Foundling Hospital

The Foundling Hospital was established by Royal Charter on 17 October 1739 by Thomas Coram as a refuge for abandoned, illegitimate children. The Hospital was laid in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury, an as yet undeveloped area beyond the city. Admission to the Hospital was initially restricted because of the lack of funds. Infants were to be less than two months old and in good health to qualify for entry, and admissions were made on a first come first served basis. Once a child had been accepted he or she was baptised and thereby given a new name. The child was then boarded out to a dry or wet nurse in the country. These nurses were mostly in the Home Counties but could be as far away as West Yorkshire or Shropshire. The nurses were monitored by voluntary inspectors. On reaching 3 years of age, the child was returned to the Hospital to receive basic schooling and he or she would remain there until apprenticed out to trades or service, or enlisted in the armed forces.

From 1760 a new system was adopted which involved mothers submitting written petitions to the Hospital which were then assessed by committee. This petition system formed the basis of all subsequent admissions to the Hospital and the survival of these petitions in the collection provides a valuable insight into the backgrounds and circumstances of the mothers.

Consultation of the Hospital records held at LMA (reference A/FH) reveals the story of Mary Green's admission. According to the petition document (A/FH/A/08/001/002/023) her mother, Ann Moore of 26 Salsbury Street, Bermondsey, was an unmarried 19 year old. She had been working as a housemaid at the house of Mr Morgan, a surgeon, where she was seduced by his assistant Thomas Parkin, who "talked of marriage but never promised her". Before the pregnancy was revealed Mr Morgan fired Parkin for "disorderly conduct" and his mounting debts; while Ann was made redundant along with all the other servants in an attempt to solve disagreements among the staff. She was given a good character reference and found a new position with Mrs Sarah Peacock. On the 14 September 1814 she was "delivered of a female child". The father could not be traced. Mrs Peacock sponsored her petition to the Foundling Hospital, describing her as honest, sober, obliging and clean.

The baby was admitted to the Hospital on 12 November 1814, aged 2 months, and given the name Mary Green (general register, A/FH/A/09/002/005). She was sent into the country to a wet nurse, and was confirmed in June 1829. Mary was apprenticed in December 1829 to merchant Louis Perrottet of No 4 North Crescent, Bedford Square, "to be instructed in household business" (apprenticeship register, A/FH/A/12/003/002). Jane Taunton, another foundling who was admitted only a few days before Mary was also apprenticed to Perrottet. Their apprenticeship indentures expired in September 1835.