The following is an extrat from A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1923.

The municipal charities are administered under the provisions of a scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 27 November 1903. The trustees thereby appointed are directed (clause 28) to apply the income of Thomas Alden’s charity (deed, 1604), amounting to £31 13s. 8d., being the dividends on £1,267 15s. 9d. consols (with the official trustees), for the benefit of deserving and necessitous persons resident in the borough, in donations in aid of the funds of any dispensary, convalescent home, or any institution in which children suffering from any bodily infirmity are taught a trade or employment.

By clause 29 of the scheme the almshouse buildings in Victoria Street and the Park Street Charity, together with the charities of Thomas Brotherton and sixteen others (including the Sheet Street almshouses and Sewell’s almshouses) of old foundation,  and the following charities of recent foundation, namely, Sir John Elley’s, by will proved in the P.C.C. 1839; William Hanson’s, by will proved 1867; Robert Blunt’s, by will proved 1874; James Griffin’s, by will proved 1881; Letitia Hamilton Hibbert’s, by will proved 1888; Sarah Wells’s, by will 1874; together with the charity of Mary Atkins Newton, by will proved 1901, were consolidated under the title of the Municipal Almshouse Charity.

The trust funds of the several charities consist of sums of stock held by the official trustees, amounting in the aggregate to £11,334 11s. 2d. consols and £400 India 3½ per cent. stock and £148 11s. India 3 per cent. stock, producing in dividends £302 4s. a year, which, with the rents, &c., of real estate, make a gross income of £445 11s. a year, which is made applicable (clauses 33 and 34) in the payment of stipends at the rate of not less than 5s. and not more than 10s. a week to the almspeople, the full number of whom is limited to twenty-four.

By clause 47 of the scheme the income of the charity of Phoebe Thomas,  amounting to £130 12s., being the annual dividends on £4,875 14s. 11d. consols and on £290 18s. 2d. India 3 per cents. (with the official trustees), is made applicable for the benefit of deserving and necessitous widows of not less than fifty years of age bona fide resident in the borough and members of the Church of England.

The remaining charities dealt with by the scheme are those of John Heaver, Archbishop Laud and Theodore Randue,  the annual income from which, consisting of £187 5s. received from the official trustees in respect of dividends on consols, India 3 per cents. and railway stocks held by them, and £45 17s. 7d. receipts from rents, &c., of real estate, is directed (clause 48) to be applied as to £120 in marriage portions, apprenticeship fees for boys, and in gratuities to young men who have faithfully served their apprenticeships. Subject thereto the trustees are to apply the income of the same charity (clause 49) in the advancement of the education of children attending or who have attended public elementary schools, by prizes, rewards and exhibitions.

By an order of the Charity Commissioners of 15 June 1906 the charity of Sarah Bullen, by will 1839, trust fund, £33 7s. 8d. consols, and that of Elizabeth Frances Wood, codicil to will 1854, trust fund, £100 5s. consols, were placed under the administration of the trustees of the municipal charities, the income to be applied towards providing medical attendance or a nurse for the inmates of the almshouses.

The sums of stock are held by the official trustees, who also hold a sum of £3,773 6s. 8d. consols (formerly new 3 per cents.), transferred to them in 1884 in consideration of the redemption by His Majesty’s Treasury of a sum of £113 4s., representing various royal grants for the benefit of the church and poor. The annual dividends, now amounting, owing to reduction of interest on the stock, to £94 6s. 8d., are also remitted to the trustees of the municipal charities, by whom one moiety is applied for the benefit of the poor and the other moiety paid to the churchwardens for application in the cleaning, lighting, &c., of the parish church.

The parochial charities under the administration of the vicar and churchwardens are regulated by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners of 11 January 1887, and comprise the charities of Thomas Needham, founded by will 1 August 1603, whereby two tenements near the church gate, subsequently known as the Ship Inn, and one in Peascod Street, were devised to the vicar and churchwardens, the rents thereof to be distributed every Sunday morning to twelve poor persons not inhabiting almshouses. The Ship Inn is now let at £55 a year, and the property in Peascod Street was by an order of the Charity Commissioners of 6 February 1906 sold in consideration of a perpetual rent-charge of £35 per annum.

Mrs. Agnes Urmstone, by will proved 1614, trust fund, £520 15s. 4d. consols, arising from sale of land in 1900; income, amounting to £13 0s. 4d., applicable for the use of six poor widows.

William Galland, by will 1693, consisting of an annuity of £3 issuing out of the ‘Three Tuns’ in Windsor; applicable in the distribution of bread.

Mrs. Ann Church, by will proved in the P.C.C. 13 August 1711, trust funds, £214 6s. 5d. consols and £54 9s. consols, dividends to be applied towards apprenticing a poor boy.

Mrs. Elizabeth Metcalf, by will proved in the P.C.C. January 1710, trust fund, £88 8s. 10d. consols, income for poor housekeepers not receiving alms.

John Clarke, by will 1710–11, consisting of a rent-charge of £2 10s. issuing out of a house on the east side of the High Street, distributable in sums of 2s. 6d. each to twenty poor housekeepers.

Arabella Reeve, by will proved in the P.C.C. 1732, consisting of annuities of £11 charged on a house on the west side of the High Street, of which £6 is applicable for the benefit of six poor widows, being lame or blind, born and living in Windsor, and £5 in the distribution of one shilling’s worth of bread to 100 poor people on 20 May yearly.

Barbara Jordan, by will proved 1730, trust fund, £1,817 19s. 8d. consols, arising from sale in 1884 of land at Brentford, in Ealing, taken by the London and South Western Railway Co., the income, which amounts to £45 9s., to be distributed annually on St. Thomas’s Day equally among three ancient maidens born and residing in New Windsor.

Richard Topham, by will proved in the P.C.C. 28 April 1737, trust fund, £266 13s. 4d. consols, arising from the redemption in 1884 by Her Majesty’s Treasury of an annuity of £8 charged by the donor on certain premises, which became the property of the Crown, of which £6 was applicable at Christmas in sums of 10s. each to twelve poor housekeepers and £2 among four almspeople.

Mrs. Mary Gregory, by will 1772, trust fund, £50 2s. 6d. consols, interest to be laid out in bread for the poor annually on 10 September.

Charles Ballard, by will 1803, trust fund, £200 10s. consols, the interest to be laid out in bread or money for the use of the poor.

Elizabeth Hopkins, by will 20 September 1803, trust fund, £122 6s. 1d. consols, the interest to be given to the poor on Sundays and Good Fridays.

In 1906–7 a sum of £56 1s. 5d. was applied weekly throughout the year in bread, donations for the convalescent hospital, coal club, towards nursing expenses, and subscription for the Church Lads’ Brigade.

Robert Challoner, D. D., who died in 1621, by his will charged certain property in East Oakley, Fyfield and Bray with £6 a year for twelve of the godliest poor to be chosen by the Dean of Windsor, the mayor and the vicar, to each of the said poor 10s. The rent-charge was subject to deduction of 15s. 6d. for land tax.

In 1679 John Carey, by deed in satisfaction of a gift of £100 by his then late wife, Mrs. Catherine Carey, settled a yearly rent-charge of £6 issuing out of his inn and premises called the ‘Catherine Wheel’ at Colnbrook in Stanwell, Middlesex, to be payable yearly on St. Thomas’s Day, for distribution amongst six of the poorest widows in New Windsor.

Trust for the minor canons and other officials connected with St. George’s Chapel.

—The Rev. Thomas Cleaver, by his will proved in the P.C.C. 11 July 1729, demised to trustees a farm in Hamsey, Sussex, and directed that the rents and profits thereof should be equally divided among the petty canons of the chapel, with 20s. extra for the elected steward, subject to annual payments of 20s. each to the sexton and bellringer, 30s. for a supper, £6 for widows of such officials, 20s. for poor most constant in attendance at prayers, or failing them, amongst poor families, and £4 yearly to the charity school.

In 1905 the farm was sold in consideration of the transfer to the official trustees of £3,068 9s. 10d. consols, out of which a sum of £160 consols was set aside to provide £4 yearly under the title of ‘Cleaver’s Educational Foundation for the Charity School.’ In 1906 and 1907 the balance of the stock, together with £355 18s. 4d. consols, arising from sale of land to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, was sold out and the proceeds invested in the purchase of ground rents amounting to £105 a year, secured by long leases of property in Overcliff Road, Lewisham. By an order of the Charity Commissioners of 19 October 1906 the Minor Canons of St. George’s Chapel were appointed to be the administering trustees.

J. Chariott, by will proved in 1848, bequeathed a legacy to trustees, represented by £15,037 12s. 2d. consols, for charitable purposes, with a wide discretion as to the objects. In June 1906 the consols were sold out and the proceeds invested in the purchase of £3,000 Great Western Railway 5 per cent. stock, £3,000 New Zealand 3½ per cent. stock, £2,000 Hong Kong 3½ per cent. stock, £1,276 19s. Middlesex County 3 per cent. stock and £3,000 Reading Corporation 3 per cent. stock, producing a gross yearly income of £453 6s. 2d.

In 1907 £200 was paid to the treasurer of Chariott’s almshouses (founded by deed 1863) for current expenses and repairs, £25 to the Windsor British schools, £55 to the deacons of William Street Chapel, £20 to the Sunday school and £70 to six poor members of the same chapel, £12 10s. to the Fyfield Mission and £25 premiums on apprenticeships.

For Mrs. Mary Barker’s charity see article on Schools. 

The land belonging to the trust has been sold and the proceeds invested in consols, with the official trustees, of which one-third, i.e. £531 10s. 8d. consols, is held in trust for the share of New Windsor.

The charity school, now known as the Windsor Royal Free and Industrial Schools. 

—A sum of £5,603 9s. 4d. consols was held by the official trustees in trust for this school, of which £40 consols (part thereof) was by an order of 17 May 1904 directed to be carried to a separate account in satisfaction of £1 a year applicable for bread in respect of George Pyle’s eleemosynary charity (deed 1713); also £248 15s. consols, representing a legacy by will of James Griffin proved in 1881 (see also charity of Rev. Thomas Cleaver).

The Ladies’ School, established by subscription in 1784.

—The official trustees also hold a sum of £1,844 6s. 11d. consols arising from subscriptions, the dividends, amounting to £46 2s., to be applied in giving a free education in National schools to twenty girls, who out of the same funds are clothed and receive an outfit of £2 10s. for domestic service on leaving.

Other charities for educational purposes.

—In 1795 John Marratt by will bequeathed a sum of stock, subsequently represented by £637 consols, for educational purposes in New Windsor and Clewer and for sermons and bread.

In 1798 James Panton gave £50 for the Sunday school, represented by £85 13s. 4d. consols.

In 1839 Sir John Elley, by will 1839, bequeathed £50, represented by £51 13s. 7d. consols.

The several sums of stock were held by the official trustees, who also held £158 6s. 5d. consols in trust for the National school, belonging to the charities of Ann Weal, by will 1827, and two other donors. In 1894, however, a sum of £400 consols was sold out for effecting improvements in the National school, subject to replacement. The amount so replaced in April 1908 was £297 8s. 5d. consols.

In 1822 the Rev. G. Champagne by deed (inter alia) gave to the vicar and canons of Windsor a sum of £255 0s. 2d. consols, the income to be paid to the vicar and curate, to be applied by them in gifts of clothes or books for boys and girls attending the National school for progress in religious knowledge upon result of examination.