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dinner for two thousand four hundred poor citizens, householders, who were to have besides, two pence each *.

1427. Sir John Rainwell, fishmonger, gave several tenements to discharge certain wards of London of fifteenths, and other taxes.

1433. Sir John de Welles, erected a chapel at Guildhall, where he was buried. He also conveyed water from Tyburn to West Cheap, for the use of the citizens.

1438. Sir William Eastfield, mercer, kinght of the Bath, conveyed water to the several conduits in Fleet Street, Aldermanbury, and Cripplegate; he caused conduits to be erected at the two former places.

1439. Sir Stephen Brown, grocer, during a time of famine, when the people were compelled to eat bread made of fern, caused corn to be brought from Prussia to London, in such great quantities, that wheat was reduced to less than half its price.

1440. Robert Large, mercer, gave to St. Olave's Church, Southwark, 2001. to St. Margaret, Lothbury, 25l. to the poor 201. to London Bridge, one hundred marks; towards vaulting the water-course at Walbrook, two hundred marks ; to poor maids marriages, one hundred marks; to poor householders, 100l. &c.

1446. Sir Simon Eyre, draper, built Leadenhall, and left five thousand marks to be bestowed in charitable actions.

1455. Sir Stephen Foster, fishmonger, enlarged Ludgate for the ease of the prisoners.

1458. Sir Godfrey Bullen, the immediate maternal ancestor of queen Elizabeth, was a great benefactor to the various hospitals, lazar houses and prisons; and bequeathed 1000l. to poor householders in London, and 2007. to poor householders on his estates in Norfolk.

1473. Sir William Hampton, fishmonger, caused stocks to be set up in every ward for the punishment of disorderly

persons.

1477. Sir Ralph Joceline, draper, knight of the bath, corrected the bakers and victuallers; and repaired the city walls.

Stow.

1483. Sir Edmund Shaw, goldsmith, erected the conduit at Cripplegate.

1485. Sir Thomas Hill, grocer, built the conduit in Gracechurch Street.

1487. Sir Henry Colet's unbounded loyalty to Henry VII. is stated in this work, vol. i. p. 108.

1488. Sir William Home, salter, gave five hundred marks towards repairing the highways between London and Cambridge; and was a contributor to the preachers at Paul's Cross.

1492. Sir Hugh Clopton, mercer, built great part of the bridge of Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was born, and was otherwise very charitable.

1498. Sir John Percival, merchant-taylor, founded a grammar school at Macclesfield.

1502. Sir John Shaw, goldsmith, kept court in his own house, for redressing the grievances of his fellow citizens. 1504. Sir William Capell, draper, first set up cages for the punishment of rogues and vagabonds.

1506. Sir Thomas Kneesworth, fishmonger, built the conduit of Bishopsgate.

1509.

Sir Stephen Jennings, merchant-taylor, founded a free school at Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire; still maintained by that company. He also built great part of the church of Saint Andrew Undershaft.

1511. Sir Henry Keble, grocer, was a great benefactor to building St. Mary Aldermary Church, and at his death. gave 1,000l. towards finishing it. He likewise gave 2001. to repair highways, one hundred marks to portion poor maids, one hundred and forty ploughshares, and one hundred and forty coulters of iron to poor husband-men, in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire; and in London, sixpence per week to seven poor alms-men, for ever.

1512. Sir Roger Acheley, draper, provided corn to be housed in Leadenhall, for the service of the city, in case of scarcity.

1518. Sir Thomas Exmewe, goldsmith, erected the conduit at Moorgate.

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1521. Sir John Milborne, draper, built the almshouses in Crutched Friars, near Savage Gardens, Tower Hill.

1536. Sir John Allen, mercer, gave, besides a rich collar to his successors, five hundred marks, as a stock for seacoal; and the rent of his lands purchased of the king, to be distributed among the poor in the several wards of London, for ever. He was also a liberal benefactor to the prisons, &c. and to all the poor within two miles of the city.

1538. Sir Richard Gresham, mercer. See his letter to Henry the Eighth, concerning the city hospitals, vol. i. p. 122.

1547. Sir John Gresham, mercer, founded a free school at Holt, in Norfolk, and gave 10l. to every ward in London, to be distributed among the poor. To one hundred and twenty poor men and women, he gave to each, three yards of broad cloath, at nine shillings per yard, to be made into gowns, ready to their backs. He also gave 200l. to hospitals in London, and as portions to poor maidens.

1550. Sir Rowland Hill, mercer. The character of this great man is best described on an obelisk or observatory, lately erected by Sir Richard Hill, bart. in Hawkestone Park, Shropshire.

"The first stone of this pillar was laid by Sir Richard Hill, bart. member in several parliaments for this county, on the first day of October, in the year 1795; who caused it to be erected, not only for the various uses of an observatory, and to feast the eye, by presenting to it, at one view, a most luxuriant and extensive prospect, which takes in not less than twelve (or, some assert, fifteen) counties; but from motives of justice, respect, and gratitude, to the memory of a truly great and good man, viz. Sir Rowland Hill, knt. who was born at the family mansion of Hawkstone, in the reign of king Henry the Seventh; and, being bred to trade, and free of the city of London, became one of the most considerable and opulent merchants of his time, and was lord mayor of the same, in the second and third years of Edward the Sixth, anno 1549 and 1550; and was the first Protestant who filled that high office.

"Having

"Having embraced the principles of the Reformation, he zealously exerted himself in behalf of the Protestant cause; he exchanged this life for a better, a short while before the death of that pious young monarch, being aged nearly seventy years.

"For a considerable time previous to his decease, he gave up his mercantile occupations, that he might with more devotedness of heart, attend to the great concerns of another world.

"His lands, possessions, and church patronage, were immense, particularly in the counties of Salop and Chester; the number of his tenants (none of whom he ever raised or fined) amounting to one thousand one hundred and eightyone, as appears from a rental yet preserved, and copied from his own hand writing.

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"But his private virtues, good deeds, and munificent spirit, were quite unlimited, and extended, like the prospect before us, East, West, North, and South, far surpassing all bounds. Being sensible,' saith Fuller, speaking of him in his Worthies of England, that his great estate was given him of God,' it was his desire to devote it to his glory. He built a spacious church in his own parish at Hodnet, and likewise the neighbouring church of Stoke, at his own expence. He built Tern and Atcham bridges, in this county, both of hewn stone, and containing several arches each. He also built other large bridges of timber. He built and endowed several free-schools, particularly that of Drayton. He made and paved divers highways for the public utility. He founded exhibitions, and educated many students at both Universities, and supported, at the inns of court, others who were brought up to the law.

"He was the unwearied friend of the widow and the fatherless. He cloathed annually three hundred poor people in his own neighbourhood, both with shirts and coats; and, in the city of London, he gave 2001. (an immense sum in those days) to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, besides (saith Fuller) 600l. to Christ Church Hospital. He also gave

most

most liberally to all the other hospitals; and at his death bequeathed 150l. to the poor of all the wards in London.

"He had no children; but his relations and kinsfolk were numerous, who all partook largely of his bounty, both in his life-time and at his death. He constantly kept up a great family household, where he maintained good hospitality; many resorted to him for his wise and salutary advice; and none who came to him were ever sent empty or dissatisfied away.

"To suffer such a character to sink into oblivion would be in the highest degree ungrateful, as well as injurious to posterity; for whose imitation, as a city set on a hill, it is held up; duly to set it forth would be impossible.”

1551. Sir Andrew Jud, skinner, founded a free-school at Tunbridge, and an alms-house near Great St. Helen's, Lon. don. He was joined as a collateral security for the repayment of several considerable sums of money borrowed by Edward VI. of the Antwerp bankers. See vol. i. p. 129.

1554. Sir Thomas White, merchant-taylor, founder of St. John's College Oxford, erected grammar schools at Bristol, Reading, Higham Ferrers, &c. He gave lands to the amount of 2,000l. to the city of Bristol; 1047. to be lent annually to young clothiers, of the following places, in rotation: York, Canterbury, Reading, the Merchant Taylors company, Gloucester, Worcester, Exeter, Salisbury, West Chester, Norwich, Southampton, Lincoln, Winchester, Oxford, Hertford, Cambridge, Shrewsbury, Lynn, Bath, Derby, Ipswich, Colchester, and Newcastle, which sum is still annually transmitted by the company to the above places. He also gave 1,400l. to the city of Coventry, at that time very much distressed; and afterwards enlarged his gift to 2,000l. besides free loans to young men here, as well as in Northampton, Leicester, Nottingham, Warwick, &c.

1562. Sir William Harper, merchant-taylor, founded a free-school in Bedford, where he was born and buried.

1569. Sir Thomas Rowe, merchant-taylor, besides inclosing a piece of ground in Moorfields, as a burial-place

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