Hannah Brakenbury was a local philanthropist, who donated vast sums of money in the 19th century  to charities and institutions throughout the UK,  equivalent to £11 million pounds in "today's money" (see her Will below)

*Please Note*, Although Hannah was baptised with the surname Brackenbury, she appears to have dropped the "c" from her surname while living in Portslade, She sanctioned the new spelling of "Brakenbury" which is displayed in the Brakenbury Chapel and on the wall of the old St Nicolas School (now Portslade County Infants School) which she opened in 1872.

The north window of the Brakenbury Chapel, depicting the Family's Coat of Arms

The Brakenbury Chapel in the north west corner of St Nicolas Church, Portslade

The west window depicts : left:- St James,
centre:- the raising of the daughter of Jairus,
right:- St Luke

The Brakenbury Family's
Coat of Arms at Balliol College, University of Oxford

Brakenbury Chapel as viewed from the inside of St Nicolas Church


Sellaby House, the former Portslade home of Hannah Brakenbury

The following, is an abbreviation of an article which appeared in both the Brighton Gazette and the Manchester Guardian, March 13, 1873:-
 
THE LATE MISS BRACKENBURY
Early in the 1800’s Mr James B. Brackenbury moved to Manchester to practise as a solicitor, he was the legal advisor of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company at its formation, and he made a large fortune in the early days of the railways.
Miss Brackenbury resided with her brother in Manchester until October 1844, when, in consequence of his illness, they moved to Brighton, where he died in the same month. His only daughter having also died, Miss Brackenbury succeeded to his great wealth. She continued to reside in Brighton (Portslade), devoting her life and fortune to the promotion of charitable institutions, and generally in the most unostentatious manner. Some of her benefactions were, however, of such a character, that they could not remain unknown. The fabric of Balliol College, Oxford, was falling into decay, she donated £20,000 for the full rebuilding costs of the south side of the quadrangle, facing Broad Street, over the entrance gate is a tower, which is called Brackenbury’s Tower.
In Brighton Miss Brackenbury also distributed her gifts bountifully and often anonymously. In the spring of last year she erected a large free school at the picturesque village of Portslade, near Brighton, for the accommodation of 250 children, and she took part in the celebration of its opening. Altogether, during the last ten years Miss Brackenbury gave to charities upwards of £100,000.
The remains of her two brothers and niece lie in a vault in Portslade churchyard, over which Miss Brackenbury erected a mortuary chapel. There her own remains will be interred on Friday morning.

The Funeral at Portslade Church.
The funeral procession, which consisted of five mourning coaches, each drawn by four horses and the private carriage of the deceased, left Adelaide Crescent,Hove at 11 o’clock, arriving at Portslade shortly after 12. Among the mourners were the Very Rev. Dr Robert Scott, the Dean of Rochester and the Rev. Professor Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford. The church was filled by the villagers and those from adjacent parishes; and the burial service was impressively read by the Rev. F.G. Holbrooke, Vicar of Portslade; the psalms included in the service being chanted by the boys of the choir, Mr Machonochie presiding at the organ
The chapel is situated to the north of the ivy clad tower, and by its appearance showed that no expense was spared to make it as complete as possible in every particular. It is separated from the church proper by a small parapet, iron railings, and is lighted on two sides by stained glass windows. Running round the chapel walls is the following inscription: - “within these walls are deposited the remains of the last in lineal descent of the ancient family of Brackenbury, of Denton and Sellaby, in the county of Durham, and immediately under one of the memorial windows is the text, “They also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
 

Hannah Brakenbury donated the land and financed the building of the Brakenbury School in Portslade, later to be renamed St Nicolas School.
In 1967 a new St Nicolas C of E Junior School was built on land adjoining the old school. The old Brakenbury-St Nicolas School was taken over by Portslade Infants School as an annex to their main school building and is still in use today.

The inscription on the School's west wall reads: -
 

These Schools were erected by Hannah Brakenbury  for the benefit of the Poor of the united parishes of  Portslade and Hangleton  A.D. 1872

The Will of Miss Brackenbury
Miss Brackenbury having no relatives left the whole of her fortune of £100,000 (excepting only a few small legacies to personal friends) to public institutions. The £100,000 was divided between, Durham University, where she founded and endowed 3 professorships in mathematics, medicine and science. Scholarships to Oxford University, and the following in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Surrey and London: - 12 hospitals,
7 Asylums, 4 schools, 3 orphanages, various benevolent societies, SPCK, Church Missionary Society, London Missionary Society and British & Foreign Bible Society. Locally in the Brighton area she left £1000 to Sussex County Hospital; £500 to Brighton & Hove Dispensary; £500 to Lying-in Institution; £500 to Asylum for Female Orphans; £300 to Asylum for the Blind; £200 to Deaf and Dumb Institution; £50 to St Mary’s Hospital, Queens Square; £50 to the Mission House of Hope;

The value of the £200,000 (£100,000 in donations plus £100,000 in bequests) that Miss Brackenbury donated to charities in today’s “money” equals over £11 million (£1 in 1873 has the spending power of £58 today, '1873 value of the pound' from a House of Commons Research Paper 99/20). The number of lives she affected for “the good” must run into hundreds of thousands in her lifetime and even today her legacy continues through the present day Universities, Schools, and Hospitals she originally funded.