Elize Hele

Elize Hele or Elizeus Hele (1560–1635) was an English lawyer and philanthropist.^[3] In 1632, Hele transferred his lands into a trust that was intended for "pious uses". The trustees included his wife, John Hele and a number of trusted friends. The trust was used to create a number of schools in Devon including Hele's School.

Biography

Hele was the elder of two sons of Walter Hele,^[3] and he was born in 1560 at Winston Manor in the parish of Brixton^[4] near Plympton, Devon. His uncle, John Hele, was the Recorder of Exeter in 1592, and M.P. for the same city 1593–1601.^[5]

Hele was a lawyer of the Inner Temple in London. He was called to the bar in 1590 and to the bench in 1603.^[5] He was the treasurer to James I.^[6] He was a major landowner in south and west Devon. After his only child, Walter, died at the age of eleven, Hele decided to bequeath a number of his estates for “some godly purposes and charitable uses”.^[6]

A deed was signed on 9 January 1632 between Elize Hele, John Maynard, later Sir John Maynard, John Hele and Elize Stert in which Elize Hele dedicated his estate to charitable and godly use. Elize Hele included the manors of Fardel, Dinnaton, Brixton Reigny, Cofleet, Halwill, Teignharvey, Clyst St Lawrence and Clyst Gerrard and Woolvington rectory and St Giles in the Heath.

He died in 1635 and was buried in St. Andrew's Chapel in Exeter Cathedral as was his wife when she died on the 20 June 1636.^[7]

However his will took some time to settle. Twenty years later, his will was challenged in the House of Commons because his brother, Nicolo's, granddaughter, Joane, who had recently married Captain Edmond Lister, petitioned the court to allow funds from the will to be redirected to her. Hele's executor, Sir John Maynard, was neutral to the outcome and Sir Edward Rhodes ruled that funds should be given to his great niece but the charitable causes should not be abandoned.^[3]

In 1649 John Maynard and Elize Stert, as surviving trustees of the estate, granted the lands and the profits of them to be enjoyed by the governors, assistants and wardens of the Hospital of the Poors Portion, Plymouth, for the education of poor children. John Maynard and Elize Stert had also purchased an estate in 1656 at Lower Creeson, Mary Tavy, out of the funds of the Hele Charity. Yearly accounts were complied each November and money was to be used to build a schoolhouse at Plympton St Maurice and to buy lands at Brixton to support the preaching minister.

In 1656 his trustees, Sir John Maynard and Elize Stert apportioned money for the foundation of the Blue Maid's Hospital (later renamed The Maynard School) and, in 1658 for the establishment of Hele's School in Plympton.^[8]

An indenture of 17–18 December 1658 between the Hele Charity trustees and the city of Exeter and governors of St John's Foundlings Hospital, Exeter, granted the profits of the manor of Clyst St Lawrence, Clyst St Gerrard and Teignharvey, as well as Torre House, Newton Ferrers to the hospital for the maintenance of the poor children. The heirs of Sir John Maynard were the Earl of Ancram, Lady Suffield, Viscount Valletort and Viscountess Castlereagh.^[9]

Sir John Maynard's descendants received the remaining income from the bequest and distributed it to charities as they decided for the next two centuries^[6] Legal proceedings resulted in depriving the descendant of Sir J. Maynard, who was the surviving trustee, of all control over the funds, which were thereupon vested in the Crown.^[6]

References