John Tate’s Charity – A Rathdrum Charitable Trust

This collection tells the story of this special charity formed as a condition of the last will and testament of John Tate of Glenmalure in 1787. John Tate was a well-to-do landowner in the late 18th century. He had inherited land on long-leases from his father and, over his short lifetime, had extended his holdings to just under 3,000 acres in the surrounding areas. While not a member of the Protestant Ascendancy, he was well connected to them and a committed member of the local Anglican church. He died young, at the age of 33, and in his will, left his interest in 895 acres at Cullentragh, as the basis of a charity to provide support to the needy in his parish. The Charity is still active today more than 200 years after its establishment.

John Tate’s will

In his will establishing the charity, John Tate specified the type of philanthropic endeavours he had in mind. The best use of his resources would involve patronising “industry [hard-work] among the poor inhabitants” by “lending out small sums of money not exceeding £5 to any one person interest free to be paid in such a manner and at such times not exceeding 12 months.” Donations rather than loans should only be distributed in exceptional circumstances, like in cases of “sickness or some unforeseen misfortune or sudden emergency happening to any of the poor of the said parish”, or when dealing with “aged or infirm persons, or when there is a family of five children and upwards whose parents or themselves are unable by their labour to provide a sufficient support.”

Trustees

A key condition in the will was that the charity would not discriminate based on religion. To underpin this, over time, two of the five trustees would be the Parish priest of Rathdrum and the Church of Ireland Rector.  The other trustees of the charity came from well established County Wicklow landed families including the Actons and the Parnells, with Charles Stewart Parnell acting as a trustee and later Chairman of the charity in the 1860s and 1870s.

Philanthropy of the gentry

While this collection is important to the local history of County Wicklow, it is also of national historical significance as a fine example of the philanthropic activities of the landed gentry in Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries. This class are well represented in local authority archive collections both in private collections and records of former local authorities, namely Boards of Guardians and Grand Juries. However, the records of John Tate’s Charity also offer an insight into the lives and needs of the poor in Wicklow in the 18th and 19th centuries.

(This project was supported by the Heritage Council under the Heritage Stewardship Grant Scheme 2024).

For more information on the collection, see the descriptive list below: