The Badingham Charity Estate. — This consists of three pieces of freehold land, called Old Way, containing about ten acres{1}, and lies to the left of the road leading to Saxmundham, near the windmill{2} which abuts upon a private road or way communicating with land lying in that direction. The gift in this instances arises upon the testamentary dispositions made by Mrs. Elizabeth Rous, of Framlingham, and her wealthy daughter Miss Dorothy Rous, but before we insert the extracts from their wills, it is proper to state that Mrs. Rous was the only daughter and heiress of Robert Butts, of Burnevilles in Levington, who was the nephew and heir of Sir Robert Hitcham. She became the wife of Laurence Rous, of Badingham Hall, esq., by whom she had issue one son, Laurence Rous, (who died without issue), and three daughters, viz., Elizabeth, married to Thomas Bloss, of Belstead, esq. ; Dorothy, who died unmarried ; and Mary, who intermarried with Waldegrave Alexander, of Badingham. Mrs. Rous died at Framlingham, in 1717, and was buried in the chancel of Badingham church, near the remains of her deceased husband and his ancestors, whose arms were, sable, a fess dancette, or, between three crescents, argent. On the twentieth of March, 1715, Elizabeth Rous of Framlingham, widow, by her will, (after directing that her body should be buried in the chancel of the parish church of Badingham), bequeathed as follows:—" Item I give and bequeath to the town of Badingham the sum of £52., which said sum I have put out and desire shall be at interest after the rate of £5. per cent. per ann. to my son in law Mr Waldegrave Alexander, the interest whereof shall be weekly laid out for six twopenny loaves of bread, to be delivered every Sunday at the said parish church to such of the poor of the town as shall be present at divine service and sermon, at the discretion of the churchwardens of the same parish for the time being, until a piece of land or annual rent of that value be purchased by my executors or the survivor of them for the same uses, which said allowance of bread shall be perpetual and continue for ever." And of her said will made her three daughters Elizabeth, Dorothy, and Mary, executrixes. The testatrix died in 1717, and her will was proved by Elizabeth Rous and her sister Dorothy, on the 19th April, 1718, in the Archdeaconry Court of Suffolk.
On the 13th December, 1735, Miss Dorothy Rous, of Framlingham, spinster, by her will, after giving to <...long list of individual bequests giving incidental information on familial relationships...> ; bequeathed as follows :—" Item I give and bequeath the sum of £150. to be added to the money my late mother Elizabeth Rous, formerly bequeathed to the poor of the parish of Badingham, and my will is that with both the said sums my executors shall as soon as conveniently, maybe after my decease, purchase and settle lands or a rent charge issuing out of the lands to the best advantage they possibly may or can in Badingham aforesaid or some adjacent parish, to continue for ever, to and for such and the same uses as by my said mother is limited and appointed in and by her will, and the overplus, if any be, I will shall be laid out in cloathing such of the poor of the said parish of Badingham, as shall most constantly attend in hearing of prayers read and divine service in the said parish church of Badingham, and to be distributed amongst them, and such of them as the rector or curate of the said parish of Badingham shall think most proper objects of receiving the same." And testatrix, (after bequeathing £5. for distributing amongst the poor of Framlingham within one week after her decease), appointed her brother Waldegrave Alexander, and her nephew Rous Alexander, his son, as executors of her will, which was proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Suffolk in 1736, so that she did not long survive the execution of it.
Mr. W. Alexander in compliance with the directions contained in these wills, by indenture of lease and release of the 28th and 29th September, 1737, sold and conveyed the Old-way property (then being parcel of his real estate),* to the Rev. Barrington Bloomfield, D. D., rector of Badingham, and six other persons, in fee, as trustees for the purposes expressed in the above wills, and the distribution of the bread was left to the discretion of the rector and churchwardens of Badingham, for the time being, but no provision was then made for securing a succession of trustees ; subsequently , however, by other deeds of the 15th and 16th February, 1768, which was a new appointment, it was declared that when their number should by death be reduced to two at furthest more trustees should be chosen out of the chief owners and inhabitants of Badingham.
* Waldegrave Alexander, in 1724, acknowledged to hold freely of the Manor of Framlingham at the Castle, lands called Old-way, which were Anne Hill's 1st Edward VI. We have not "heard with our ears, and our fathers have not declared unto us," how this or other towns were fashioned " in their days, and in the old times before them," but we strongly incline to the opinion, that if this ancient spot ever partook, as in all human probability it did, of the character of an inclosed or fortified town, it was not intersected, as at this time, with streets and open ways, and if so, it is then a fair conclusion that the communication between one place and another was made to run at certain limits upon or towards the outskirts of the parish, and that therefore this property, by its peculiar appellation, which is of great antiquity, was one of those old ways bordering upon the town, and which united itself with the way called Cold-haugh or Cold-hall Lane.
Source: [Green1834]
{1} Still called Old Way Pieces up to the mid C20, when they were sold by the Rous Charity to JC Larter on 29 July 1954 [OldWayPiecesConveyance1954], consisting of four parcels covering an area of 9.978 acres.