The Foundling Hospital

The extraordinary history of the Foundling Hospital starts with Captain Thomas Coram, who had no children of his own, but who lobbied for the establishment of a home for the many abandoned children he saw inhabiting the streets on his daily walk from Rotherhithe to the City of London.  He had spent many years living in Nova Scotia, where he made a moderate fortune as a shipbuilder before returning in 1719 to his native London with his American wife, and was incensed at the waste of life, having experienced American labour shortages.  It took nearly 19 years for his efforts to finally bear fruit, but what a legacy and what a history.  The building which housed the children in the nineteenth century is now demolished, but the 1937 building from which the orphanage was administered still exists today as a museum.  The institution in its early days attracted the patronage of two of the most famous artistic names of the eighteenth century - the artist William Hogarth and Georg Frideric Handel, the composer, who performed his Messiah within its walls in order to raise funds.

An estate of 56 acres was purchased in Lamb's Conduit fields in 1739 and a building erected at which, it was announced, that at 8 o'clock on a designated evening in 1741, twenty children would be received who were not suffering from any contagious disease. The persons bringing them would not be asked any questions and each infant should bear a distinguishing token, so the child could be identified in the future.  On this first night of reception, a group of young women approached the Hospital, weeping and carrying bundles which they placed in the appointed place, observed by the governors and the curious in dimmed light.

The hospital later developed a policy of accepting only illegitimate children on the personal application of the mother, for whom the child was a firstborn child and under the age of twelve months.  The only legitimate children admitted were those of soldiers or sailors killed whilst in the service of the country.  The mother could not be a widow and also had to satisfy the Hospital committee of her previous good character. 

Once a child was admitted to the Hospital, a mother could have no further communication with her infant.  The child was immediately baptised in the Hospital's chapel with a new name but the mother was never informed of this name.  All she was given was a certificate containing the registered number of her infant which she could use to make inquiries. She could visit the Hospital and see all the children together, as could any member of the public, but even if she thought she recognised her own child, she was not permitted to speak to them apart from any of the other children or those in charge.  No Thoroughfare (Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins, 1867) illustrates this situation through its "veiled lady" whose desperation to identify the child she left at the Hospital is poignantly portrayed as her sorrow leads her to accost and bribe a Hospital nurse into telling her the name given to her son and to return twelve years later to observe the children at dinner and persuade an attendant to identify the named child.*

By 1870, Hospital boys were being apprenticed to a trade at age 14 and girls went to work as domestic servants once they turned 15.  The Hospital was responsible for the children until they turned 21 and invited those apprenticed to visit the Hospital once a year at Easter when, if their employer's reports were favourable, they were awarded a sum of money.  Some of the old 'foundlings' still visited their old home in Lamb's Conduit fields even after forty or fifty years of work and consulted the secretary in relation to the best investment for their savings.

The Hospital is also notable historically as a meeting place of painters, due to Hogarth having the enlightened idea of persuading artists to donate paintings as a fundraising measure.  Meetings were then held which attracted wealthy, polite society who made donations for the upkeep of the children.  As there were no art galleries or museums in London at the time, British artists were able to exhibit their work in public for the first time and gain exposure.  These meetings led directly to the foundation of the Royal Academy of Artists by Sir Joshua Reynolds (who also exhibited at the Hospital) in 1768.

Handel, who in 1749 offered a performance of vocal instrumental music to raise funds for the completion of the Hospital chapel, was also instrumental in expanding and maintaining it as a building and institution.  He conducted the first of many performances of his Messiah in the chapel in 1750 and later became a governor.  He also gave annual benefit concerts until his death in 1759.  A strong musical tradition was thus begun at the Hospital where the boys were taught to play musical instruments so they could participate in the Hospital's orchestral performances.  These skills then led to interest in recruitment by the Royal Navy.

Fortunate were the children accepted as 'foundlings.'  The Hospital, from its founding years, was progressive in its medical care for its children, often engaging the services of prestigious physicians and medical professionals who gave their services free of charge.  Smallpox inoculation was mandatory for all children admitted after 1743 and contributed to the survival of its infants from the smallpox scourges which prevailed in London throughout the nineteenth century.  My grandmother was indeed lucky to have come to live in such a place of care and innovation rather than a workhouse where disease and contagion were rife.  At the time, it was the most her unmarried mother could have done for her, but definitely the best choice, although it must have been a heartbreaking one.  By 1891, it was a self-contained subculture of society which had, according to the census records of that year, Thomas Bassett as school steward, a head schoolmaster, an assistant schoolmaster, a drill master, a housekeeper, four school mistresses, two sewing mistresses, a trained nurse, a needlewoman and twelve domestic servants, three of whom doubled as kitchen maids and a housemaid and one of whom was a cook.  The domestic servants were also described as "nurses for children," reflecting the fact that a large proportion of the female working population aged from 16 upwards in the United Kingdom at this time were employed to look after young children.

Despite its dining room being used by Dickens as the model for the "Please sir, I want some more" scene in Oliver Twist, the Hospital was an innovation, particularly as it accommodated the babies of "fallen women"; those who had given birth to illegitimate babies and for whom there was no thought of keeping their child unless they had family to whom they could turn.  As many of these women were from poor backgrounds, their families did not have the capacity to take them in and these children usually ended up living on the streets and turning to crime to support themselves.  The Foundling Hospital was a tremendously important contribution to social change.

Pictured is the staircase formerly in the Boys' quarters of the Hospital, removed to the building which now houses the Foundling Museum.

Source: The Terrible Sights of London & Labours of Love in the midst of them by Thomas Archer    (Author of Strange Work and The Pauper, the Thief & the Convict) London, Stanley Rivers & Co.  1870, reproduced at www.victorianlondon.org

*A link to this story is here: http://www.victorianlondon.org/health/foundlinghospital.htm

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