The Trust’s Origins
The Trust is funded by a gift generously made by Mrs Lewis-Jones, the widow of the late Mr Raymond Lewis-Jones. He had carried out extensive research into the surnames Halsted and Halstead during his lifetime, and wished this to be preserved and continued after his death. Two of the Trustees, Alec Tritton and Geoff Riggs (who were then Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Guild of One-Name Studies), set up the Trust in 2001 and the latter negotiated at length with the Charity Commission over an acceptable wording for the Declaration of Trust that would enable it to be registered as an educational charity, and this was finally achieved in March 2002.
As a result of Mrs Lewis-Jones’s gift the Trustees are able to carry out her late husband’s wishes. The Trust’s Research Director is currently completing the indexing and archiving of the many files and source documents that Mr Lewis-Jones’s research produced. He has also been collecting and collating on an ongoing basis a significant volume of more recent data relating to the surnames.