464
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. JUNE u, 1902.
"some poore tradesmen and women that would
faine live by their Trade if they had some small
stock to help them therein, as some poore Shoo-
maker or Cooler to have a good piece of Leather, or
some poore Waterman to help him to a Boate, or
some Herbwoman, or some that makes Buttons, or
some that would Cry Things. If these and the like
had some small stock to sett them at worke, it
would much help them."
He appears to be rather hard upon beggars, who were to receive no benefit " unless it bee to take them quite off from theire Begging, and then it were well given." Another lost benefit to the parish is one whereby he gave to the churchwardens and vestrymen
" ffifty pounds of good and lawfull money of Eng- land to make a faire and a large Causeway, to make it at least thirty or forty feet wide, and to plant it with good Elmes, not with lime trees for they hold not green soe long, and to secure them from Cattell."
Again, he left a further 101. for
" poor Bedridden People that have the most need of it, arid none to have lesse than Two shillings six pence apiece, and that the Overseers of the Poore doe not Stop any part of such poore Allowance because of this guift not by any meanes, so that they [who] shall receive may supply with some refreshing that otherwise they never would have had."
Alas ! how many poor there are now who would be glad of such monetary help ! One is afraid to compute the number in the old city of Westminster, for there is a vast quantity of decent honest poverty within its area. Further, he also devised
" ten pounds to the charge in keeping upp the worke house as a worke house, it being of very good and great use if well managed to keepe the poore employed and also to keepe them from being Insolvent."
A very real and lasting memorial of this generous-handed worthy is in the new street from Rochester Row to Coburg Row and Ashley Gardens, opened in 1895, which was named after him, and so "points a moral and adorns a tale" for futrre generations. The value in 1890 of the /unded property and Consols, and freeholds and leaseholds in the Strand district already mentioned was 79,880L of which se ^en-twelfths are for the United Westminster Almshouse Endowment, and five -twelfths for that of the United Westminster Schools, and the annual income in the same year was 3,128, while in 1824 it was only 310^., being rents 17U. and dividends 139. As a large number of people knew the old almshouses they were neat brick cottages, a very quaint and pleasing feature of Rochester Row ; but they vanished under an improvement scheme and were rebuilt in 1881, in a very picturesque style, Mr. R. R. Arntz, F.S.A., being the architect. He was
a well-known figure in the parish, having
been parish surveyor for some years. Not a
pleasant person to deal with at times; but as
the designer of these buildings he showed a
good appreciation of his art and much ability
in arranging the ground plan. He died
before they were completed, the latter part
of the work being done under the super-
intendence of Mr. Cole A. Adams, F.R.I.B.A.,
who carried out excellently the sugges-
tions left unfinished. There is a very good
picture of the old buildings in Mr. J. E.
Smith's * History of St. John's Parish'; and
the new ones were figured in the Builder of
2 September, 1882 * For many years the
superintendent of the Emery Hill Alms-
houses was Mr. S. Elliott, B.A. ; but upon his
resignation a successor was found in Mr. E. H.
Fedarb, who from 1861 to 1898, a period of
thirty-seven years, was the able master of
St. Margaret's Church Schools, and who is
admirably adapted for his present position.
So much for some of our generous bene- factors who have monuments in St. Mar- garet's Church. There are others who have done many kindly actions ; their monuments are to be found in the hearts of those who have been benefited by their wise and Christian forethought, and whose memories have been kept fresh through many genera- tions arid yet nourish as a green bay tree. Long may Westminster men, women, and children honour them, for they took thought for those who came after them, to smooth the rugged and often very rough way of the aged, and to render it possible for the children to make a fair start in the battle of life with what is the greatest blessing they can possess, a sound education founded upon a religious basis, as here provided. Our benefactors have been mindful of the poor and unfortu- nate, who are with us in every age, and may it be granted for some of our wealthy citizens to do for those who come after them as these worthies did centuries ago, whose benefactions are still fruitful for good !
W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.
C 2, The Almshouses, Rochester Row, S. W.
- At the time of the rebuilding the trustees of
the almshouses were Mr. (afterwards Sir) Frederick Seager Hunt (chairman), the Venerable Archdeacon Jennings, Sir Henry Hunt, C.B., Mr. John Lettsom Elliot, Mr. James Alfred Hallett, Mr. George Taverner Miller, Mr. Herbert Thomas Steward, Mr. George Andrew Spottiswoode, Mr. Joseph Carter Wood, Mr. Edgar Home, Mr. William Goldsmith, Mr. George Burt, Mr. George Francis Trollope, Mr. Thomas John White, Mr. R. Selby Freeman, and Mr. William Mann Trollope (clerk and solicitor), of whom a very large number are dead.
