Allhallows Stairs, Allhallows lane, Thames street.
Lord High Almoner, a clergyman of the highest rank, and frequently the Archbishop of York, who has the office of disposing of the King’s alms, and for that use receives all deodands, the goods of persons found guilty of self-murder, and other sums allowed by his Majesty to be disposed of for that purpose. Besides the sums distributed to the poor of several parishes, there are many poor pensioners to the King below stairs, who have a competency duly paid them, either because they are so old as to be unfit for service, or because they are the widows of such of his Majesty’s household servants as died poor, and were unable to provide for their wives and children in their life-times.
Under the Lord High Almoner, are a Sub-almoner, a Yeoman, and a Groom of the Almonry.
Almonry, vulgarly called the Ambry, receives its name from the alms of the Abbey being distributed there, and was originally a chapel dedicated to St. Catharine, and not, as Mr. Stow asserts, to St. Anne. Near this chapel Abbot Islip erected the first printing-house that ever was in England in the year 1474; when Mr. William Caxton, a citizen and mercer of London, bringing that invaluable art from Holland, became the first printer in Britain. Maitland.
Almonry School, situated in the Almonry at Westminster, was founded in the year 1677, by Henry Hill, Esq; who also endowed it with 7l. a year for the education of poor children.
Almshouses. See a particular account of each under the names of their respective founders. The number of persons contained in the several Alms-houses and hospitals within the bills of mortality, with the children put forth apprentice by the money collected at the feast, &c. of the Sons of the Clergy, and the several poor families that participate of the king’s annual charity, amount in the whole to about 8000 persons, and the sum employed for their relief to 80,000l. Maitland.
Almshouse yard. 1. Little Almonry, Westminster. 2. Dormer’s Hill. 3. Little Chapel street. 4. Coleman street. 5. Snow Hill, in which Hammond’s almshouse is situated.
St. Alphage, in Aldermanbury near London wall, owes its name to its dedication to St. Alphage, or Elphege, a noble Saxon Saint, and Archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered at Greenwich by the pagan Danes, in the year 1013. This church escaped the flames in 1666, and is still standing; tho’ it is as mean a structure as can well be conceived.
The living is a rectory in the patronage of the Bishop of London, and the Rector receives about 75l. a year in tithes.
Amble court, near Wellclose square.