Feoffees Contributions
from the trust (formerly Little Neck summer colony)
to Ipswich Public Schools

Here is a graphical presentation of the contributions from the Feoffees of the Grammar School trust to the Ipswich Public Schools over recent decades. The income to the Feoffees comes from the trust (formerly rents from the Little Neck summer colony, now investment returns from the endowment fund created by the sale), and ultimately benefits Ipswich's public schools.

The numbers behind this graph were collected and published either in the report of the Town Committee on The Feoffees (readily available elsewhere at that time, now copied to this website). or from the Ipswich Chronicle newspaper. (Note that although the numbers are generally accepted as accurate, there remains some question about some of the older ones.)

Feoffees Trust contributions, dollars each year - the graph:

The above graph illustrates:

1. Market-rate rents did not trigger the renters' strike. The phase-in of market rate rents was completed three years before the renters' strike began.
2. Too-low rents and the renters' strike were separate problems. Although both problems resulted in no contributions to Ipswich Schools, they happened at different times.
3. Five consecutive years of reasonable contributions suggested the Feoffees issue was resolved. But then the renters' strike made the Feoffees an issue all over again.

Legal issues were settled in late 2012, resulting in New Feoffees taking over from Old Feoffees, and in essence conversion of the trust from a land trust to a money trust. (The legal term for the conversion however was breaking the will.)

After the settlement, the New Feoffees laid plans for three catch-up contributions of about $800,000 each. In the future, more regular trust income is expected to be somewhere around $400,000 per year. Reports of New Feoffees activity are calendrically aligned either with the date of the settlement (August), or with the school year, whereas the old Feoffees kept records on a January-December fiscal year. As a result the sequences don't actually join quite as neatly as the graph suggests.

(The Feoffees Trust or the Little Neck trust or The Feoffees of the Grammar School is a very old endowment for the benefit of Ipswich Public Schools.) Good sources of information on the Feoffees Trust include:

• Town Website Page describing the New Feoffees
• Investment Policy of the New Feoffees