Kitchin's Charity
Kaye's and Labourne's Charity
Apprenticing Charity
Saddlers' Company Charitable Fund
The Saddlers' Company has a long and honourable tradition of charitable activity, particularly involved with the interests and well-being of members of both the Company and of the saddlery trade.
The quarterly subscription, or quarterage, paid by all members at the regular three-monthly Quarter Courts from the earliest days was used for the benefit of the widows and children of members.
The Company's Poor Boxes have been passed around at every Court and Livery meeting 'time out of mind' so that their contents could be used to alleviate hardship among elderly, retired and infirm saddlers and the administrative costs of so doing.
The ancient tradition of the Company's Bounty Day is continued at the December Court each year when members of the Court of Assistants each nominate a charity to receive a Christmas grant from the Company's Charitable Fund. A more recent tradition is the gift, on St George's Day, of a red rose to every liveryman, provided for by the HGL Davison Bequest.
Until the Reformation most bequests left to the company were for religious purposes but, from the mid 16th Century onwards, bequests were increasingly left to support secular charities. This practice has continued to the present day.
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Magical Taxi Tour to Disneyland, Paris,
September 2005. Master and Clerk with the Company's sponsored taxi |
The Company now administers three charitable trusts and a charitable fund. Kitchin's and Kaye's and Labourne's Charities, and the Company's Charitable Fund, are supervised by the Charities Committee. The Apprenticing Charity is supervised by the Trade Liaison Committee.
The investments of all the Company's charities are managed by the Investment Committee, which has been successful in steadily increasing their capital value so that the charities have had a rising annual income to meet increasing demands.
Kitchin's Charity
In 1556 Robert Kitchin, a Warden of the Company, left a property (the
present Roman Wall House) in the Parish of St Olave's, Hart Street,
to the Company, on condition that the income would be applied to the
maintenance of the Church of St Ethelburga-the-Virgin in Bishopsgate
and the poor of its parish.
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A recital at St Ethelburga's as part
of the Centre's porgramme of bringing people together through
music and conversation |
In 1891 the Charity Commissioners proposed that the income be shared between the church of St Ethelburga-the-Virgin, in Bishopsgate, and the Northampton Institute (now City University) in whose foundation the Saddlers' Company had played a leading role.
This scheme was revised in 1982 to also allow a discretionary element for education grants within Greater London, and most specifically for schools in those boroughs that have contiguous borders with the City of London.
Kaye's and Labourne's Charity
Since 1568 a number of other bequests have been made to the Company
for the relief of poverty of members of the Company, or the saddlery
craft, and their dependants. For administrative convenience these were
grouped together as the Relief-in-Need charities, later amalgamated
in the name of Young George Honnor, Master in 1765 and the largest single
benefactor.
Following a very generous gift by Mrs Grace Kaye, the widow of H Gordon Kaye (Master in 1952) and the daughter-in-law of Henry Kaye (Prime Warden in 1914), the Charity Commissioners agreed to this charity being renamed Kaye's Charity in 1991.
In 1627, Robert Labourne, who had been Master in 1615 and again in 1616, bequeathed property to the Company for the relief of poor saddlers, and for any other pious purposes at the discretion of the Master and Wardens. This enabled help to be given to those persons who were neither members of the Company nor of the saddlery trade.
The amalgamated Kaye's and Labourne's Charity objectives are to relieve persons who are in need, hardship or distress, either generally or individually. In priority these would be Freemen of the Saddlers' Company, their widows and other dependants; those who are or have been employed in the trade of saddler or harness maker, their widows and other dependants who are in need, hardship or distress; and such other persons as the trustee decides.
Apprenticing Charity
In 1698, Richard Banner, Clerk to the Company from 1671 to 1702, gave
a capital sum to the Company to enable apprenticeship premiums to be
paid on behalf of poor boys who would otherwise have been unable to
enter the saddlery trade. With the addition of later benefactions, Banner's
Charity was subsequently renamed the Apprenticing Charity. Today its
income is primarily used to support the training and progression of
young saddlers.
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The Master's visit to The Saddlery
Training Centre, Salisbury, Wiltshire, September 2005 |
Saddlers' Company Charitable Fund
Separate from the old-established charitable trusts is the Saddlers'
Company Charitable Fund, which was formed in 1970 and whose capital
has been provided entirely by donations from the Company's corporate
funds. Its modern terms of reference allow the Trustees wide discretion
in the use of its income, making it the major vehicle for the Company's'
charitable activities, including since 1970, the Saddler's Scholarships
and bursaries at Alleyn's School in Dulwich.
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The Master with the 2006 Saddlers Scholars
at Alleyn's School (Sept 06) |
