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).

Street Children

Poor children in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were expected to work from an early age – shockingly early to modern eyes (although sadly child labour is still commonplace in many developing countries). 

 

If you strolled down a street in Georgian or Victorian England, you could hardly fail to notice the many children dressed in rags, and obviously in need of a good meal. Children helped their parents with their work at home (perhaps preparing wool or cotton for the loom), or found work in a factory, or if very poor, sold matches or gingerbread on the streets.   

Very small children were in great demand as chimney sweeps (as it was easy for them to climb chimneys), and unscrupulous parents sold their children to master sweeps for a few pounds. 

Alternatively poor children went to the poorhouse or workhouse for relief.  Children (not necessarily orphans) were often apprenticed by parish officials to ‘learn a trade’, so that they would not be a burden on the parish rates.  

Several charities grew up to look after destitute children, and I’ll look at the work of some of these institutions in my next blog post.

Images from the author’s collection:

‘The Poor Cripple Girl’ selling gingerbread, ‘The Orphans' selling matches, and ‘The Little Chimney Sweep’, from Henry Sharpe Horsley, The Affectionate Parent’s Gift, T.Kelly, 1827.