Prologue

Summary

In the small Warwickshire village of Leamington Hastings stands an attractive seventeenth-century stone building with the following inscription:

Humphry Davies Gent Fownder of this Almeshowse dyed aboute the 28th of December Anno Domini 1607 and gave his lands in Lemmington Burdinbury Marton and Ethorpe for the mainetenance of the said Almeshowse and eight poore people to be placed there for ever, which landes were deteyned from the said Almeshowse by the space of sixe and twentie yeares and were this present yeare 1633 by the helpe and assistance of Sir Thomas Trevor Knight one of his Ma[jes]ties Barons of the Exchequer and Lord of the Mannor of Lemmington aforesaid recovered for the said almeshowses at the prosecution of Mathew Over and Richard Walton John Mason and John Clerke&for the good of the poore of Lemmington aforesaid: Anno 1633.

The narrative conveyed in this lengthy inscription raises many questions, not least who was the benefactor Humphrey Davis (or Davies)? Why did he found this almshouse; who were the poor people who lived in it; and what benefits might they have received? One might also ask: who were the five men named as rescuing the almshouse and why did they become involved in the way that they did?

Almshouses like this one and others, some very much older, are a feature of many towns and villages across England. They are curious institutions, built by the rich to be lived in by the poor, tangible representations of philanthropy, and a visible demonstration of historic attitudes towards the poor. They have a long history: the oldest recorded almshouses pre-date the Conquest, with almshouses continuing to be founded through the centuries up to the present day. The period after the Reformation and into the early years of the eighteenth century, in particular, saw a remarkable number of almshouses founded, as people from many different backgrounds used new wealth to revive and remodel an ancient form of provision to meet new needs and aspirations. Post-Reformation almshouses are often considered to have been places of privilege for the respectable deserving poor, operating outside the structure of parish poor relief to which ordinary poor people were subjected, and doing little to assist the poorest and most needy.