_Court of_ ORPHANS. This court is occasionally held at Guildhall, by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, who are guardians to the children of freemen under the age of twenty-one years at the decease of their fathers, and take upon them not only the management of their goods and chattels, but likewise that of their persons, by placing them under the care of tutors, to prevent disposing of themselves during their minority, without their approbation. By this court the common serjeant is authorised to take exact accounts and inventories of all the deceased freemen’s estates; and the youngest attorney of the Lord Mayor’s court being clerk to that of the orphans, is appointed to take securities for their several portions, in the name of the Chamberlain of London, who is a corporation of himself, for the service of the said orphans; and to whom a recognizance or bond, made upon the account of an orphan, shall by the custom of London, descend to his successor. It may not be improper to add, that when a freeman dies and leaves children in their minority, the clerks of the several parishes are according to a law of the city, to give in their names to the common crier, who is immediately to summon the widow, or executor, to appear before the court of Lord Mayor and Aldermen, to bring an inventory of, and security for the testator’s estate; for which two months time is commonly allowed: and, in case of non-appearance, or refusal of security, the Lord Mayor may commit the contumacious executor to Newgate. _Lex Lond._ OVERMAN’S _court_, Pepper alley.† OWEN’S _Almshouse_, near the south end of Islington, was erected by the company of Brewers, in the year 1610, for ten poor widows of the parish of St. Mary’s Islington, pursuant to the will of the Lady Alice Owen, who allowed each widow 3_l._ 16_s._ _per annum_, three yards of cloth for a gown every other year, and 6_l._ to be laid out annually in coals for the use of the whole. OXENDON _street_, Coventry street. OXFORD ARMS _Inn lane_, Warwick lane, near Newgate market.* OXFORD ARMS _passage_, Warwick lane.* OXFORD ARMS _yard_, in the Haymarket.* OXFORD _court_, 1. Camomile street. 2. Salter’s Hall court, Swithin’s lane. Here was anciently the house of the Prior of Torrington in Suffolk, which afterwards fell to the Earls of Oxford; but that edifice being at length demolished, and this court built in its room, it retained the name of the former possessor. 3. Oxford street. OXFORD _market_, Oxford street, so called from its being on the estate of the late Earl of Oxford. OXFORD _street_, St. Giles’s pound. This street, the market, and court of the same name, are all on the estate of the late Earl of Oxford. [Illustration] P. PACKER’S _court_, Coleman street.