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= Dawson's Charity (The Charity of Thomas Dawson) =

The charity was founded in 1521 by Thomas Dawson of Reading. It owns property in the St Clement's area of Oxford, including the 16th century Old Black Horse Inn. Profits from the properties are used for the relief of poverty in the parish of St Clement's, support for education in the Oxford area and the maintenance of St Clement's Parish Church.

History
Dawson's Charity was established on 1st June 1521 when Thomas Dawson of Reading made a gift of land to the Parish of St Clement, instructing that he profits were to be used for “the relief of the poor and maintenance of the parish church”. Thomas Dawson was the son of John Dawson (d.c.1484), a former alderman of the City of Oxford, but nothing else is known about him for certain. .

Dawson's bequest
Thomas Dawson's bequest consisted of “lands and tenements, situate near unto the bridge, abutting on the south on the King’s high road, and on the north on the River Cherwell”. . This corresponds approximately to the site now owned by Magdalen College and occiupied by Magdalen's Waynflete Building at nos 1-8 St Clement's Street,next to Magdalen Bridge

Green's Croft and The Plain
In 1585, the charity bought a further piece of land incorporating a "tenement, garden and croft" called Green's Croft which was bounded on the "south side of the road leading to St Bartholemew's Hospital" (Cowley Road) and "on the north side of the road leading to Headington" (St Clement's Street) and "two other tenements, cottage, orchard and garden" on what is now The Plain. .A substantial part of of this area is still owned by Dawson's Charity.

This plot was a piece of "concealed land"; former ecclesiastical land which had been overlooked during the Dissolution of the Monastaries. It was one of a number of similar properties granted to Anthony Collins and James Mayland of London by Elizabeth I.

Early Management
In 1612 It was found that properties were being let on leases of 51 years contrary to a decree of James I. The feoffes were ordered to make new leases, “to be assessed for the most good and benefits of the Parish” for no more than 21 years and moneys were to be made over to the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor.

In 1677, Richard Webbe, a collarmaker of St Clement’s  and other poor inhabitants brought a case against the Charity. The Bishop of Oxford found that Zacchaeus Smith, a dyer and former churchwarden and the feoffes (trustees) had withheld charitable payments. Smith and the feoffes were ordered to pay over the outstanding money, with interest, to the current churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor. Zacchaeus Smith was also ordered to pay Richard Webbe’s costs.

The Bishop also appointed new feoffes and ordered the Charity’s accounts to be read to annually Parishioners, gave instructions against conflicts of interest when setting leases and ordered that all leases had to have the approval of the Rector of St Clement’s.

Following the problems of 1677, the new trustees began to minute their meetings and keep proper accounts.

In 1699, the terms of the Charity seem to have changed so that all the money was to go to the maintenance of the church.

Periodic misuse of Charity funds continued to be made and corrected. At one point, Dawson’s Charity accepted liability for the maintenance of roads in the parish.. By the 1750s, support for the services of the church has been extended to the funding of the annual dinners at Easter and following the annual Parish Perambulation (Beating the Bounds) on Ascension Day.

By 1763 Easter Dinners at the expense of charity were discontinue but thirty shillings was still to be allowed every 3 years for bread and beer for children attending Perambulation whilst twenty shillings was allowed for an "industrious and sober inhabitant" to keep the road well-swept under the churchyard wall and for keeping the children quiet during divine service

Cause Célèbre
In 1826 David Alphonso Talboys a local bookseller published a pamphlet alleging serious mismanagement by Dawson’s Charity.

He claimed that that nothing at all had been spent on the poor for a number of years.and that the properties were bringing in just a tenth of their proper market value.

Amongst the properties let below market value was The Black Horse Inn. This was leased to William Slatter and to Mark and James Morrell, of the famous Oxford brewing family; all three were also Dawson trustees, although they appear not to have attended meetings.

Talboys also alleged that, instead of the money being spent at the discretion of the churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor, the feoffes were retaining complete control and acting secretively to prevent any scrutiny of their spending.

The dispute eventually went to the High Court of Chancery and in 1831 the Master of the Rolls dismissed all the trustees.

New Trustees, including Mr Talboys, were appointed in 1834 and the Charity began to take on a modern appearance with a legally qualified Receiver, an architect and detailed record keeping.