Waifs and Strays

In an earlier blog post, I talked about eighteenth century children's charities like Captain Coram's Foundling Hospital. In late Victorian Britain, there were still huge numbers of impoverished children. They survived by begging and stealing, or selling matches, sweeping the streets and shining shoes, etc. 

Evangelical philanthropist Dr Thomas Barnardo (1845–1905) opened his first children’s home, for boys, at Stepney in 1870; a girls' home was founded shortly afterwards at Barkingside. 

Barnardo took in children with disabilities and social handicaps like illegitimacy at a time when some other charities would not take them in. In 1884 Barnardo opened a ‘Babies Castle’ at Hawkhurst. But when he found that the infants did not thrive well in an institution, he later boarded out the children. If you have an ancestor who was a Barnardo's child, there's help here on the Barnardo's website. 

The Church of England Society for Waifs and Strays (1881) was another famous organization: it is now the Children's Society. You can find out more about the Society, its children and the homes it ran here on Hidden Lives Revealed. 

Barnardo's and other charities believed that poor children would have better prospects in life if separated from their impoverished parents, and they began emigration schemes to Australia, Canada and other Commonwealth countries. 
Some child emigrants were treated very harshly in their new homes overseas, and were used as cheap labour. Some emigration schemes ran until 1970. The Child Migrants Trust helps former child migrants find their origins, and provides counselling. The Trust’s website has information about tracing records and the history of child migration. Tracing Your Ancestors' Childhood also has tips about tracing ancestors who were in charities' care, child migrants, WW2 evacuees. Websites and archives for charities and voluntary organisations are listed in its research guide. 
Images: 
Postcard of the Babies’ Castle, Hawkhurst, Kent, a Dr Barnardo home, postmarked 1911. 
A photo postcard of a mother and daughters, c.1910. Author's collection.
 

Foundlings and Orphans

One of the most famous children’s charities was the Foundling Hospital for unwanted and abandoned infants, founded in 1741 by Captain Thomas Coram. The first premises used by the hospital were some houses in Hatton Garden; later a grand new building was erected near Gray’s Inn. William Hogarth was one of the hospital’s patrons; later famous philanthropist Sir Thomas Bernard was a member of the hospital committee.

When mothers gave their unwanted baby to the hospital, they left a small token to help identify their child in case they ever wanted to reclaim it (only a tiny number ever did).  A silk purse, a coin, and even a lottery ticket were some of the items deposited (John Brownlow, Memoranda, or Chronicles of the Foundling Hospital, Sampson Low, 1847). 

Many charities like the Foundling Hospital, the Female Orphan Asylum at Lambeth (founded by John Fielding in 1758), and the Edinburgh Orphan School, apprenticed out the children in their care when they were old enough.

Some charities specialised in caring for the children of soldiers or seamen, like the Royal Hospital Schools at Greenwich, the ‘cradle of the navy’, founded in 1715. However it was not until 1783 that a special school-room and dormitories for 200 children were built inside the Royal Greenwich Hospital. In 1821 the Royal Hospital Schools merged with the Royal Naval Asylum for naval seamen’s orphans (founded in Paddington in 1798).  The schoolboys in the Hospital moved to the Queen’s House at Greenwich (where the Asylum had moved in 1818). If your ancestor was cared for by one of these institutions, my book Tracing Your Ancestors' Childhood has more information on archives and the types of records available.

Despite the work of charities like these, during the nineteenth century cities like London had ever-growing numbers of orphaned, destitute and criminal children and in my next blog post I’ll be discussing the way that the Victorians tackled these problems.

Images from the author’s collection:

Captain Thomas Coram. Hogarth’s Complete Works, Third Series. Chatto & Windus, 1874.

Orphan School, Edinburgh, Views of Edinburgh and Its Vicinity, 1819.

Royal Naval Schools, Greenwich:  ‘the cradle of the navy’. Old and New London Vol. VI, (Cassell, Petter & Galpin, c. 1895).