In the 1600s, a lad called John Kent was one such. This is odd because there were a number of members of the Kent family in 17th and 18th century Romsey, several of whom were distinctly well-to-do.
Be that as is may, John was very poor and was fed by a local woman, who ‘used him kindly in frequently filling his belly.’
Young John was a bright boy and got a job in London, where he prospered and became a wealthy silk throwster. Silk throwsters prepared silk thread for weaving.
He kept his links with Romsey and was twice mayor, and served as Sheriff of Hampshire.
In 1685 he bought a house and garden in Middlebridge Street and some neighbouring land where he built four almshouses, which were opened in 1692. They were provided for four poor widows in honour of the woman who had fed him when he was a child.
Each house contained a ground floor and a chamber, together with a garden. In addition he arranged for the annual sum of 40s to be available to the four residents.
Dr John Latham described the houses in 1797. He said they were ‘so much out of repair as to be scarcely tenantable; and had been so for a number of years.
John Kent also provided the Council with a further £250 which gift created a legal problem.
Under James I’s charter granted to Romsey in 1607, the value of property the Council could hold was limited to £20 and Kent’s gift took them well over that limit. They obtained a revised charter from William III in 1698 when the limit was raised to £500.
This extra money was spent on the purchase of a farm at Pollards Moor at Cadnam.
The farm brought in a rent of £15 per annum. Kent decreed that it was to spent as follows. First was £10 for ‘defraying the expenses of the mayor’s table’. The town council did a fair amount of wining and dining themselves, usually at the mayor’s expense, so this helped to pay the bills.
Twenty shillings (£1) was allocated to the vicar ‘for a sermon when the mayor is sworn’. The rest of the money was to be used for the ‘poor and indigent people’ of the town ‘in such proportions as the mayor shall think fit’.
Thus the kindness of an elderly widow was repaid in a lasting gift to the town.
Phoebe Merrick
Romsey Local History Society