THE OLDER CHARITIES OF PLYMOUTH. 
29 
houses, there must have been several. None of it can be followed 
in connection with any of the other charities of the town, though 
there are properties belonging to some of these of whose dedication 
to charitable purposes there is no record. But it hardly seems 
possible that it can have passed into or through the hands of the 
Commonalty without some evidence of the fact. The Maudlyn 
may have held property in the town under the Corporation, though 
it does not appear in the ancient rentals under that name ; for 
there is a record in 1491-2 of rents paid by the "wardens of St. 
Mary," and this may mean St. Mary Magdalene. 1 
THE ALMSHOUSES. 
The "Almshouse of Plymouth," known in late years as the 
Corporation Almshouse and the "Old Church Twelves," 2 is the 
most ancient charity existing in the town. It finds mention in the 
oldest Corporation rental extant (6 and 7 Henry VII., 1491-2), in 
which the Wardens of the Almshouse (Custod domq Elosinar) are 
set to pay 2s. 4d. No doubt some, at least, of its belongings 
formed part of the manorial property which passed to the Mayor 
and Commonalty under the Act of Incorporation from the Priory 
of Plympton; but whether the house itself existed before that 
time is uncertain. Still there are grounds for believing that it did. 
Its destruction in 1868 revealed the semi-Norman arch now in 
our Museum, which unquestionably formed part of the original 
Church of St. Andrew ; at least, there is no other local building 
to which it can be assigned. This would carry back the erection 
of the Almshouse to the date of the substitution of old St. 
Andrews by the present fabric, unless the arch had formed part of 
another building in the interim. And for the Church reconstruc- 
tion, the only dates we have are the erection of the south aisle of 
the Virgin in 1385, of the north aisle of St. John the Baptist in 
1441, and of the tower about 1460. No doubt the Almshouse was 
the " Hospitale House " mentioned by Leland " on the north side 
1 The house of the Fraternity of Corpus Christi— the Municipal Guild — 
passed to the Mayor and Commonalty. In 1610 we read : " William Brook- 
ing and John Brooking for a Tentt adioyning to the Church yard wherein 
Robert Stephens weaver nowe dwelleth, knowen by the name of Corpus 
Christ house, w l h the garden to the same house adioyning on w c h garden 
certen dwelling houses are buylded. viij s ." 
2 Simply because it stood by the Church in Catherine Lane, at the eastern 
end of the Municipal Buildings. 
