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Aged Poor Society

1910 New Catholic Dictionary

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Apart from the benevolent activities still carried on by this old London Catholic charity, its survival serves as a link between some of the more widely known charities of today and those of the penal times when it was a capital offense for a priest to say Mass. The Report issued for the year 1820 quaintly reminded its supporters that, "The Aged Poor Society was instituted about the year 1708...it has met with the approbation and support of many persons equally distinguished for piety and learning." Its list of subscribers in the past includes such names as Poynter, Challoner, Talbot, Bramston, Griffith, Wiseman, and Manning. Low cost of administration is a characteristic of the society. Among other benevolent works, the society grants pensions of £26 per annum to 40 aged and necessitous Catholics who must be persons "reduced from a superior station of society." The same condition applies to those who are admitted to almshouses conducted by the society at Hammersmith, some of whom are also eligible for an endowment of £20 a year.