es usury as sinful.

[242] Examples are, _Vestry Minutes of St. Margaret, Lothbury_, 32
(Gift of L20 in 1595 to be employed in wood and coal for the use of
the poor. A committee of four was appointed to invest and make sales.
See their account for 1596, p. 34). _The Westminster Tobacco Box_, Pt.
ii, 22 (One of the overseers of St. Margaret's to keep a gift of L42
"untill the same may be bestowed upon somme good bargaine as a lease
or somme other such like commoditie w[hi]ch may yeelde a yerely rente
to the pore." 1578). Cf. _St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Acc'ts Books_, 3
ff., where in 1598, and regularly in subsequent years, appears the
item: "Alowed to this account for the geft of the Lady Wilfordes xx li
for the pore xx[s]." Also another item, likewise of 20s. yearly, on
Mr. Nutmaker's L20--in other words, 10 per cent. in each case every
year. Cf. Jas. Stockdale, _Annals of Cartmel_ (Lancashire, pub. 1872),
37-8 (L65 6s., money belonging to Cartmel grammar school "placed" in
the hands of various persons, some of whom give pledges, others
mortgages, for repayment. The revenue from this is L6 10s. 7d.,
_i.e._, 10 per cent. in 1598). In 1613, in allowing the overseer's
accounts of Swyre, Dorset, the local justices indorse: "Upon this
condition that from henceforth the overseers and Churchwardens do
yearlie charge themselves with the some of xxs. for thuse of a stocke
of xli [_i.e._, 10 per cent.] giuen to the poore by the testam[en]t of
James Rawlinge." The practice above illustrated is simply that
enjoined by 18 Eliz. c. 3, amended and completed by 39 Eliz. c. 3 and
43 Eliz. c. 2, with an object of making the poor administration
self-supporting as far as might be. The fact that Elizabethan poor
laws were based on the best-approved parish customs made them
perdurable. For a model administration of parish stock according to
the poor laws see the Cowden Overseers Acc'ts, _Sussex Arch. Coll_.,
xx, 95 ff. (1599 ff.).

[243] _E.g._, in St. Michael's in Bedwardine (_Acc'ts_ ed. John
Amphlett) one Stanton left 50s. to the poor in 1588 (_Acc'ts_, p.
97-8). Robt. Chadbourne paid 5s. for the use of this money for several
years (_Acc'ts_, p. 108, etc.). It then was loaned to John Brayne, an
entry being made from time to time that the principal was owing as
well as the interest (_Acc'ts_ p. 108). Brayne paid the 50s. to the
wardens in Sept., 1595. Cf. preceding note (Cartmel school money).

[244] _St. Michael's in Bedwardine Acc'ts,