38 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
that of Fownes's, had been spent beneficially in building a school 
and an infirmary in the Workhouse. A committee minute of the 
Guardians avers, however, that the Pigmarket Almshouse 
(Fownes's) was re-erected at the west end of the Workhouse Yard. 
£10 of the rent of Broadley is now applied to the occupants of 
the Almshouses in Green Street. 
The destruction of these Almshouses was attended by unpleasant 
consequences to the occupants, who naturally were disinclined to 
leave the shelter to which they had as good a right as the Mayor 
of Plymouth to his house. When Fownes's came to be destroyed, 
Mr. Henry Woollcombe wrote, on behalf of the Guardians, to the 
Corporation: "Sunday noon, Jan. 3, 1808. ... As I find I 
shall never get the inhabitants of Foynes's Almshouses to quit 
until they perceive that the building is actually taking down, may 
I beg the favour of your proceeding to do so forthwith. I will 
inform the people to-morrow that on that day se'nnight the work- 
men will begin to take it down." 
With these facts before us, perhaps we may put a different 
value upon the work of the gentlemen who recorded their good 
deeds on the tablet in the old wall of the churchyard, and set forth 
at full length how they had " beautified " the town by pulling down 
filthy and loathsome Almshouses. Probably there is no readier way 
of getting rid of a Charity than to neglect it until it falls into decay, 
and then to demolish it because it has not received attention. 
The original New Church Almshouse in Green Street was 
founded by John Lanyon (Mayor 1672-73), who by his will, 
September 15th, 1674, gave £300 to the use of the poor people of 
Charles, for building an almshouse. The site was conveyed, 
October, 1678, by John Trelawny the elder (Mayor 1686-87) to 
John Martyn (Mayor 1664-65, 1691-92) and others acting on 
behalf of the Corporation, the cost being £50 3s. The almshouse 
was built thereon, and conveyed by Martyn and his coadjutors to 
the Mayor and Commonalty, September 26th, 1680; and it 
remained so vested until the Act of Incorporation. Lanyon's 
bequest being insufficient, £100 left by John Gubbs to the poor of 
Plymouth, and other monies, were applied to the same purpose. 
After the demolition of the Almshouses of Miller, Prynne, and 
Fownes, there remained only the ancient Almshouse — the "Old 
