time. He directed a buttery to be built for their convenience, and
also a little brick room, with a window in it, for the five
alms-bodies to assemble in daily for prayer, and that the schoolmaster
of the reading-school should pray with them there. He further directed
the enclosure of gardens, of sixteen feet broad at the least, for
their recreation. Mr Colfe also left money for lectures at Lewisham
Church, as well as a sum for the purchase of Bibles, until they should
amount to the number of thirty or forty, which were to be chained to
the pews, or otherwise preserved; and he left 12d. a quarter to the
clerk for writing down the names of those that should use them; also
2s. 8d. to him for taking care of the clock and dial; also, 10s. for a
sermon on the 5th of November, and 12d. in bread for the poor who
should come and hear it, and 6d. to the parish clerk; also 20s., to be
distributed a penny at a time, to the children and servants who could
best say their catechism, and 6d. to the minister for catechising
them; also, a yearly sum of money for distributing on every
Lord's-day after the morning service, seven penny wheaten loaves, to
seven of the most honest, peaceable, and godly poor householders of
Lewisham, who could say the Lord's Prayer, the Belief, and the Ten
Commandments; also, 5s. a year to poor maid-servants, who at the time
of their marriage had continued seven years with their master or
mistress in Lewisham; with numerous other bequests. He further left
moneys for the preservation of his father's, grandfather's, his
wife's, and his own monument--his own being an oaken plank oiled, and
a stone 'a foot square every way, and three feet long.' The stone and
plank were removed many years ago, and an inscribed tablet has been
set into the outer wall of the church.

The practice of leaving money for the sustentation of tomb-stones and
monuments, appears to have prevailed for many generations; and may be