34 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the rents of properties belonging to the Almshouse, and not to the 
Mayor and Commonalty at all ; and while the Charity had to be 
content with these merely nominal yearly payments, the Mayor 
and Commonalty aforesaid long before that date had learned to 
appropriate the fines levied for the granting of fresh leases, which 
in the aggregate was not less than £1000 a turn ! 
From Town Surveys and other sources we learn that during the 
seventeenth century the Almshouse estate comprised the following 
properties : Close at Coxside, 1 \ acre ; Roper's Piece (which was 
" landscore " land, by the West Hoe) ; Mayes Cross ; tenement at 
Underwood, in respect of which 3s. 4d. was paid to the Mayor of 
Plympton; Tamelarie Closes (2) and Bickland, adjoining Cross 
Downe, and an enclosed part of Cross Down; Almshouse Park 
and other closes at Borrington, 11 acres, 5s. high rent paid to Mr. 
Harris; and houses, &c, in Lyneham Street (2), Stilman Street, 
Whimple Street, Patherick Street, Southside, Vennell Street, by 
the Almshouse (2), Tin Street (2), Trevill Street, Green Street (2), 
High Street (2), Looe Street (2), Batter Street (4), near the 
Church Stile (4), Finewell Street, Briton Side, Hoe Lane, Buck- 
well Street, Woolster Street (2), Peacock's Lane, Kinterbury Street, 
and "near the Old Castles," formerly Mr. Sparkes'. 
And we find, on the other hand, in a rental of 1610 : 
The Wardens of the Alnieshouse for certen lands . . viij s viij d 
Of them for the Tenem' lying in the north side of Loostreat 
wherein John ffryer the sadler latelie dwelt w'h the Curtilage 
and herbe garden adioyning . . vj d 
Item pd to y e Almeshouse wardens for y e Tente in y e southside of 
y e Church stile in y e tenure of John Sheperd . . . xij s 
In 1615 and following years the Almshouse Wardens had 12s. for 
the rent of a house in which "thold myles" dwelt; and in 1630 
Richard Tapscott had £2 for one year on account of the Almshouse, 
in consideration of £40 which remained in Mr. Conner's hands. 
Among further notices of old Almshouse endowments and pro- 
perty are the following : 
Oliver Harry, of Plymouth, by his will in March, 1595, left small 
bequests to the poor people of the Almshouse and the Maudlyn. 
Edmund Powell (town clerk), in 1659, granted a rent-charge of 10s. 
for the Almshouse out of land adjoining the road leading from 
Hampton Shute to Plympton; and John Lanyon, in 1674, left 
£50 to better its revenues, which cannot now be traced. 
