Lending to the Poor

Sun 17 Jan 1748: I made a public collection towards a lending-stock for the poor. Our rule is to lend only twenty shillings at once, which is repayed weekly within three months. I began this about a year and a half ago. Thirty pounds sixteen shillings were then collected. And out of this no less than two hundred and fifty-five persons have been relieved in eighteen months. Dr. W. hearing of this design, sent a guinea toward it, as did an eminent deist the next morning.