150th Part 2

Fundraising news

RABI - the first 150 years Part 2

In the build up to our 150th anniversary in 2010, RABI News is tracing the development of the Charity. In part two we look how it all began.

During the Napoleonic Wars, with the blockading of major European ports, food prices soared and farming prospered. However, by the middle of the 19th century when John Joseph Mechi moved from London to Tiptree Hall in Essex, to become a gentleman farmer, there was a sharp decline in farming fortunes.

The repeal of the Corn Laws, the arrival of cheap grain imports from North America and the development of refrigerated ships bringing meat from the southern hemisphere, all resulted in a considerable reduction in farm incomes. At the same time the industrial revolution was denuding the countryside of much of its workforce and farmers were having to leave the land uncultivated.

Coming from London, where the City Guilds supported those in their particular trades who fell on hard times, John Mechi was horrified to find that there was no one to whom farmers could turn in time of trouble. Having initially written letters to The Times he canvassed influential landowners and others to support the formation of a charity to help farmers in distress. Then, in January 1860, he wrote the following letter, appealing to farmers across the country: -

Sir

I most earnestly beg to draw your attention to the accompanying appeal to the Landowners and Farmers of the United Kingdom issued by me end May last – soliciting support in a cause which much needs it, a fact well confirmed by the hearty and sympathizing response I have received from 700 Noblemen, Gentlemen, Farmers, Implement Makers and others whose names are thereto subscribed. They saw the necessity for such an Institution in this Country. They have given their names and subscriptions liberally to aid its foundation, and now I most earnestly appeal to you for assistance in the Cause – both as a subscriber and by enlisting the support of your friends and neighbours. My object is to raise £10,000 in donations and one thousand guineas in annual subscriptions by the time of the meeting in May next, and to do this with as little cost as possible, by avoiding a large staff of paid canvassers.

I appeal to the farmers as a body to link themselves together as volunteer canvassers; no reproach can attach to great energy in advocating a subject of such holy import as this. Not profit but charity is the mainspring of your efforts and desire to help those who are helpless, comfort those who are comfortless, support the aged, shelter the homeless & befriend & instruct the innocent and unprotected orphans.

I again ask your support; with zealous and combined efforts I do not fear the results.

To this date the donations amount to 1700 guineas & the annual subscriptions to 410 guineas from 450 out of the 700 founders enrolled.

I am sir

faithfully yours

J. J. Mechi

Birth of an Institution

On 7th February 1860 the first council meeting was held at 112 Regent Street, London - the west end premises of Mechi & Bazin. Why the minutes are headed the ‘Royal Agricultural Benevolent College’ is unclear - it could have been a slip of the pen or, with John Mechi’s association with the Royal Agricultural College (he was a member of its management committee), he may have had plans to link the two charities. Minutes of subsequent meetings, which are not written in the same hand as the first one, refer to the Agricultural Benevolent Institution.

The meeting was attended by Thomas Scott (of Parliament Street, Westminster); James Howard (of Britannia Works, Bedford); John Collins (of the Cattle Market, Islington); John Mechi; Thomas Batson (of Coombe Down, near Bath); and Charles Bazin. ‘It was moved by Mr. Mechi that Mr. Batson took the chair’ and although there is a blank space where it says ‘seconded by’ he was unanimously elected as the charity’s first chairman.

Mr. Bazin gave a statement of the donations received and promised to date, with £700 being on deposit and £188 on a standard account at the Unity Bank. He then read the draft proposed rules, which he had prepared ‘from the rules of various public institutions and adaptable to the present; with such new suggestions as were necessary for their sound and efficient availability in realising the objectives of the college’. These were accepted unanimously.

The fact that it was John Mechi's business partner who proposed the draft rules leaves one to wonder if he was presenting them on behalf of John Mechi, who did not want to be seen running the show, or if he had been assigned the task by his partner who was too busy drumming up the financial support.

Subsequent council meeting reports refer to the charity as the Agricultural Benevolent Institution at 55 Charing Cross and at a meeting held on 1st May 1860 ‘The secretary, (Charles Shaw) reported that His grace the President (The Duke of Richmond) had fixed Tuesday 26th of June 1860 for the first festival of the Institution’.

Widespread support

Thus, just over a year after John Mechi launched his appeal for support, the Agricultural Benevolent Institution held its first annual general meeting. The list of subscriptions and donors published for the AGM records that ‘Mr. Alderman Mechi’ was one of the three trustees, together with the Duke of Richmond and the Right Hon. Earl Howe, as well as being one of 35 vice-presidents, which included two dukes, seven earls, a viscount, nine lords, five knights and five members of parliament.

The list of over 700 subscribers, as at the 4th June 1860, from 43 counties across England and Wales as well as donations from Dublin, Scotland and one from Hungary, makes interesting reading with many of the names still identifiable as current farming families. It records both donations and annual subscriptions, most of which ranged between one and ten guineas, and is testimony to the resolve of John Mechi to establish the charity.

Benjamin Disraeli had indicated his intention to be involved with the charity from the beginning but political business took precedence. However, he readily accepted an invitation to chair the second ‘Anniversary Festival’ held at Freemasons Hall on 12th June 1861. A reflection of the importance attributed to agriculture 150 years ago.

The raison d’être, as set out in the rules, was straightforward – “That the object of the Institution be to secure a home for, or pension to, the bona fide farmer, or widow of a farmer and to maintain and educate the orphan children of farmers.”

To qualify for assistance was less simple. One had to be a British-born subject, aged 60 or over, whose exclusive means of support had been farming, for 20 consecutive years, not less than 50 acres or had paid rent of not less than £100 per annum over the same period. Except in “special instances of sudden injury or accidental bodily infirmity” resulting in permanent disablement when the minimum age was 45, which was the same for widows whose husband’s had fulfilled the qualifications. In the case of orphans, the qualifying time for their father was reduced to 10 years and the minimum age at which they could be admitted was six. They would remain “inmates of the Institution” until they were 14, if they were boys, or 16, if they were girls.

Voting for beneficiaries

Selection of beneficiaries for a pension was by election, with every donor and subscriber having a number of votes according to the amount that they had given. An annual subscription of half-a-guinea entitled the subscriber to one vote, one guinea bought two votes and then the same proportion of votes for every guinea subscribed. A donation of five guineas made the donor a life-member entitling them to one vote at every election with a further vote for every additional five guineas. In addition, all clergymen preaching on behalf of the Institution were treated as honorary donors with voting rights according the amount collected from their congregations.

The first election for beneficiaries took place on 2nd May 1861. £455 had been ‘appropriated for the maintenance of twenty farmers, farmers’ wives, and widows selected from numerous applicants, as most worthy of its earliest bounties’. Nine men, three couples and five widows were chosen to receive annual awards of £26 for male pensioners, £40 for married couples and £20 widows.

In subsequent years the election was held at the annual general meeting in June with the number of suitable candidates, each recommended by two persons of standing in the community, always considerably exceeding the number of pensions available. For example, in 1884 there were 377 candidates for 64 pensions.

The number of pensions available was a direct reflection of the level of donations until the Institution started to receive legacies which could be invested, enabling it to help more people. However, the annual amounts paid to the beneficiaries, 10 shillings (50p) a week was to remain unchanged for 100 years.