5 - The Material Benefits of an Almshouse Place

Summary

For every ancient pensioner maintained comfortably there was at least one almsperson whose entitlements and receipts were thin indeed.

The previous two chapters concluded that there was considerable range and variety among the people founding and living in early modern almshouses, and that the motivations of founders and the experience of occupants were equally diverse. Similarly, the benefits the occupants received in these almshouses were surprisingly variable, and it would be hard to say that there was such a thing as a typical almshouse. Some provided residents with comfortable accommodation, a regular monetary allowance or stipend, clothing, fuel and practical support. Other foundations, with modest or non-existent endowments, provided little more than rent-free accommodation. The result was a range of institutions providing greatly varying material benefits. Whether benefactors built their almshouses in their lifetime or specified to executors the accommodation and stipends that they intended their almspeople to receive, or whether the provision was developed and adapted by subsequent trustees and interested parties, early modern almshouses reflected contemporary views of what was appropriate for the recipients of charity. This chapter will examine what was provided for the occupants of almshouses in early modern England, and what these benefits might have represented in terms of the social and economic status of almspeople within the wider community. The first two sections describe a broad array of material benefits: first, the accommodation provided, and then secondly, stipends, food, fuel and clothing. In the third section, a more statistical approach is adopted, in order to evaluate the standard of living these benefits enabled almspeople to achieve, and how this compared with the living standards of other poor people at the time. Overall the discussion demonstrates that, in many respects, there were similarities between almshouses dwellers and those on parish poor relief, but it also outlines some crucial differences.

Accommodation

The single distinguishing feature of most almshouses is a building providing accommodation for people in need. Much of what has been written in the past about early modern almshouses concentrated on the architectural design of these buildings. For instance, Godfrey's The English Almshouse focuses on a series of ‘remarkable’ buildings, and charts their ‘changing architectural character’; while Prescott uses architecture to trace the changes and developments in the function of almshouses from 1050 to 1640.