AOSA CENTENARY HISTORY 1841 - 1941

page twenty-two

Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix

Return History
Contents

The main sources of income for the same year were the annual subscriptions of £189 13s 6d of which Newcastle Monthly Meeting subscribed £61 and Darlington £70 15s. Payments for children amounted to £863 6s. Rents and the profit on the farm accounted for £31 115S. 2d., and ‘children’s labour on the farm and in the orchard garden and in the mill and in the house kitchen garden’ was valued at £47 7s. 82d. ‘Girls’ work in the house’ represented £38 0s. 14d, making a total for children’s labour of £85 7s. 10d. Sundries brought the total to £1,468 19s. 11½ d., the odd half-penny being included in the profit from the orchard garden of £6 17s. 5½ d. Thus there existed a deficit on the year’s working of £265 5s. 8d.

But an appeal for ‘pecuniary aid’ had realised £539 7s. 3d, and the Committee was ‘thus relieved of the pressure which had for some time existed.’ This amount was put into the current account together with £9, donations from the parents of children, £10 from Charles Burgess and his brother and sister, all old scholars, who expressed in grateful terms ‘his sense of the value of the education he received in this institution.’ Finally a gift of £150 from John, Joseph and Henry Pease ‘without solicitation,’ ‘for which assistance the grateful sense of the committee’ was recorded, transformed the adverse balance into a favourable one of £443 1s. 7d.
This volume of minutes noted other examples of the steady generosity of John, Joseph and Henry Pease. On the 27th of 12 mo. 1853 a minute stated that ‘our kind friends, John Pease, Joseph Pease, and Henry Pease have generously paid to the treasurer the sum of One hundred and fifty pounds in aid of the funds of this institution.’ On the 19th of 12th mo. 1854, they again gave £50 each ‘(together £150),’ ‘which in the present state of the Treasurer’s account’ was ‘peculiarly acceptable.’ Next year they gave ‘a commodious pheaton,’ for ‘since the opening of the Pinchinthorpe Station, three miles distant, such accommodation has been frequently wanted.’ In 1857 on the 28th of 1st mo. the same Friends ‘presented a donation of £50 each, without solicitation,’ with £50 in addition ’in the name of Thomas Richardson’s Executors (together £200).’ In February of the same year George Dixon reported ‘that acting under the advice of our Friend Joseph Pease he recently purchased by auction two cottages adjoining a portion of the premises of this institution for the sum of £300.’ Furthermore, £700 was still owing to Joseph Heselton for his sale of the oil mill, so ‘Joseph Pease, being now present’ stated that he and his brothers John and Henry offered ‘to pay one half of the aforesaid sum of £1,000.’ The ‘cordial concurrence and thanks of this committee’ was noted.

But the brothers did better than their word, for when the matter was finally decided in 1859 Joseph Pease said that after ‘conferring with my said dear brothers on the matter and the present state of the school funds, we have concluded to take the whole of this payment upon us instead of half.’ So they handed over a cheque for £1,170 15s. 7d, the price of the cottages on the green, the mill and the legal expenses.

Indeed no single year from 1853 to 1870 passed without some substantial money gift from them to the School. Six times the amount lay between £100 and £150; once ,£200 was paid, twice £250, and ten times they gave £300 or over. Their total contributions to current account amounted to over £4,600. To capital account in addition to their gift of £1,170 for the old mill, Joseph handed over £3,000 of ‘North Eastern (Darlington Section) 412% Debenture Stock’ to pay off either, the £2,900 capital borrowed from Edward Walton’s Trust, or to pay its annual interest. After the death of John Pease his widow Sophia took up the mantle of generosity. In 1868 Joseph, Henry and Sophia Pease gave £350 for the extinction of a deficit and in her will she left £100 as a legacy.

Not only were the amounts very considerable but they were precisely timed when they had the greatest effect. Again and again the January minutes recorded that such and such a sum had been received from the Pease brothers, and again and again did that sum turn a deficit revealed in the final accounts in the previous December to a surplus for the year. Such steady, timely, prolonged generosity greatly influenced the fortunes of the school and revealed in the donors a practical, abiding and watchful interest in the institution.

Nor did their gifts consist exclusively of money. They suggested ‘the formation of a scheme under which girls leaving the school with good character for approved situations should have a donation of clothing and also the promise of small premiums at the end of the first, second and third years of their servitude if in their original places,’ and they were willing to find the greater part of the money needed. Thus began ‘The Ayton Scholars’ Situation Fund.’

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