Bequests of the Sham Squire

The Sham Squire’s Bequests.

After several letters of inquiry on the subject appeared, it was urged by the *Irish Times, *in a voluminous leading article, that a royal commission should be appointed to inquire into the condition and revenues of the charities bequeathed by Higgins and others, and expressed a hope that Parliament would at once take the matter in hand.

Complaint having been made that a letter which appeared in a morning paper from the Governor of the Four Courts Marshalsea, had been omitted from the Appendix to the first edition of this work, we now supply it, together with an answer which it elicited:-

“17 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square,

*January *4,1865.

“Sir, - In your paper of yesterday I see an article on the bequests of two gentlemen to the Four Courts Marshalsea, for charitable purposes. The will referred to provided that each prisoner who *had taken the pauper declaration *should be provided with a dinner of beef and bread on Christmas-day and Easter Monday, and that the balance should be applied to discharging some of the poor debtors; but at the time this will was made there were prisoners confined for sums considerably under £3. However, there have been few there for several years under debts of £10; consequently, a short time after my appointment to my present position, (now 13 years ago,) I brought the matter under the consideration of the three chaplains, and represented to them that if they thought proper to apply the balance after the dinners referred to, one or two prisoners could only be benefited in the manner pointed out. They accordingly decided that a sum of £1. 10s. (since raised to £2 in consequence of a change in the Stamp Act) should be applied for the purpose of filing the schedules of those prisoners who had no means of paying the expenses of taking the benefit of the Insolvency Act, which was carrying out as far as possible the desire of the testators. Since this arrangement I have always obtained ample means for filing the schedules of all those whom I found deserving of the favour; had I not done so, I should have requested the Lord Mayor for the time being to have curtailed the allowance of beef and bread on Easter and Christmas. His releasing a man from prison is of more importance than giving each pauper more than *ten times *as much as the testator designed.

“In conclusion, I have to remark that the bequests with which the Lord Mayor has nothing to do only produce a small sum, and is more at the disposal of the prison chaplains on these occasions. It frequently is a source of regret to me that the will only refers to pauper prisoners, it frequently occurring that the most distressed inmates or the Four Courts Marshalsea are those who support themselves without the Government allowance, and have, alas I too often to subsist on two very scanty meals in the day. - I am, sir, your obedient servant,

“E. H. Caulfield, Marshal.” *

“January *10, 1865.

“Sir, - As I was the first to call attention in your columns to the distribution of the charities, I beg to deprecate the equivocal letter of the Governor on the subject. I would suggest an application to his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant, with a view to the exhibition of the wills on the walls of the prison, and an order to the Board of Charitable Bequests to see that they are carried out in their integrity.”

Mr Caulfield is under an erroneous impression in supposing that the Lord Mayor has “nothing to do” with the Higgins Bequest. In his will it is specially directed that the Lord Mayor for the time being shall distribute the charity. We are assured by the Secretary to the Board of Charitable Bequests that they have got a copy of the Sham Squire’s will, and do all in their power to make the Bequest be carried out in its integrity. Hitherto, the money so distributed by the Lord Mayor has been erroneously announced in the newspapers as the personal charities of that functionary; but steps have been taken by the Board of Charitable Bequests to prevent such borrowed plumes from being again displayed.

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