ABSTRACT
Benefactors of the city of London in the course of our period were to provide an almost incomprehensibly large total of charitable wealth as they sought manfully to deal with the social problems of their age. Raising up new institutions which would guard men against want or create areas of opportunity in which they might gain new strength and resources, they hoped in time to cure both poverty and ignorance. In all, these burghers of London were to give the truly immense total of £1,889,211 12s of charitable benefactions designed to better the lot of men in their age and to establish institutions which would ensure a fairer future for men of their city and country. 1 This great sum was the gift of a relatively small number of 7391 individual donors, resulting in a remarkably high average of £255 12s 2d for each contributor, an average quite unmatched in all England. 2
