Richard Nidd

Richard Nidd  left £300 for the poor of Mountsorrel and £2 for two sermons to be preached annually.This is recorded on two of the three charity boards in St Peter’s Church.(His name is incorrectly spelt as Nedd on the charity boards).

 

These are not the original boards. During alterations made to the church in 1888 it was found the boards were dilapidated, worm eaten and unsightly so they were taken down. In 1890 new ones were prepared which were copies of the originals.

Richard Nidd was a glover born in Mountsorrel, but he moved to London where he worked as a scrivener.

The earliest record we have of him is in 1590 when he purchased, for £12 10s, the lease of two acres of arable and ley land in Mountsorrel and Rothley from John  Johnson of Sileby. The land was in Thorncliffe Field in Mountsorrel and Lynckfielde in Rothley.

In his will dated July 31^st 1617 he left £300 in trust to the Leicester Corporation to be laid out in land, the rents and profits to be distributed among the poor of Mountsorrel.

He also left to his executor, Stephen King, half of his house in Soper Lane, London so that two sermons could be preached in the chapel of ease (now St Peter’s church) on the first Sunday in Lent-the week he was born-and on the first Sunday in August. The Mountsorrel churchwardens were each to be given 20s every year to appoint two learned ministers to give the sermons.

In 1619, on  August 3^rd  the corporation of Leicester received the £300 from Mr Stephen King to purchase, within 5 years, land and tenements to the yearly value of £15 “for the only use and behooffe of the poor people of Mountsorrel”.

In 1647 the corporation of Leicester received a petition from the poor of Mountsorrel. They argued that the house and farm in Bushby, purchased with the £300 from Richard Nidd, was now worth much more than £15 pa but that they were still only receiving £15, the rest being retained by the corporation. They asked for all the arrears to be paid to them and for an answer in writing, being much pinched with want in these hard times.

In 1648 they received £28, being the first year of increased payment.

In 1755, according to the charity board in St Peter’s church, the rent from the Bushby estate was £50 10s.

In 1838 the rent was  £70 pa and was received half yearly by the church wardens, when a meeting was called and a list made up of the persons to whom it was to be given. The amount given to each person varied between 1s and £1.

In 1854 an enquiry took place at the White Swan on Market Place before Thomas Hare, inspector of charities. The churchwardens said they had surveyed the land belonging to the Nidd charity and discovered that a cottage on it had been pulled down and that it was being let and sub- let. They suggested it would be better to have trustees connected to Mountsorrel rather than Leicester.

In 1854, on May 2^nd 1854 at a meeting of the General Charity Trustees in Leicester it was stated that Mr Thomas Hare had recommended that the Richard Nidd charity should be given up to local management. They agreed to this but “doubted whether it would be well managed”.

In 1867, on May 9th the trustees agreed to relinquish the charity. The income was now £92 pa but due to dissensions among the parishioner nothing had been paid out since 1856, resulting in an accumulation of £900 12s 4d

In 1874 the charity was amalgamated with three other charities to form the Mountsorrel United Charity