HUMPHREY’S FAMILY

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1935, Page 7 (Supplement)

HUMPHREY’S FAMILY

KIND THOUGHTS TURNED TO GOLD. There are 1500 poor people living in Salford, England, who are kept from destitution by means of a fairy wand waved three hundred years ago. The magician was a man who is known today as Humphrey Booth the Elder. Humphrey was a man of means with a very kind heart. He possessed some, land in districts which have developed into the busiest thoroughfares of Manchester (Picadilly and Oxford Street), and when he died in 1630 he left the income from two plots of this land to the aged and needy of Salford for ever. He could have had no idea the land would increase so much in value. Even at his death it yielded £lO a year, which was then equal to many times £lO today, and now these two plots bring in an income of £21,000.

This is devoted to -the small needs of 1500 elderly poor of Salford, and they get a pleasant satisfaction in receiving charity from so historic a source. They would hate to be “on the parish,” but they do not mind depending on Humphrey the Elder.