[240] E. Freshfield, _St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Acc'ts, s.a_. 1598, _et passim_. Freshfield, _St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Book_, 32 (1595). _St. Margaret's, Westminster, Overseers' Acc'ts_ in _The Westminster Tobacco Box_, Pt. ii (1887), _e.g., s.a_. 1572-3, where we find donations from Lord Burghley, the Lord Chief Justice, the Dean of Westminster, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Hertford, etc. [241] Though by 37 Hen. VIII c. 9, sec. 3 (_Stats. of Realm_, iii, 996) interest up to 10 per cent. per annum was permitted, all interest was prohibited by the 5 & 6 Ed. VI, c. 20, sec. 2 (_Stats. of Realm_, iv, Pt. i, 155). Interest is here dubbed usury, "a vice most odyous and detestable." Interest up to 10 per cent. was, however, again made lawful by the 13 Eliz. c. 8, sec. 4 (_Stats. of Realm_, iv, Pt. i, 542) which, however, stigmatizes usury as sinful. [242] Examples are, _Vestry Minutes of St. Margaret, Lothbury_, 32 (Gift of £20 in 1595 to be employed in wood and coal for the use of the poor. A committee of four was appointed to invest and make sales. See their account for 1596, p. 34). _The Westminster Tobacco Box_, Pt. ii, 22 (One of the overseers of St. Margaret's to keep a gift of £42 "untill the same may be bestowed upon somme good bargaine as a lease or somme other such like commoditie w[hi]ch may yeelde a yerely rente to the pore." 1578). Cf. _St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Acc'ts Books_, 3 ff., where in 1598, and regularly in subsequent years, appears the item: "Alowed to this account for the geft of the Lady Wilfordes xx li for the pore xx[s]." Also another item, likewise of 20s. yearly, on Mr. Nutmaker's £20--in other words, 10 per cent. in each case every year. Cf. Jas. Stockdale, _Annals of Cartmel_ (Lancashire, pub. 1872), 37-8 (£65 6s., money belonging to Cartmel grammar school "placed" in the hands of various persons, some of whom give pledges, others mortgages, for repayment. The revenue from this is £6 10s. 7d., _i.e._, 10 per cent. in 1598). In 1613, in allowing the overseer's accounts of Swyre, Dorset, the local justices indorse: "Upon this condition that from henceforth the overseers and Churchwardens do yearlie charge themselves with the some of xxs. for thuse of a stocke of xli [_i.e._, 10 per cent.] giuen to the poore by the testam[en]t of James Rawlinge." The practice above illustrated is simply that enjoined by 18 Eliz. c. 3, amended and completed by 39 Eliz. c. 3 and 43 Eliz. c. 2, with an object of making the poor administration self-supporting as far as might be. The fact that Elizabethan poor laws were based on the best-approved parish customs made them perdurable. For a model administration of parish stock according to the poor laws see the Cowden Overseers Acc'ts, _Sussex Arch. Coll_., xx, 95 ff. (1599 ff.).