In 1746, apparently for the full sum of 500 pounds, the Charity Farm was purchased. A brief description of the land indicates a house, and probably other buildings, were already on the site, therefore by implication it was a working farm when bought. The property almost certainly stood on land once belonging to Lord Abergavenny and, indeed, was more than likely tenanted at the time of purchase. It has been considered that the tenant farmer then could well have been the David Dadswell we have mentioned before, whom we now know married the schoolmaster's daughter, Ann, and who together brought up their family at the farm which David managed for the Fermor Trust

By 1783, George, Lord Abergavenny, who was made Earl, remained the sole surviving trustee. David Dadswell was then schoolmaster and tenant of Charity Farm, and no doubt had been part of a committee welcoming John Fermor's son, the Rev John Shirley Fermor, to the Crowborough chapel in 1776.

The schoolmaster replacing David Taylor Dadswell in 1845 was Stephen Wickens. We do not know very much about this gentleman, except that some members of his family served as churchwardens at Rotherfield, and that he either left or died in 1851. His successor was Joseph Wickens, who may have been a son. A Joseph Wickens was churchwarden in 1839, a date perhaps too early for this Joseph to be the same person as the schoolmaster. However, we do know that Joseph Wickens the schoolmaster served until the autumn of 1873, for in November that year a meeting was called to elect a new schoolmaster .......... Mr Jeremiah Davis.