1641.--To old Goodman Street and old Goody Malthus, very poor ------ 1645.--To Mother Cole and Mother Johnson, xiid. a-piece 0 2 0 1646.--To William Burnett, in a cellar in Raggedstaff Yard, being poor and very sick 0 1 6 To Goody Sherlock, in Maidenhead-fields Lane, one linen-wheel, and gave her money to buy flax 0 1 0 There are also some interesting entries showing what a sink for the poverty of all the world the St. Giles’s cellars had become, even before the Restoration. 1640.--Gave to Signor Lifecatha, a distressed Grecian ------ 1642.--To Laylish Milchitaire, of Chimaica, in Armenia, to pass him to his own country, and to redeem his sons in slavery under the Turks £0 5 0 1654.--Paid towards the relief of the mariners, maimed soldiers, widows and orphans of such as have died in the service of Parliament 4 11 0 These were for Cromwell’s soldiers; and this year Oliver himself gave £40 to the parish to buy coals for the poor. 1666.--Collected at several times towards the relief of the poor sufferers burnt out by the late dreadful fire of London £25 8 4 In 1670 nearly £185 was collected in this parish towards the redemption of slaves. After 1648 the Irish are seldom mentioned by name. They had grown by this time part and parcel of the district, and dragged all round them down to poverty. In 1653 an assistant beadle was appointed specially to search out and report all new arrivals of chargeable persons. In 1659 a monthly vestry-meeting was instituted to receive the constable’s report as to new vagrants. In 1675 French refugees began to increase, and in 1679-1680, 1690 and 1692 fresh efforts were made to search out and investigate the cases of all new-comers. In 1710 the churchwardens reported to the commissioners for building new churches, that “a great number of French Protestants were inhabitants of the parish.” Well-known beggars of the day are frequently mentioned in the parish accounts, as for instance-- 1640.--Gave to Tottenham Court Meg, being very sick £0 1 0 1642.--Gave to the ballad-singing cobbler 0 1 0 1646.--Gave to old Friz-wig 1 6 0 1657.--Paid the collectors for a shroud for old Guy, the poet 0 2 6 1658.--Paid a year’s rent for Mad Bess 1 4 6 1642.--Paid to one Thomas, a traveller 0 0 6 To a poor woman and her children, almost starved 0 5 6