Built in 1891, the charity was founded by Dame Sarah Haberfield, in memory of her husband, Sir John Kerle Haberfield. In a municipal career stretching over 20 years Sir John was alderman, magistrate, town councillor (1838 to 1857), one of the original trustees of Bristol Charities (from 1836 to 1857), seven times governor of the Corporation of the Poor, six times mayor (1838, 1839, 1846, 1849, 1850 and 1851) and chair of Bristol Waterworks Company (1851-57).

Sir John was born in Plymouth in 1785, the son of Mr. Andrew Haberfield, a wine merchant. He was educated at Plymouth Grammar School and he came to Bristol, aged 17, to begin his training as a solicitor. Mr. Andrew Haberfield, on amassing a considerable fortune, followed his son to Bristol and soon the family were living together in the parish of St. Mary Redcliffe.

John Kerle Haberfield married Sarah, daughter of the late Major Dupont on the 29th of March 1828.

It was not long before John Kerle Haberfield had set up his own legal practice and impressed many wealthy and important individuals within the city. In 1837 he was offered the position of Chief Magistrate, and due to his own considerable wealth, accepted the position yet declined the salary, so endearing himself to the people of Bristol. He was appointed Chief Magistrate five more times between 1838 and 1851.

He was knighted in March 1851, during his final mayoralty. This was at the time of the Great Exhibition, the local section of which he generously supported.

A few weeks after receiving his knighthood, Sir John was presented with a magnificent ‘service of plate’ worth £800.00 (£31,588 in 2002.) being the result of a subscription to which 500 citizens contributed (at that time the number of people living in the ancient city was 65,716). Subsequently, Lady Haberfield presented the service to the Corporation, to be used by future mayors during their terms of office.

Following his death, on the 27th December 1857, his funeral was observed as one worthy of general mourning. A bust of Sir John was commissioned, and it was placed in the Lord Mayor’s Chapel, where it can be seen today.

His obituaries stated that “he will be remembered and revered as the princely philanthropist” and that “he loosened his purse strings to all our benevolent institutions.” This was at a time when charity was identified with civic pride.

                          

Dame Sarah was determined that her husband’s name would be remembered and in 1870 she executed a deed providing for a large part of her estate to be used to erect and endow an almshouse. In 1872, Lady Haberfield bought a piece of land in Jacob’s Well, and with this, and other property, set up a trust with the object of erecting and maintaining almshouses for twenty-four persons on the site.

Lady Haberfield died on 5 December 1874. The first trustees’ meeting was held in 1875, and they were immediately faced with a problem. The Jacob’s Well site was required by the City Council, for road widening and, after a delay of 15 years, the Trustees purchased the “Royal Gloucester Hotel” in Hotwell Road in 1889. The hotel was demolished and the existing building duly erected. Completed in 1891, the construction of the almshouse cost a total of £11,288 (£622,758 in 2002.)

In the original Trust Deed, £4000 had been allowed for the building of the almshouses, and therefore the Charity Commissioners had to agree to an additional sum of over £6000 being spent on the project.

When the almshouse were nearing completion, 250 copies of the application form were circulated. It repeated the rules in the original Deed of Trust that residents, or ‘inmates’ should be:

“…of either sex,…poor and impotent, of good character, be members of and as far as they were able, attendants at the services of the Church of England. They were not to be or have been in receipt of parish relief and they were not to be under the age of 55.”

The original trust stated that half of the residents should be parishioners of the old Parish of Clifton and the remaining half should be parishioners of St. Mary Redcliffe.

By the time the almshouses were ready, there had been 44 valid applications and on the 30th of April 1891, the first thirteen “persons” were “elected.” By February 1892, the Lady Haberfield’s Almshouse was fully occupied.

The first almshouse residents included Eliza Davies, seamstress, aged 74; William Smith, carter, aged 73; Jane Hallett, cook to Lady Haberfield, aged 65; Melinda Allen, servant to Lady Haberfield, aged 64; John Hewitt, seaman, aged 72; Elizabeth Gallop, lodging-house keeper, aged 79; and Henry Hussey, brushmaker, aged 69.

Lady Haberfield’s will also contained bequests to a number of Bristol’s charitable organisations, including £640 for the purchase of a Lifeboat, to be called “The Lady Haberfield” and to be stationed “on such part of the Coast of England, between Anglesea and the Land’s End, as the Institution may deem fit.”

The Almshouses were extensively renovated in 1977, with the help of a generous bequest by G D Grover, Esq. It still provides accommodation for 20 residents and a warden.