The William Barrow’s Charity

The Charity of William Barrow originates from the will of William Barrow, who died in January 1708, the Charity provides grants to people living within the Parochial Parish of Borden.

About William Barrow

Born in 1636 at Bethersden, Kent into a family of comfortably well-off yeomen, William was still a baby when his mother died and he was brought up by his father and stepmother.

During his long life, William married three times. The first occasion was when he was 21, in Borden, the home parish of his bride, Susanna, a young widow with property. The couple lived at the Homestead in the Street, Borden – a farm which William had inherited and which had already belonged to the Barrow family for generations.

William and Susanna had four daughters, then after twenty years of marriage she died. That same year William Barrow married again, another widow, in Borden Church. This marriage was childless and lasted for 22 years before his wife died

After just a few months, in his sixties, he embarked on matrimony once again to another widow with property. It must have been a great sadness to him in his old age that his daughters had predeceased him and he had no surviving children to whom he could pass on all his estates.

William was a man of considerable wealth – some inherited, some gained by marriage settlements and some created by his own acumen. He owned farms in eighteen parishes.

He was not a good landlord – rents were too high and properties in poor repair. He would have been unpopular with his tenants and no doubt they would have been surprised to hear that he left a charitable will.