almsperson

plural almspeople · plural almspersons

1. historicalobsoleteA person who receives charitable assistance, especially at an almshouse.

   The persons benefited [by the Jews’ Hospital at Mile End] are worn-out old men, and destitute children, while the number of almspeople is from 150 to 200 yearly.

   1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 2, page 129

   4 more examples

   Whiles we not only relieve them, but instruct them, as Bishop Hooper did his board of beggars, as Dʳ Tailour the Martyr did the Alms-people of Hadley, and other poor of his Parish.

   1647, John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Epistles, page 164

   […] it should be order’d, That the Steward of the House be in Commission of the Peace within the Precincts of the House only, and authoriz’d to punish by limited Fines, or otherwise, any person that shall offer any Abuse to the poor Alms-people, or shall offer to make Sport at their Condition.

   1697, Daniel Defoe, An Essay upon Projects, page 189

   Upon the death of any almsperson, if the friends of the deceased have not been able to afford to pay the charges of the funeral, they have been defrayed out of the trust account to the amount of 2 l. or 3 l. on each occasion;

   1830, House of Commons, Further Report of the Commissioners Appointed in Pursuance of Two Several Acts of Parliament, page 52

   Service was held in the church, but the Hospital became a perfectly secular charity, supporting a few almspeople with niggard hand, and a Master in great splendour.

   1903, Walter Besant, As We Are and As We May Be, page 153