THE OLDER CHARITIES OF PLYMOUTH. 
53 
the acte of soe good a benefactor." The Commissioners of 1820 
had an idea that the £250 loan stock had never been received by 
the Corporation, inasmuch as all the payments thereout are, and 
have long been, made from the funds of the Charity (save the 
30s. to the poor of Plymouth, which has dropped). The real 
explanation, however, seems to be that all Rawlyn's bequest was 
applied directly in furthering the objects of the Hospital. The 
Corporation still pay, and have long paid, £20 a year to its funds. 
The necessities of the Corporation, brought about by the siege, 
caused them to borrow freely of the funds of the Charities in the 
town, as well as of individuals. There is the fullest evidence, 
however, that a strict account was kept. The Orphans' Aid seems 
to have been the most wealthy body, and to have been the most 
largely drawn upon. The £1500 paid for the moiety of the Drake 
lease of the mills, during the siege of course produced practically 
no return to the hospital ; and when the lease ran out the Corpora- 
tion had become largely in debt to the Charity. £1400 of this 
debt was, however, cancelled in 1653 by the settlement on the 
Hospital of a fourth of the mills (then fallen in hand) and of the 
water in the leat; and this arrangement lasted down until 1805, 
when the fourth was repurchased by the Corporation for £1800. 
This led, in 1840, to the Charity Commissioners filing a bill 
against the Corporation to recover the property; but in 1845 the 
Master of the Rolls decided that the Charity had no legal claim. 
The produce of the mills to the Charity from 1666 to 1803 
averaged £60 5s. 7d. The highest year was 1712 = £107 2s. Id. ; 
while in some years, as in 1766, it yielded nothing. 
It would be tedious to attempt to follow the fluctuations of the 
Corporation debt to the Orphans' Aid. In 1660, including three 
years' port dues, at an average of something over £20 a year, it 
was £566 7s. lljd. ; but of this £300 was allowed for the lease 
of the New [Grammar] School, on which the Charity received as 
rent £15. In 1685, however, the debt is set at £1393 14s. 6d., 
exclusive of the Mill accounts. 1 
The Orphans' Aid may be regarded as in its character strictly a 
Corporation foundation. Though founded by deed poll July 17th, 
1617, by Thomas and Nicholas Sherwill, the site had been granted 
them April 14th, 1615, subject to the fee farm rent of £1 2s., 
1 About 1650 the revenues of the Charity were : Mill rent, ,£160 ; yearly 
revenues, £44 ; Mr. Edgcumbe's annuity, £10 ; Sutton Pool, £6. Total, £220. 
