was heard in Chambers on the 28th July 1890, when Mr. Justice Chitty, ordered that the income of the £3,000 Consols should be paid to the treasurer of the Institute, subject to the conditions expressed in the will: that the executors should bring the Consols into Court, and that so much thereof should be sold out and paid to the executors as would reimburse them £294- 15s-0d duty paid by them, and that the executors' taxed costs in the action should be paid out of the testatrix's residuary estate.

The fund in Court now consists of £2,694-3s-6d Consols, upon which the yearly dividends amounting to £74-7s-0d are paid after deduction of income tax.

The Institute consists of a library and reading room, provided with newspapers, periodicals, etc, a lecture room, and a museum. It is managed by a committee of the members. Mr. Cavill the treasurer and curator of the museum attended the Inquiry and stated that the Institute was conducted now as it was in the lifetime of Mrs Yates. Members pay 1s a quarter.