Trusts and Responsibilities
QUAKERS IN YORKSHIRE
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Charity No 1139514
BACKGROUND
The charitable Trusts and Responsibilities have been acquired over many years. A booklet was published in 1996 with information on the trusts. Here is the Yorkshire General Meeting Charitable Funds and Properties 1996 booklet
QIY CHARITABLE TRUSTS & RESPONSIBILITIES
1. INTRODUCTION
2. QUAKERS IN YORKSHIRE TRUSTEES AND QIY CHARITIES
3. EDUCATIONAL TRUSTS:
3.1 Rawdon School Trust
4. PROPERTY TRUSTS:
4.1 The Forrest (Meeting House) Fund
4.2 Buildings Trust
5. THE GENERAL MEETING CHARITY
6. GLENTHORNE AND THE LINTON TAYLOR BEQUEST
7. THE YORK QUAKER SCHOOLS
7.1 Bootham
7.2 The Mount
8. BRECKENBROUGH SCHOOL
9. THE RETREAT, YORK
10. YORKSHIRE QUAKER ARCHIVES
1. INTRODUCTION
Since the 1996 Quakers in Yorkshire (QIY) properties and trusts booklet was published much has changed. This page aims to set out QIY’s present responsibilities briefly, leaving out the history and detail. Area Meetings own the properties within their area. Quakers in Yorkshire are the beneficial owners of the York Schools.
2. QUAKERS IN YORKSHIRE TRUSTEES and QIY CHARITIES
QIY Trustees carry overall legal responsibility for QIY funds, including its charities.
Each of QIY’s seven constituent Area Meetings nominates one trustee to serve for 3 years.
Two further trustees, the Clerk and Treasurer, are nominated by QIY Nominations Committee. All nine trustees are appointed for three years by Quakers in Yorkshire in session.
The trustee body directly manages QIY’s charities, listed under 3 – 6 below.
3. EDUCATIONAL TRUSTS
3.1 THE RAWDON FRIENDS SCHOOL TRUST
QIY Trustees currently administer this on the historical basis that:
“…the Governors shall apply the income of the Charity in promoting the education of children of members of the Society of Friends who are attending a secondary school officially connected with [Britain Yearly Meeting] and who reside or have a parent residing within the area of [Quakers in Yorkshire].
By custom and practice, grants apply only to the three Quaker schools within Yorkshire i.e. Ackworth, Bootham and The Mount.
4. THE PROPERTY TRUSTS
4.1 THE FORREST (MEETING HOUSE) FUND
Mary Alice Forrest’s legacy was given to be used for “the erection maintenance or repair of or improvements to Quaker Meeting Houses in the areas formerly comprising the County of Yorkshire in such manner as [QIY]” decide. The income from the capital shall be used for these objects, and loans, with or without interest, may be made from the capital.
The “areas formerly comprising the County of Yorkshire” have been agreed with the executors of the estate as: The area within the boundary of Yorkshire shown on the relevant sheets of the Ordnance Survey County Map series, scale 1:100,000, these sheets being:
Yorkshire North Riding East Part published 1969
Yorkshire North Riding West Part published 1969
Yorkshire West Riding North Part published 1969
Yorkshire West Riding South Part published 1969
Yorkshire East Riding published 1968
The following Meeting Houses outside QIY are eligible, as at 2018, for grants under this fund:
Teesdale & Cleveland AM: Cotherstone, Great Ayton. Middlesbrough, Osmotherley
Wensleydale & Swaledale AM: Bainbridge, Leyburn
Kendal & Sedbergh AM: Brigflatts
4.2 THE BUILDINGS CHARITY FUND
The fund is the financial residue of the Brighouse, Leeds & Settle Monthly Meetings’ Buildings Charity which was laid down in 2018. The fund is for the “… maintenance, repair or improvement of the land and buildings in the area of benefit, used for the Charitable purposes of the Religious Society of Friends.”
Provision is also made to expend capital on the building or purchase of a new Meeting House subject to the Charity Commission’s agreement.
The area of benefit is that of three Area Meetings i.e.
Brighouse West Yorkshire; Leeds; Craven & Keighley. All as constituted in 2018.
5. THE YORKSHIRE GENERAL MEETING CHARITY
This charity amalgamates numerous earlier bequests and has the following objects:
“The income shall be applied in the following ways:
a) for the relief in need in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained,
b) in furthering the religious and other charitable work of the Yorkshire General Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.
Relief in need:
(1) The Managing Trustees shall apply income applicable for relief in need in relieving generally or individually persons who are members of or regular attenders of meetings of the Religious Society of Friends and who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress, by making grants of money or providing or paying for items, services or facilities calculated to reduce the need, hardship or distress or such persons: provided that preference shall be given to such persons who reside in the area of the said Yorkshire General Meeting.
(2) The Managing Trustees may pay for such items, services or facilities by way of donations or subscriptions to institutions or organisations which provide or which undertake in return to provide such items, services or facilities for such persons.”
6. GLENTHORNE AND THE LINTON TAYLOR BEQUEST
Background
In 1961 Yorkshire and Westmorland Quarterly Meetings, (now Quakers in Yorkshire and the 3 Area Meetings of the former Westmorland General Meeting), were joint beneficiaries under the will of Linton Taylor, dated 22.11.1951, who bequeathed to them the property Glenthome at Grasmere in the Lake District and the sum of £25,000, subject to the life tenancy of Sybil Taylor. Glenthome was to be used as a holiday home, and the money, to quote his will, was left “with a request but without imposing upon either of the said Quarterly Meetings any legal obligation or trust that they shall invest the capital of the said sum and apply the income thereof for the general maintenance and running of the said House Glenthorne as a Holiday Home with recourse to the capital thereof if deemed necessary.”
The executors were advised that the bequest of both the house and the sum of £25,000 was not charitable and the gift would fail. To resolve the difficulties, a Scheme of Arrangement was drawn up which varied the will. While a full understanding would require a study of the documents, it may be noted that the scheme brought in Friends Trusts as a trustee company, and provided:
“(i) that the Trustee Company shall hold the sum of money and the chattels specified in the first part of the Schedule upon trust for the Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting and the Westmorland Quarterly Meeting in equal shares absolutely and
(ii) that the Trustee Company will hold the property specified in the second part of the Schedule being Glenthome upon the trusts of the Deed mentioned in Clause 6 hereof.”
The life tenancy fell in 1976.
The Bequest of £25,000
With regard to (i) above, “the sum of money” is the bequest of £25,000. Judicious investment by Friends Trusts had more than quadrupled the nominal value of this bequest by 1994. In 1994 it was divided between the two General Meetings to administer separately, though both have expressed a wish to liaise with the other.
Friends will note that solicitors have advised that the Quarterly Meetings can do what it likes with the money, and Linton Taylor’s wishes expressed in his will have no legal force. At the same time Friends will bear in mind the source of the money. Quakers in Yorkshire has made substantial grants to Glenthorne from the income from the fund, and it has made smaller grants for other purposes.
Glenthorne Quaker Centre (Charity No 232575) exists:
“(a) to further the religious and other charitable work of the Religious Society of Friends [Quakers]
(b) for the relief of persons in need by reason of age, ill health, disability or financial hardship in particular, but without limitation, by the provision of facilities for rest or convalescence and
(c) the advancement of such other charitable purposes as the committee shall think fit by the provision of a place where members of the public may meet for activities of an exclusively charitable nature.”
Other charitable groups and their members who are sympathetic to Quaker ideals also meet and stay there, some joining in the spiritual and craft courses on offer.
A Trading company handles any non-charitable activities.
Governance lies with a body of trustees appointed by Quakers in Yorkshire and the 3 Area Meetings of the former Westmorland General Meeting. Trustees report annually to Quakers in Yorkshire.
7. THE YORK QUAKER SCHOOLS
The Mount School and Bootham School, which are wholly independent of one another, hold properties in trust to Quakers in Yorkshire and, in addition to their statutory responsibilities, they report annually to Quakers in Yorkshire. Nominations to each school’s governing body come to Quakers in Yorkshire for appointment.
In the event of either school ceasing to trade, its buildings would revert to QIY as residuary legatee. Fuller accounts of the relationship between QIY, The Mount and Bootham are found in the Deed of Direction (2001) and the Memorandum of Understanding between QIY, Bootham and The Mount (2017). Details of the current rules governing the composition of each school’s trustee/director body are in each school’s Articles of Association (2017).
7.1 BOOTHAM SCHOOL 51 Bootham, York, YO3 7BU Charity No 513645
Bootham is a co-educational boarding and day school of about 480 pupils aged 11-18 and co-educational day junior school of about 150 pupils aged 3-10. As at 1 March 2017 the buildings were valued at £47.6 million for insurance purposes.
7.2 THE MOUNT SCHOOL Dalton Terrace, York YO2 4DD Charity No 513646
The Mount provides co-educational nursery and junior schooling and is a boarding and day school for girls aged 11-18. The buildings were valued in 2016 at £39 million for insurance purposes.
8. BRECKENBROUGH SCHOOL
Breckenbrough School, near Thirsk, is a residential school for boys aged 11 – 18 with special needs. Quakers in Yorkshire appoint four members to the school’s governing body.
9. THE RETREAT, YORK
The Retreat was established in 1792 as a hospital for the humane care of people with mental illnesses. After many years of high quality provision of mental health services where the individual needs of the patient were central to provision, it was decided in 2015 that it was not viable as an independent organisation. The Retreat Clinics continue to provide specialist mental health care in conjunction with the NHS.
There is now a Retreat Benevolent Fund which provides support to individuals.
Quakers in Yorkshire appoint three Friends to serve on the Retreat Nominations Committee and periodically ask for a report at one of QIY’s quarterly sessions.
10. YORKSHIRE QUAKER ARCHIVES
The University of Leeds Library is the main repository for Yorkshire Quaker Archives. There are two main archives (Carlton Hill and Clifford Street), as well as the Joseph Wood Archive, a book collection (Birkbeck Library and Leeds Friends Old Library), and registers of Quaker births, marriages and burials for Yorkshire. Quakers wishing to use the Yorkshire Quaker Archive must be recommended in writing to the University Library by one of the three Friend Custodians of Quakers in Yorkshire Archives. They are then entitled to use the Library and may borrow selected books for limited periods for research or exhibition purposes.
Anyone needing the name of a current Friend Custodian should consult the Co-Clerks of Quakers in Yorkshire.