CHARITIES.—_Robert Owen_, by will, bearing date 14th March, 1603, gave £40, and directed the interest to be distributed to the poor; _William Williams_, and _Sarah Street_, each gave £5 for the same purpose; _George Lyndon_, in 1706, bequeathed £50 for the benefit of the poor; _Esther Hill_ gave £5; _Honour Dryden_, in 1715, gave £20; _Edward Donne_ directed the interest of £20 to be given among poor housekeepers receiving no alms; _Elizabeth Hanmer_ gave £20, the yearly proceeds to be expended in bread for the poor; _Lucy Minors_, in 1692, gave £10, the interest to be distributed in bread among the poor of the parish, on St. Luke’s day, yearly; _Thomas Jones_, _Esq._, gave to the parish of St. Alkmund £50, out of the yearly proceeds the clerk of the parish to have 10s. yearly for his care in looking after the testator’s tomb in the church, and the residue to be distributed among the poor parishioners; _Thomas Lloyd_, in 1721, bequeathed £20 to the minister and churchwardens of St. Alkmund, on trust, to place the same out at interest, and to pay 10s. yearly to the minister for preaching a sermon in the parish church on the 1st of November, yearly; 9d. to the sexton and clerk for officiating on that day, and the remainder to be distributed in twopenny loaves immediately after the sermon on the 1st of November. Of the several legacies above-mentioned amounting to £245, it appears that certain lands were purchased in Meole Brace and Coton, with part of the money, and the residue invested in the purchase of £175 three per cent. consols. The stock was subsequently sold, and there is now a sum of £200 secured on bond, the interest of which £10 per annum, and the yearly sum of £5. 5s., to which is added £2 10s., arising from the charity of Jane Brooks; with these sums bread is purchased, and sixty-three penny loaves are given away on the Sunday after St. Thomas’s day, and on every succeeding Sunday till the whole is exhausted. The rents of the land above-mentioned, amounting to £35 per annum, are given away every St. Thomas’s day, among the most necessitous poor of the parish, in sums varying from 3s. to 12s., a preference being given to those not receiving parish relief. _Sarah Brook_, in 1760, left a rent charge of £5 per annum, issuing out of certain lands in Uffington, the amount to be paid to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of St. Alkmund, and St. Julian, in Shrewsbury, to each parish 50s., to be by them respectively laid out in twopenny loaves, and given among poor, old, and decayed people of honest life.