THE OLDER CHARITIES OF PLYMOUTH. 35 
Under the Act by which the Guardians of the Poor were incor- 
porated (1708), it was provided that all the public almshouses in 
the borough should be transferred to that body : " All and every 
the Alms-houses, or Houses commonly used for the Habitation of 
Poor People, lying within the said Borough or Town, as are belong- 
ing to the Mayor and Commonalty of the said Town, or to either 
of the said Two Parishes." Nevertheless in some mysterious way 
the Corporation have stuck, and do stick, to the "Old Church 
Twelves " — though in a new form — as the sole illegal remnant of 
their charitable trusts. The reason for this retention in direct 
defiance of the Act of Parliament does not seem to have occurred 
to the Commissioners, who took things very much as they found 
them. It is perfectly clear, however, when it is seen how valuable 
was the Almshouse estate, and how profitable its management to 
the Mayor and Commonalty. To hand over the Almshouse would 
have involved the surrender of the property; for the pleasant 
fiction that the rents had been " allotted " to the Charity would 
not have stood the test of enquiry. There being no transfer, 
there was no enquiry, and matters continued on the same footing. 
The properties were leased, commonly for ninety-nine years on 
lives, on substantial fines, for nominal rents, which latter were all 
that the Charity received. Thus at the beginning of the present 
century the endowments of the Corporation Almshouses com- 
prised : "<£6 13s. 4d. from the Mayor and Commonalty in accom- 
plishment of their indenture with John Ford and John Dery 
(How's Gift) ; .£8 for the accomplishment of another pair of 
indentures between them and John How, Clerk ; devisees of Mr. 
Clark for the Manor of Sutton Pill, 2s. 8d. ; chief rent of Doidge's 
Garden, 6d. ; annuity out of two fields late Gilwell's, 10s. ; from 
the Orphans' Aid for the Latin School, <£1 2s. ; Rawlyn's Gift for 
butter on fish days, £3 ; Conventionary Rents of small amounts for 
properties near the Church Stile, How Street, Woolster Street, 
Basket Street (four houses), Finewell Street, Reed's Garden, Buck- 
well Street, Batter Street, Tin Street, Synagogue, Colmer's Lane, 
Lower Street, Pike Street, High Street, Loader's Lane, Bilbury 
Street, Little Hoe Lane, Tamalary Closes, May's Cross, Burraton, 
and Underwood." These properties were treated as purely Corpo- 
rate properties when the sale of the Corporate estates was effected, 
some half-century ago, and the proceeds of the sale put into the 
Corporation pocket. The rents, however, were regarded as a con- 
d 2 
