John Combe's Charity

Description

Extract from the will of John Combe of Old Stratford, gent., [dated 28 January 1612/3], concerning charitable bequests: i) to his executors and trustees, £100, to lend on reasonable security to `fifteen poore or young tradesmen, occupiers or handicrafts men dwellinge within the Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon', each to have twenty nobles repayable within three years at a rate of 3s 4d per annum, and the said sum of £100 to be lent out again after three years for a further three years, and so on ii) to his cousin, Thomas Combe, his meadow at Shottery, charged with a payment of 20 shillings a year to `pay to a learned preacher to make a sermon twice a yeare at Stratford Church', and with the cost of providing black gowns for `tenn poore people within the Borough ... as shalbee yearely appointed and elected by the Bayliffe' etc.