62 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Street, subject to a life annuity to Paul and Mary Chabot of 40s. 
a year, to the Guardians, for the benefit of the poor of the parish 
of St. Andrew. 
The whole of these Charities are treated as part of the common 
fund in relief of the poor-rates, with the exception of "William 
Rowe's and Maddock's, which are laid out in clothing ; and 2s. a 
week out of the Bridgemoor rents, spent in bread. 
GENERAL CHARITIES. 
In 1584 John White, citizen and haberdasher of London (a 
member of a Plymouth family of note), made the Mayor and 
Commonalty his trustees in respect of the sum of £250, which 
was to be employed in making loans for five years at 5 per cent, 
interest (half the current rate) to merchants between twenty-one 
and forty-one years of age. Of the interest, .£3 each was to be 
paid annually to the Mayor and Burgesses of Liskeard, Truro, and 
Lostwithiel ; and to be applied in weekly gifts of bread to twelve 
poor people in each of these towns. The parson of each place was 
to have 16d. for his pains in distributing the bread every Sunday 
in his church, and 6s. 8d. was to be paid to a preacher for preach- 
ing a sermon in the same parish church on or about the first Sunday 
in November. The balance accrued to Plymouth. 
This was the same John White who gave the Corporation their 
most ancient piece of plate — the " Union " loving-cup, which bears 
the inscription: "The gyft of John Whit of London. Haberdasher, 
to the Mayor of Plymouth and his brethren for euer, to drink 
crosse one to y e other at their Feastes and Meetinges. Dated y e 
5th of June, 1585." It is entered in the Black Book as "a cuppe 
of sylver doble ^ilte worthe 13 u 6 s 8 d ." 
How long the loans may have been kept up it is difficult to say; 
but the Corporation had certainly learnt to borrow the money 
themselves by-6ctober 12th, 1664, when it was ordered that £50, 
the residue of the legacy in hand, should be applied in defending 
the rights of the Commonalty to Sutton Pool. They admitted 
the liability in 1685, when £40 was out on loan, and they had 
£210 in hand for want of borrowers. The payment by the 
Corporation under this head is £11 15s. annually. 
An entry in an Apprenticeship Book — undated, but probably 
early in the seventeenth century — supplies a list of the monies 
given to the poor of Plymouth from 1595. 
