|
|
|
Edmund Walcot
Our largest constituent charity is the Walcot Educational Foundation, named after Edmund Walcot, our principal benefactor.
Edmund Walcot (it should be ‘Walcott’ with two ‘tt’s – one somehow being lost over the centuries following his death) was a citizen of London and a successful Haberdasher. Edmund had been made a freeman of the Haberdashers’ Company on 8 June 1649.
As was customary in the 17th century, well-to-do people left provision in their Wills for the relief of the poor.
Many such Wills suggest that the donors were anxious to provide lasting help to the poor, and the words ‘for ever’ appear in those wills whose makers were long-sighted enough and wealthy enough to recommend that their endowments be used to purchase ‘ground, tenements, or hereditaments’ in order that the value might increase from year to year and continue to do good.
By his will dated 3 January 1667, Edmund Walcott left seventeen acres of land in Lambeth in trust for the poor of St. Mary Lambeth and St. Olave Southwark. He died on 4 February 1667.
Map of the seventeen acres of land
According to the chief archivist of the Haberdashers’ Company, there was a cluster of haberdashers’ shops on London Bridge at its Southwark end and it is probable that Edmund (and his father, William) lived above the shop. The probability is confirmed by the Bridge House records for 1666. Under ‘Rentals’ an entry reads "William Walcott - 53s. 4d. for the quarter". Below this is an entry for Edmund Walcott.
On a separate list of ‘inhabitants’ their names are to be found under "Bridge Ward Within - first Precinct on London Bridge - William Walcott and Edmund Walcott", also in the year 1666 - the year of The Great Fire of London (see right). It would be for this reason that Edmund divided his charity between the two parishes - the one where he owned land and the other where he lived.
In a codicil to his Will, Edmund talks of bequeathing the contents of his little chamber “situate in a ‘messuage’ or tenement in Clapham to Henry Minchard, the reversion of which belongs to me, and that he have free use of it ... during the lifetime of Ellenor, the late wife of my loving uncle Francis Walcott deceased ...”. From the description he uses, it could well have been the equivalent of a ‘place in the country’, to be used occasionally; or perhaps it has some connection with his illness, in that he states in his Will “... I Edmund Walcott Citizen and haberdasher of London being somewhat weak in Body but of sound and perfect mind and memory...”
Edmund’s seventeen acres (see map, above) lay between Walnut Tree Walk and Brook Drive on either side of Kennington Road (the two latter roads did not then exist). The area was a rough oblong perched more or less on one of its corners. An old map shows very few buildings and the land is marked as for market gardening. At the time of Edmund’s death the estate was tenanted, eventually passing to John Ramsay, grocer and alderman of London, and then to his daughters and their husbands Baron Herbert of Cherbury and Sir William Broughton.
Edmund Walcot's gift (now forming the permanent endowment of the charity bearing his name), through careful trusteeship, is valued at over £60M (2010). It is invested in order to generate the sums awarded each year through our various Walcot grant programmes.
London, 1666
Edmund Walcot lived in London
during the year of The Great Fire
Detail of painting from 1666 of the Great Fire of London by an unknown artist, depicting the fire as it would have appeared on the evening of Tuesday 4 September from a boat near Tower Wharf. The Tower of London is on the right and London bridge - where Edmund lived - on the left. St Paul's Cathedral can be seen in the distance, surrounded by the tallest flames.
Links
Haberdashers' Company