Group    From 1566 

Bedford Charity

Categories: Education

Created by a gift of land by Sir William Harpur to the corporation of Bedford. A merchant from Bedford he had come to London and done so well that he was Lord Mayor in 1561. The following year he purchased 12 acres of land that had belonged to Charterhouse and in 1566 he and his wife Alice gave the property to the Bedford Corporation to support education in Bedford.

The charity has been renamed the Harpur Trust and still owns properties within the original Harpur estate and still supports education in Bedford.

We learnt all this from the resourceful A London Inheritance where there are maps showing the extent of the estate and photos of 5 other extant Bedford Charity markers. 

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Bedford Charity

Commemorated ati

Mrs. Eliz. Doughty and the Bedford Charity

These plaques mark property boudaries and identify ownership.

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Other Subjects

Muschamp Junior School
1 memorial
Dulwich College

Dulwich College

Founded by Edward Alleyn as a school and almshouses. A chapel, a schoolhouse and twelve almshouses were built on Dulwich Green (see picture), and, extended and re-modelled, these buildings remain a...

Building, Education, Social Welfare

3 memorials
Albany School, Bell Lane

Albany School, Bell Lane

old Albany School in Bell Lane, Enfield in 2014.

Place, Education

1 memorial
Goodenough College

Goodenough College

This is not a college but an organisation that provides residential accommodation for students and academics working in London. Competition for places is strong and applicants have to show that t...

Group, Education

5 memorials
First Belgian School WW1

First Belgian School WW1

By June 1915, the population of Belgian refugees in Britain rose to 265,000. But we couldn't find anything on the web about the school in Cale Street.

Group, Children, Education, Belgium

1 memorial