Yorkshire Almanac Philip Wharton finances the annual donation of large numbers of English bibles and catechisms to poor children in York

12 July 1692: Philip Wharton finances the annual donation of large numbers of English bibles and catechisms to poor children in York

Henry Edwards. 1842. A Collection of Old English Customs, and Curious Bequests and Charities. London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

PROPAGATION OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.
Wharton’s Charity.
Philip Lord Wharton, by indenture, 12th July 1692, conveyed premises in the city of York to Sir Edward Harley and others upon trust, that the rents and profits should be employed for the buying of English Bibles and Catechisms to be distributed yearly to and amongst poor children who can read. And by further instructions in writing, dated 24th April 1693, he ordered that 1050 Bibles, with the Singing Psalms bound up therewith, should be yearly provided, of the English translation, published by authority, in a large duodecimo; each Bible not exceeding 2s. 6d. in price, or as near thereabouts as could be bought. That the like number of Catechisms should be yearly provided. That an inscription by a stamp should be on the outside cover of each book, with these words:

“By the will of Philip Lord Wharton.”

That there should be a printed paper pasted inside the Bibles, to this effect: “These reading Psalms in the English translation in the Bible, are to be learnt without book by the child to whom this book is given, namely, 1st, 15th, 25th, 37th, 101st, 113th, 145th.”

He also ordered that sermons should be preached at York, and twenty-six other places, allowing 10s. for each, the purport, design, and scope of every sermon to be to discover and prove to the people the truth, usefulness, sufficiency, and excellency of the Holy Scriptures, and the people’s right to have them fully in their own language, and also their duty to read, study, and search the Scriptures, and take them for their only unerring rule of faith, worship, and manners; and no mention to be made of the donor, either in the sermon or prayers.

In the year 1819, the expenditure amounted to £616. 178. 2d.-IV. p. 467.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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The trust still exists: https://www.lordwhartonbibles.org.uk/

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The trust still exists: https://www.lordwhartonbibles.org.uk/

Something to say? Get in touch

4 November 1725: Mary Wandesford of York (spinster) finances with her will the foundation of a Protestant convent

3 January 1638: On the eve of the civil war, Henry Slingsby witnesses Royalist cavalry exercising near Wetherby on Bramham Moor, scene of the defeat of the Percy Rebellion in 1408

23 August 1681: John Heywood’s is ordained at John Hey’s in Craven

8 June 1646: As the First English Civil War draws to a close, Mrs Eyre rages at Mr for criticising her clothes

1 November 1643: Sam Priestley of Soyland (22) saves a Royalist enemy from drowning in Hebden Water at the Battle of Heptonstall, and himself dies later of pneumonia

5 February 1691: Approaching 60, Oliver Heywood contemplates his place in the cosmos

26 August 1600: Following the Restoration, powerful local Catholics invade the Hackness (Scarborough) home of Sir Thomas Hoby, Puritan commissioner and newcomer

5 July 1603: In his will, William Clapham gives poor pupils at the Giggleswick free school something to celebrate on St Gregory’s Day

5 December 1859: Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nephew and the cousin of the then French emperor, has work for the Barnsley dialectologist Charles Rogers

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Comment

Paterson is wrong to claim that Louis Lucien was “son of the late King of Holland” – Louis Bonaparte: his father was actually Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s younger brother, Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800, and president of the Council of Five Hundred in 1799.

Who can find me the Barnsley Song of Solomon?

“One of the Barnsley newspapers”!

Bonaparte also visited Abel Bywater, Sheffield dialect writer, and requested a Sheffield version of the Song of Solomon of him:

This he did, and was favoured with a dozen copies from the Prince. He, however, when he saw them, regretted having reduced them to such a ridiculous appearance (Bywater 1877).

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