The comparative neglect of this establishment in the histories of the Metropolis, is probably to be attributed to the circumstance, that the benefits of the charity are divided between parishes; and that altogether it forms but a single and minor branch of numerous benefactions which the foundress ordered for several places in the County of York. The spot on which these dwellings are built, was originally part of those unoccupied fields and pasture-grounds on the north of the City, which were appointed for the erection of a Pest-House or lazaretto, for the reception of distressed persons infected by the Plague of : and thence called Pest-House Fields.[a]  They extend from on the south, to on the north, and on the east; and the Pest-House itself was situate beyond the western end of the great bason of , on the south side of the Hospital erected in for the reception of poor French Protestants resident in Great Britain:[b]  near the site of the burial-ground adjoining . The street now called , marks part of the direction of a broad lane originally named Pest-House Row, from the place to which it led; and before the formation of the the same path was continued in a straight line across the fields to , joining on to the lower end of Shepherds' Walk, at the present , which formerly bore the well-known sign of the Shepherd and Shepherdess. A short distance to the north of that place of entertainment, forming the south corner of , and opposite the eastern wall of , are erected the Alms-Houses of the Viscountess Lumley.

It would seem by the Peerages that this lady could be no other than , daughter of Henry Shelley, of Warminghurst Park, in the county of Sussex, Esq. who married Sir Richard, Viscount Lumley, chief heir-male of the family, upon the failure of the line of John, Baron Lumley, who died .[c]  The official account of this endowment, however, records the name of the foundress to have been :[d]  though the only Lady Lumley near the time of this foundation who was so called, appears to have been the wife and relict of John, Lumley, above mentioned: the only daughter of John, Lord Darcy, of Chiche in Essex, who had no sort of claim to the title of Viscountess.[e]  The Peerage of Ireland also states that Frances, Viscountess Lumley, died in , which, however, probably means -, and was buried in , where no such interment now occurs.

The Report of the Commissioners of Charities states, that the deed-poll, or plain deed, under the hand and seal of the Right Honourable , Viscountess Lumley, by which these Alms-Houses were established, enrolled in the Court of Chancery, is dated the . It is directed in that instrument that Sir John Mayne and John Penrice, Esq. should with the monies arising from the sale of certain lands and hereditaments therein mentioned, erect a habitation in the form of an hospital, containing rooms, for poor men and women, unable to provide for themselves by reason of infirmity, &c. upon some parcel of ground to be procured, acres in extent, within the Parishes of Sinnington or Thornton, in the county of York; with another building near it fit for a Chapel, properly furnished.—They are also ordered "to erect another building, containing rooms of equal bigness, in form of an hospital, in some convenient place within the Parishes of St. Botolph, , or St. Botolph, Bishopsgate,[f]  in the City of London, upon a parcel of land containing feet in length and feet in breadth, to be procured by the Trustees, for the habitation of poor people, men and women, who, by reason of age, sickness, or other great infirmity, were not able to provide for themselves: of them to be of the Parish of St. Botolph, , and of the Parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate; and to be by the respective ministers, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor, of the said respective Parishes for the time being, or the major part of them, with the consent of the said Trustees, or their heirs, from time to time elected and chosen; and to be placed and continued in the said habitations during their respective lives, unless removed for misdemeanor or other good cause by the said electors, or the major part of them, with the consent and approbation of the Trustees or their heirs."—The same deed also orders the erection of another building within the Parishes of Sinnington and Thornton, containing acres, for the habitation of a Schoolmaster: and then provides funds for the endowment of these charities by directing the trustees to buy lands, tenements, and hereditaments, of the clear yearly value of , in the Parish of Sinnington, or within miles of it; to be conveyed to the ministers, &c. of Sinnington and Thornton for ever upon trust for various payments, of which were to be allowed annually for ever for the support and maintenance of the eighteen poor people in Yorkshire and at London, at the rate of each, by even proportions at times in the year.—Some of the charities ordered for the county of York were carried into effect by an Order, dated , by the Lord Keeper, made in certain cases between Sir Edward Ford and others, creditors of Lady Lumley, plaintiffs, and the Marquess of Dorchester and others, defendants: and between Sir John Mayne and others, defendants.[g] 

With respect to the Alms-houses ordered to be erected in London, it appears from the "Abstract of the Deeds" of the Viscountess Lumley's benefaction, that in Edward Underwood, the elder, of St. Botolph's without Bishopsgate, Citizen and

In support of the inhabitants of these Alms-Houses Lady Lumley's original gift was an annuity or rent-charge of arising out of a freehold estate at or near Sinnington in the County of York: to be equally distributed in quarterly payments: but this endowment was increased by an addition of yearly, in consequence of an Order in Chancery, made .

The original building of Alms-Houses having fallen into a state of decay, petitions were presented to the Chancery by the Trustees of Lady Lumley's Charity, praying an enquiry as to the propriety of repairing or re-building it; as well as of erecting farm-houses, &c. on the lands at Thornton; and as to the sums proper to be expended thereon. An order of reference to that effect was made ; and the Master's general report was dated . After detailing the history of the Charity, it stated that the rents of the estates which had been let in pursuance of the valuation of a land-agent, amounted to , but that from the great diminution of landed property, the rents greatly exceeded the value of the estates; and that it would be greatly to the advantage of the charity that a reduction should be made in the rents of per cent, which would reduce its yearly rental to That since the year , the rents of the Charity-estates had exceeded its expenditure, and that the Trustees had invested the surplus in the per cent. annuities and had applied the dividends to the same purposes. That since the decree of , the yearly allowance paid to the respective poor persons in the Hospitals was, in augmented from to ; and in to . That the Hospital in London was in a very decayed and dilapidated state, and that an architect employed by the Trustees estimated the expense of the repairs required at upwards of . That the Trustees proposed that part of the accumulations made out of the surplus of the rents and profits of the Charity, should be applied in repairing the Hospital in London, and in erecting proper and convenient buildings on the lands at Thornton. The petitioners also proposed that the Hospital in London should be rebuilt or repaired, the cost of which as computed by a surveyor employed by them would be or thereabout.—On consideration of these schemes and proposals, and the evidence brought forward in support of them, the Master decided that the Alm-Houses in London should be rebuilt, and that would be required for that purpose: and that with regard to appropriating the profits of the Charity by way of increasing the subsisting allowances, it would be proper to advance the poor in the Alms-Houses at Thornton to , and those in London to . This report was ordered to be confirmed .[d] 

The buildings at Thornton were in the course of erection, when this account was issued by the Commissioners for Charities; but those in London, says their statement, "have not yet been commenced, the delay being caused by some difference respecting the estimate between the late Receiver and the Architect; and by a proposal to build a new Hospital in a more eligible site; and by the death of the late Receiver: at the last meeting of the trustees, held , directions were given that the buildings in London should be proceeded with next spring."[e] —At that time the present edifice was erected accordingly, though on the original site; consisting of a plain and neat brick building, of a basement-story only, with a slated roof, and enclosed in front by a small area with iron railing on a dwarf-wall; the gardens of the houses being now placed at the back. Against the centre building is a square stone panel surmounted by a pediment, containing the following inscription.—"THIS CHARITY WAS FOUNDED AND ENDOWED BY LADY VISCOUNTESS LUMLEY, IN ; FOR POOR PEOPLE OF THE PARISH OF ST. BOTOLPH, , AND A SIMILAR NUMBER OF THE PARISH OF ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE — THESE HOUSES WERE BUILT IN ; AND WERE TAKEN DOWN AND THE PRESENT BUILDINGS ERECTED IN .—SIR WILLIAM STRICKLAND, BART. SIR GEORGE CALEY, BART. CHARLES DUNCOMBE, ESQ. M. P. THE REV. THOMAS CUTLER, RUDSTON READ, JOHN ROBINSON FOULIS, ESQ. WILLIAM WORSLEY, ESQ. RICHARD HILL, ESQ. TRUSTESS OF THE SAID CHARITY."—The stipend which is now paid to each of the inhabitants of these dwellings is . annually, through the medium of the bankers of the Trustees in London,[f]  by the Church-Wardens of and Bishopsgate, in quarterly payments.

[a] Another field appropriated to the same purpose and bearing the same name as those above mentioned, was in St. James's Parish. "The site," says Maitland, "whereon Marshall Street, part of Little Broad Street, and Marlborough Market, are now erected, was denominated Pest Field, from a lazaretto thereon, for the reception of poor and miserable objects of the neighbourhood, that were afflicted with the dreadful Plague, Anno 1665. And at the lower end of Marshall Street, contiguous to Silver Street, was a common cemetery, wherein some thousands of corses were buried of those that died of that dreadful and direful contagion."—History of London by William Maitland, Lond. 1739. fol. p. 776. Some other Pest-Houses were erected in Tothill Fields, Westminster.

[b] In William Faden's edition of Richard Horwood's excellent and elaborate Plan of London, 1807,—the present French Hospital is erroneously marked as "anciently the Pest House;" whereas both the buildings were actually standing together at the same time. In Strype's Stow's Survey of London, Lond. 1754. fol. Vol. I. p. 277, the French Hospital is stated to have been erected in 1717, "contiguous to the Pest House, on the south side of the Parish of St. Luke;" and Maitland adds, that "here stood till the year 1737 the City Pest House, which consisted of several tenements." History of London, p. 776. It is probable that the site of it is now indicated by Russell's Row, the tablet of which bears the date of 1738, perhaps from having been erected immediately on the destruction of the Pest House: it joins the northern extremity of the French Hospital, and forms the northwest end of Bath Street.

[c] The Peerage of Ireland, by John Lodge. Edit. by Mervyn Archdall, Esq. Dublin, 1789. 8vo. Vol. iv. p. 264.—Peerage of England, by Arthur Collins, Edit. by Sir S. E. Brydges, Bart. Lond. 1812. 8vo. Vol. iii. p. 710.

[d] Farther Report (Seventh) of the Commissioners for enquiring concerning Churities: dated 28th Jan. 1822. p. 771.

[e] Peerage of Ireland, Vol. iv. p. 262.

[f] Another benefactor to this part of London, also bearing the name of Lumley, was Sir Martin Lumley, Knight and Alderman, who, by his Will dated Sept. 1st, 1631, gave £ 20 per annum for a Winter-lecture at St. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate Without, to be delivered every Tuesday evening between Michaelmas-day and Lady-day; and to the poor of the parish £ 4 for ever. He was buried in St. Helen's Church, Aug. 7th, 1634, under the stone of his ancestor, close to the reading-pew, about a yard deep. A New View of London, by Edward Hatton, Lond. 1708. 8vo. Vol. i. p. 275. J. P. Malcolm's Londinum Redivivum, Vol. iii. Lond. 1803. 4to. p. 560, from the Parish-Registers. Eighth Report concerning Charities, dated 13th July, 1822, p. 257.—Another charitable female of the same family is commemorated in A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the Lady Lumley at Great Bradfield, in Essex, Sept. 26th, 1692, by Thomas Pritchard, M. A. and late Rector of West-Tilbury in Essex. Lond. 1693. 4to. It is dedicated to her husband, Sir Martin Lumley, Bart.

[g] The residence of the Lords Lumley in London, was situate on the south of Sir John Milbourne's Alms-houses in Woodroffe Lane, of which the present Coopers' Row, Crutched Friars, forms a part. Stow states, that it was builded by Sir Thomas Wiat, the elder, "in the time of King Henry VIII., upon one plot of ground of late pertaining to the aforesaid Crossed-Friars, where part of their house stood: and this is the farthest part of Ealdgate Ward towards the south, and joins the Tower-Hill. The other side of the lane, over against the Lord Lumley's house, on the Wall side of the City, is now, 1598, for the most part or altogether builded, even to Aldgate." Strype's Stow's Survey of London. Lond. 1720. fol. Vol. i. book ii. chap. iv. p. 79. In the Plan of London executed by Radulphus Aggas, about 1562, this edifice is represented as a double building with two gables on the south, looking into a large garden, with a turret at the south-east corner, enclosed by a wall, beyond which on Tower-hill is a footway with a row of posts and rails; all which extended to the site of the present Trinity House, erected in 1793. Seventh Report concerning Charities, p. 772.

[a] Will in the Prerogative Office, London; in the Register called May, Quire 146: dated 26th July, 1661; Proved 4th Sept. following. The testator orders that his body shall be buried in the tomb or vault lately made at his own costs and charges, for himself, his wife, and others of his name and family, in the churchyard of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate; near the Alm-houses erected by him. The situation of these buildings was originally at the western end of the Rectory-house of the Parish, on the northern side of the passage leading between the upper and lower church-yards into the present New Broad Street, &c. formerly containing a number of mean buildings and gardens, called Petty-France, from being first, and chiefly, inhabited by Frenchmen. Strype's Stow's Survey of London, Vol. 1. book ii. chap. vi. p. 108. Maitland's History of London, p. 394. Both the spot and the Alms-Houses are particularly pointed out in an occurrence related in the History of the Great Plague in London, usually called Defoe's, Lond. 1722, 8vo. p. 28, which the author met with "In going through a narrow passage from Petty-France into Bishopsgate churchyard, by a row of Alms-Houses. There are two churchyards to Bishopsgate Church, or Parish: one we go over to pass from the place called Petty-France into Bishopsgate Street, coming out just by the Church door; the other is on the side of the narrow passage where the Aims-Houses are on the left, and a dwarf-wall with a pallisadoe on it on the right hand; and the City-wall on the other side, more to the right." The south, or lower, churchyard just referred to, was given by the City to the Parish in 1615, in consequence of want of room for burying the dead; and it originally consisted of that part of the town-ditch lying between the old cemetery and the City-wall, which was afterwards raised upwards of eight feet. Between the western end of this burial-ground and the eastern side of Moor Fields, stood Petty France, the whole of which was converted into New Broad Street, &c.; and in 1730 Underwood's Alms-Houses with those of Richard Alleyn adjoining,—nine in all, containing thirty-six persons,—were removed to make way for the new passage leading into Bishopsgate Street. A new building was therefore provided for the sixteen poor women on the endowment of Underwood, in Lamb Alley, Bishopsgate Street, where they each receive their original payment of 2s. 6d. per month.—With respect to the house and land which that benefactor ordered to be bought, his Will farther directs that until they were so bought the interest of the money bequeathed should be paid to the poor of the Parish; and that if the officers of St. Botolph's neglected or refused to execute his Will within one month after the expiration of the said two years, the sum was to be transferred to the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch.

[b] History and Antiquities of the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, by (Sir) Henry Ellis. Lond. 1798. 4to. p. 148.

[c] Beneath the annexed View on the left hand are engraven the armorial ensigns of the Viscountess Lumley, namely, Argent, a fesse Gules, between three parrots Vert, col lared of the second: being the bearings of the ancient Barons Thweng, and assumed by the eldest son of Sir Marmaduke Lumley, son of Sir Robert Lumley, and Isabel Thweng, A. D. 1299, which arms have been retained by the family to the present time. Supporters: Two Parrots with wings addorsed Vert, collared, beaked, and legged, Gules. Crest: on a wreath a pelican in her nest proper, feeding her young Argent. Motto: Murus æneus Conscientia sana.—Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Vol. iv. pp. 251, 252, 273. Collins' Peerage of England, Vol. iii. p 695.

[d] Seventh Report on Charities, pp. 776, 777.

[e] Ibid. p. 778.

[f] This account was kept with Messrs. Boldero and Co. until their bankruptcy, at which time the balance due to the Lumley Charity was £ 92. 5s. 11d. Seventh Report on Charities, p. 774. In 1814, the annuity was paid by Messrs. Hoare, in Fleet Street, half-yearly at Lady-day and Michaelmas, to the order of John Piper, Esq. of Pickering, in Yorkshire. In Maitland's History of London, Edit. 1757. fol Vol. ii. p. 1315, it is added that each inhabitant of the Alms-Houses was to receive twelve bushels of coals per annum.