In 1712, George Fentham, of Birmingham, devised his estate by will,
consisting of about one hundred acres, in Erdington and Handsworth, of
the value then, of 20_l_. per annum, vesting the same in a trust, of
which no person could be chosen who resided more than one hundred yards
from the Old Cross. We should be inclined to think the devisor
entertained a singular predilection for the Old Cross, then in the pride
of youth. But if we unfold this whimsical clause, we shall find it
contains a shrewd intention. The choice was limited within one hundred
yards, because the town itself, in his day, did not in some directions
extend farther. Fentham had spent a life in Birmingham, knew well her
inhabitants, and like some others, had found honour as well as riches
among them: He knew also, he could with safety deposit his property in
their hands, and was determined it should never go out,--The scheme will
answer his purpose.

The uses of this estate, now about 100_l_. per annum, are for teaching
children to read, and for clothing ten poor widows of Birmingham: Those
children belonging to the charity school, in green, are upon this
foundation.

The present trust are
Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.



CROWLEY'S TRUST.

Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in
Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the purpose