Founded | 1614 |
---|---|
Founder | William Jones |
Location | |
Coordinates | 51°48′42″N2°42′45″W / 51.811643°N 2.712389°W Coordinates: 51°48′42″N2°42′45″W / 51.811643°N 2.712389°W |
The Monmouth Alms Houses of Monmouth, Wales are funded by the charity established by the haberdasher William Jones before his death in 1615. That charity also established schools in Monmouth and a lectureship in London. The Haberdashers' Company served as trustee of the charity from 1613 until 2011, when the trusteeship was transferred to Bristol Charities. A second charity established through a separate bequest by Jones enabled the building of the Newland Alms Houses in the Forest of Dean. The original Monmouth Alms Houses were constructed in 1614; they were rebuilt in 1842 and 1961. The fourth version of the Monmouth Alms Houses was completed in 2013 and is named 'Cwrt William Jones Almshouses' and is owned and managed by Bristol Charities under the name of 'William Jones Almshouse Charity'. The original alms houses were located on what is now known as Almshouse Street. The most recent houses are located off St James' Square.
The first alms houses in Monmouth were founded by a wealthy merchant, the haberdasher William Jones, during the reign of James I. Jones had been a native of Newland, Gloucestershire, England, where he was born about 1545–1550. However, prior to his 1 Oct 1600 invitation to join the membership of the Haberdashers' Company, there is fairly little reliable information about his life. Consequently, a number of different stories exist which vary with regard to the details of his youth. [1] One account indicates that, unable to pay a fine in Newland, he instead moved to London and found employment as a porter to a merchant. He eventually amassed a large fortune and decided to test the generosity of his native city. [2] Accordingly, he disguised himself and sought financial assistance. However, he was refused and referred to Monmouth. There, he was received more favorably. Jones then revealed his true identity and expressed his appreciation financially. However, author William Meyler Warlow dismisses this account, including the disguise as a poor man, as fiction. [1]
Rather, he indicates that Jones was of gentle, but not noble, birth and went to Monmouth in his youth to apprentice, and that his acquaintance with the area in his youth most probably was responsible for his benevolence to the town. The author speculates that some of the stories arose in an attempt to explain the difference in how the towns of Newland and Monmouth fared. He indicates that the primary difference was in how the money to the towns was invested. [1] Jones founded not only the Monmouth Alms Houses, but also the Free School in Monmouth. [2] He also founded an alms house in Newland, Gloucestershire and a lectureship in London. [1] [3] In early 1613, he arranged for £6,000 to be spent for charitable purposes, giving it to the Haberdashers' Company to found the Monmouth Alms Houses and the London lectureship during his lifetime. The first record of the establishment of his charity is found in the company minutes of 5 March 1613. By 22 April 1614, Jones had also decided to found a school in Monmouth. [1] William Jones died in Hamburg, Germany in January 1615. In his will, executed in Hamburg on 26 December 1614, he appointed the Haberdashers' Company, formally known as The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, as trustee of his charity, and bequeathed another £3,000, of which £2,000 was paid out before his death. There were numerous other bequests to friends, relatives, servants, and organizations. [1] [4] [5]
The charity was officially established during the lifetime of William Jones. The letters patent, granted by King James I, were dated 19 March 1614. [1] The original site of the Monmouth Alms Houses and Monmouth School and Chapel was the area bounded by four roads: Bridge Street, Almshouse Street (then part of Whitecross Street), Weirhead Street, and the road leading to Wye Bridge. The original twenty Monmouth Alms Houses were constructed in that area of Monmouth during the summer of 1614. [1] [6] The Monmouth Alms Houses were rebuilt in 1842 and 1961. [7] A second charity was established for the town of Newland based on Jones's bequest of £5,000 to that town. The letters patent for the Newland charity were dated 20 July 1619. The 16 Newland Alms Houses and preacher's house had already been erected in 1616 to 1617. [1] The original Newland Alms Houses were added to the National Heritage List for England on 12 December 1953 as Grade II listed buildings. [8] The William Jones's Alms House Charities continued to fund alms houses in both Monmouth, South Wales and Newland, Forest of Dean until recently. Due to the limited amenities in Newland and the age of the early 17th century Newland Alms Houses, which were difficult to modernize, the decision was made to concentrate alms house activity in Monmouth. The Newland Alms Houses were closed and the facility sold in 2010. [4] [9] The Haberdashers' Company had acted as trustee of the charity since 1613. In January 2007, Bristol Charities assumed management responsibilities for the charity. In June 2011 the trusteeship of the charity was transferred from the Haberdashers' Company to Bristol Charities. [4]
The recent Monmouth Alms Houses dated from 1961. They consisted of nineteen small units. The residents of those units were temporarily relocated, and the Alms Houses closed in May 2008. [4] Demolition of the Alms Houses off St James' Square began on Thursday, 23 February 2012. [7] and consists of 24 one-bedroom apartments, which were ready for occupancy in early 2013. [4] Housing developer Lovell was awarded the contract for the new flats. In addition, ten mews homes are available for sale. [7] The future gated development of flats and houses is named Cwrt William Jones. [10]
The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, is an ancient merchant guild of London, England associated with the silk and velvet trades.
William Adams (1585–1661) was a 17th-century London haberdasher born in Newport, Shropshire who, in 1656, founded Adams' Grammar School, now called Haberdashers' Adams. Since his death in 1661, the school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.
Monmouth School for Boys is a public school for boys in Monmouth, Wales. The school was founded in 1614 with a bequest from William Jones, a successful merchant and trader. The School is run as a trust, the William Jones's Schools Foundation, by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the livery companies, and has close links to its sister school, Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls. In 2018, the Haberdashers renamed their group of schools in the town, the Monmouth Schools, and made corresponding changes to the names of the boys' and girls' schools.
Newland is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. situated on the east side of the River Wye, 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Monmouth. It is notable for its parish church of All Saints, known as the 'Cathedral of the Forest'. It was the centre of a large parish with complex boundaries and scattered settlements.
Thomas White (c.1550–1624) was an English clergyman, founder of Sion College, London, and of White's professorship of moral philosophy at the University of Oxford. Thomas Fuller in Worthies of England acquits him of being a pluralist or usurer; he made a number of other bequests, and was noted in his lifetime for charitable gifts.
William Jones was a London haberdasher, born in Newland, Gloucestershire, England. He is remembered for his bequests, which led to the establishment of schools in Monmouth and Pontypool, almshouses at Newland, and the so-called "Golden Lectureship" in London.
The Rolls Hall, Whitecross Street, Monmouth, Monmouthshire is a Victorian hall, now public library, donated to the town in celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee by John Rolls, the future Lord Llangattock. It is a Grade II listed building as of 8 October 2005, and is one of 24 buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
Georgiana, Lady Llangattock,, born Georgiana Marcia Maclean and after her marriage termed Georgiana Marcia Rolls, was a socialite, benefactor and an enthusiast for Horatio Nelson and associated naval heroes. She was the wife of John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, a Victorian landowner, Member of Parliament and agriculturalist. She and her husband lived at The Hendre, a Victorian country house north of Monmouth.
Mary Ellen Bagnall-Oakeley (1833–1904) was an English antiquarian, author, and painter known for her work in Bristol and south-east Wales. She was a governor of the Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls and the mother of nine children.
St James Street is a historic street in the town centre of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It appears as a segment of Whitecross Street on the 1610 map of the town by cartographer John Speed and is within the medieval town walls. On more recent maps, it extends from St James Square southwest to Almshouse Street. In 2010, the street was the site of discovery of Mesolithic era artefacts. St James Street is lined with numerous listed buildings.
St James House is a grade II listed building in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is in the historic St James Square neighbourhood, within the Medieval town walls. While the house currently has an attractive, 18th-century facade, it originated as a burgage tenement. In addition, behind the house, evidence of a kiln has been unearthed, with both Medieval and Post-medieval pottery. In 2010, archaeological excavation in the square revealed the first evidence of Mesolithic human settlement in Monmouth. Recent residents of St James House have included boarding students from Monmouth School.
Glendower Street is a historic street in the town centre of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It extends to the southeast from the intersection of Agincourt Street and St John's Street, within the medieval town walls. Glendower Street is lined with numerous listed buildings, including one of the 24 blue plaque buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
The Nelson Rooms is a grade II listed building in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is in the historic Glendower Street and Agincourt Street neighbourhood, within the medieval town walls. The building initially served as a gymnasium and was a gift from Lady Llangattock to the town of Monmouth. In 1924, after the benefactor's death, it reopened as the Nelson Museum, and showcased the collection of memorabilia related to Admiral Horatio Nelson that had been amassed by the baroness. The Nelson Museum moved to new quarters at the Market Hall in 1969. The former gymnasium and museum is now an apartment building.
The Crown and Thistle Inn was a public house in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was in the historic Agincourt Square neighbourhood. Prior to its conversion to a public house, the building served as the premises of an apothecary. During the early nineteenth century, the Crown and Thistle Inn briefly housed one of the earliest Masonic Lodges in Monmouthshire.
The Druid's Head Inn is a grade II listed building in the town centre of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located in the historic Glendower Street and Chippenhamgate Street neighbourhood, within the medieval town walls. The building served as a public house during most of its history, but for the last several decades has been the headquarters of the Monmouth Rugby Football Club.
Wye Bridge Ward was one of four wards in the town of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. Streets in the ward included St Mary's Street, Almshouse Street, St James Street, St James Square, Whitecross Street and Monk Street. The ward existed as a division of the town by the early seventeenth century, and continued into the twentieth century.
Major Alexander Rolls was a native of Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. A member of the renowned Rolls family of The Hendre at Llangattock-Vibon-Avel near Monmouth, Monmouthshire, his life in public service included four terms as Mayor of Monmouth. He was an officer in the Royal Monmouthshire Militia and the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards. Rolls married twice; the widower's second marriage was to a divorcée, English actress Helen Barry.
John Rolls of The Hendre was a native of Bermondsey, in Southwark, London, Surrey, England. A member of the renowned Rolls family of The Hendre at Llangattock-Vibon-Avel near Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales, he undertook the first of several expansions of the mansion. The Hendre was also the childhood home of his great-grandson Charles Stewart Rolls, aviation pioneer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited. John Rolls was a Justice of the Peace, as well as a Lieutenant Colonel of the Loyal Southwark Volunteer Infantry.
Henry Stock (1824/5–1909) was a British architect. He served as the county surveyor for Essex for nearly 50 years, and as the surveyor and architect to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. The latter appointment led Stock to undertake a considerable number of educational commissions, but his primary field of activity was in the construction of manufacturing sites and warehouses in London.
Alms Houses in Monmouth, Wales.