FROXFIELD, a parish in the hundred of KINWARDSTONE,
county of WILTS, 3  miles (W. by S.) from
Hungerford, containing 508 inhabitants. The living is
a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Wilts,
and diocese of Salisbury, rated in the king's books at
£8. 16. 4., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and
£200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Dean
and Canons of Windsor. The church is dedicated to
All Saints. There is a noble almshouse, founded in
1686, by Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Somerset, who bequeathed
considerable landed and other property for its
erection, and for the maintenance of thirty widows, the
number to be increased to fifty, when the revenue should
exceed £400 per annum. Twenty apartments were
added to the original building in 1775, the whole
forming an oblong quadrangle, with a small chapel
within it, the minister of which has an annual stipend
of £70. Thirty widows of clergymen, from any part
of England, and twenty widows of laymen, not having
an income of more than £20 per annum, are eligible to
this charity, the allowance to each of whom is £21 a
year. The government is vested in twelve trustees,
chosen from the nobility and gentry of the county,
who nominate the steward, chaplain, apothecary, and
porter of the establishment.