3(H
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. APRIL 19, 1902.
a Free School & a comodiovs habitation | for the
School m' & a convenient Chappell for I prayers
and preaching, where he constantly for h divers
yeares before his death once a week gave l.f com-
fortable sermon, He indowed y same with a
competent yearly revenew of freehold estate
comitted to y trust & care of 10 considerab e |
persons of y place to be renewed as any dye, | h<
cheerfully ended this life y e 5 of Jan? 1659.
Erected at y 8 S r W< Playter
Charge of Kn* & Baronet,"
With the exception of the tablet upon which the inscription appears, and the two smaller ones containing the dedication, which are of black marble, the whole is composed of richly coloured alabaster, moulded and artistically carved, and with some gilt work. Altogether it is an admirable specimen of the art of the time, and the effect produced must be pronounced decidedly good. The bust conveys the impression of being a true likeness, and is painted in " proper " colours, with a black gown and cap. In the days before the erection of the south gallery in 1682 this monument was on the south wall, but when that gallery was put up it was placed high up over the stairs, where it was certainly safe, and where for two centuries it remained almost unknown, and certainly unregarded even by those who had the best possible reason for vene- rating the name of the individual it com- memorated. At the last restoration of the church, in Dean Farrar's time, this and some other monuments had better places found for them. The blazonry of the arms Sable, a chevron between three crescents or is still fairly fresh. A few notes on our local bene- factor may not be out of place. He was a Westminster man, educated at Cambridge, ordained by Bishop Bancroft, and pre- sented by the Dean and Chapter of West- minster to the vicarage of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, in 1616 ; but when the great rebellion of 1642 broke out he was sequestered for his loyalty. He is recorded to have been a pious man, and Newcourt tells us that "he was a painful preacher who (beside many and great benefactions to ministers' widows) hath built and endowed an alms-house in Westminster." Hatton, in 'Hist, of London,' 1708, says that "he was a frugal person, and being Vicar of St. Bride's he used to lye in the steeple. There is no doubt that, if politically disliked, he was exceedingly beloved in the parish where he ministered. By a deed dated 2 March, 1656 (Walcott, our often un- trustworthy historian, gives the date wrongly as 1566, although it may be a printer's error), he conveyed to trustees an almshouse, then recently erected in Tothill Fields
" containing twelve rooms for six poor men and six
poor women ; and a messuage and garden containing
six acres, of which the rents were to be applied
towards the maintenance of the almspeople and for
educating twenty poor boys."
In the following year he conveyed an estate
of twenty acres in Berkshire, called Ash-
amstead Farm, for the same purposes. The
alraspeople, who were required to have been
twenty years resident in the parishes, received
305. a month, and had, once in three years,
the men a cloak and the women a olack
gown apiece, with an annual allowance of
twenty chaldrons of coals divided among
them. They also received 5s. each for a
Christmas dinner, and 5s. on St. James's
Day, when the governors met. In 1816-18
the almshouses, chapel, and school were
rebuilt, the school being revived in 1817, and
twenty children, with the same number
belonging to Hill's foundation, admitted.
The children were clothed at the expense of
the foundation, the outfit consisting of a
jacket and trousers, shoes, shirt and band,
pair of stockings, cap, handkerchief, and a
pair of gloves yearly, and a gown once in
four years, to be worn on public occasions.
They were also allowed black linen to make
a round frock, the school being always
known as the "Black Coat School." In 1890
the messuage and garden in Tothill Fields,
consisting of six acres, were of the value of
47,518^., and the annual income 1,425Z. The
estate in Berkshire was sold in July, 1873,
for 4,182Z. The thoroughfare in which the
old almshouses stood, leading from Victoria
Street into Caxton (formerly Little Chapel)
Street, was known as Palmer's Passage,
with which Gardener's Lane (leading from
Caxton Street to York Street) has been
incorporated, the whole, now and for some
years past, being renamed Palmer Street.
Upon the site has been erected one of the
huge hotels for which London has become so
famous. It was at first opened as the Army
and Navy Hotel, and so it remained, scarcely
prosperous, for a while ; it then became the
Hotel Windsor, and as such it is at present
known. Upon another portion of the site
there has been erected a block of residential
flats called Iddesleigh Mansions, named after
bhe first Earl of Iddesleigh, better known to
the present generation as Sir Stafford North-
cote. It is worthy of remark that a tablet,
'e-erected on the flank wall of the new alins-
louses in Rochester Row, records the names
of the following persons as benefactors to
- his charity
- Sir John Crosse, Sir Thomas
Jrosse, William Green, William Jelpes, Mrs. Sarah Phillips, William Skelton, James Stedman, and Thomas Wilson.
