THE OLDER CHARITIES OF PLYMOUTH. 
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promised her by the town towards building expenses), erected an 
Almshouse " in the churchyard " (St. Andrew), containing ten 
rooms, for twenty people; and in May, 1660, endowed them with 
a rent charge of £10 a year, out of her estate at Broadley. Under 
her will, August 30th, 1664, she left Broadley, so charged, to her 
cousin, Richard Burdwood ; and in March, 1681, James Burdwood, 
his son and heir, the rent being in arrear, and the premises " for 
the most part waste and unoccupied, and encumbered beyond the 
value of the inheritance," conveyed the estate to the Mayor and 
Commonalty, and the proceeds were applied for the benefit of the 
almspeople. When the estate passed to the Guardians, under the 
Act of Incorporation, it was under lease to Richard Opie at £6 a 
year only; and notwithstanding this enormous depreciation in 
value since 1660, when the £10 rent charge left a surplus, the 
Charity Commissioners reported that there was no reason to 
believe any of the property had been lost. To me the evidence 
seems quite the other way ; and the minute books of the Guardians 
in later times contain numerous complaints of encroachment by 
the various lessees, who, subsequently to Opie, included the Burd- 
woods, Sir Masseh Lopes, and Sir Ralph Franco. No map, 
however, exists by which these points can be settled ; and all that 
can be definitely said is, that a farm which was worth over £10 a 
year in 1660 could not have fallen to £6 in 1720 without loss or 
malversation of some kind. 
Anne Prynne's Almshouse, adjoining Miller's, was erected in 
1651-2; for there is a record under that year of two elm trees 
being cut down in the churchyard, "for the better building of 
Mrs. Prynne's Almeshouse there." The next year she is recorded 
as having left an annuity of 10s. a year, charged on a house in 
Notte Street, for the " prechinge of a sermon yearllie for ever on 
the Third day of December in Remembrance of the Townes then 
deliverance from the enemie anno 1643;" and this amount was 
received by George Hughes. No information concerning this 
Charity was vouchsafed to the Commissioners, save the one fact 
that both Prynne's and Miller's houses were pulled down for the 
improvement of Bedford Street in 1791, the materials being sold 
by auction, and the trustees of the Stonehouse Turnpike giving 
£100 for the land. The Commissioners questioned the authority 
to sell, but considered that the money received in this case, as in 
