Chapter 1
Early Childrenâs Homes
Christâs Hospital
A strong claim to being Englandâs first institutional home for poor or orphan children can be made by Christâs Hospital, which was situated on Londonâs Newgate Street, a couple of hundred yards to the north of St Paulâs Cathedral. The building, formerly the Greyfriars monastery, was a victim of Henry VIIIâs dissolution of Englandâs religious houses. Henry subsequently made little use of the property and in December 1546 handed it over to the City of London to be used for relief of the poor. Having acquired Greyfriars, however, the City appears to have lost interest in its further development, perhaps lacking the necessary funds.
Four years later, after hearing an impassioned sermon by the Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley, about the plight of Londonâs poor, the young Edward VI confirmed his fatherâs gift and, more importantly, provided the institution with an endowment of ÂŁ600 a year. He commissioned the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Dodd, to take the matter forward and a committee was formed to oversee the project and raise further funds. By November 1552, the buildings had been refurbished and 340 poor, fatherless children were admitted into what then became known as Christâs Hospital. The term âhospitalâ at that time signified a place of refuge rather than a medical facility.
The uniform that came to be adopted for the inmates of the Hospital comprised a black cap, a long blue gown with a red belt, and yellow stockings. The colours were chosen for very practical reasons: blue was the colour obtained from a cheap dye and worn by servants and apprentices, while yellow was believed to discourage lice.1 The institution soon gained the alternative name of the Blue Coat School, and its outfit was subsequently copied by other institutions that modelled themselves on Christâs, such as Queen Elizabethâs Hospital in Bristol (founded 1586), the Blue Coat School in Canterbury (1574), Lincoln Christâs Hospital School (1614), the Blue School in Wells (1641), the Reading Blue Coat School (1646) and Chethamâs Hospital in Manchester (1652).
Part of Christâs Hospital in about 1700. After being severely damaged in the Great Fire of London, its rebuilding was completed in 1705 from designs by Sir Christopher Wren, a governor of the Hospital.
By the eighteenth century, the original London establishment was no longer housing the poorest children, but was boarding and educating âthe orphans of the lower clergy, officers and indigent gentlemen as could secure nomination by a member of the governing body.â2 In 1902, the school moved to new premises near Horsham, Sussex, where it continues to the present day.
Bridewell
Bishop Ridley also persuaded Edward to give the City another royal property, a little-used former residence of Henry VIII on the banks of the River Fleet, known as Bridewell Palace. Bridewell took on a new lease of life at the end of 1556, with a role somewhere between that of a prison, a workhouse and a reformatory. Its inmates were primarily adults â vagrants, idlers and prostitutes â who, for a period ranging from a few weeks to several years, could be placed under its regime of daily labour and strict discipline. Bridewellâs intake also included the young, however. The orphaned sons of City freemen were received there, parish officials sent destitute children, and the establishmentâs own beadles directed others from the streets to its doors.3 As well as receiving a basic education, many of these children became apprentices in one of the numerous trades for which training was provided at the institution, including pin-making, silk and ribbon weaving, hemp dressing, glove-making and carpentry. In 1631, there were sixteen craftsmen teaching their trades to 106 apprentices.4 A number of other towns such as Oxford, Salisbury, Gloucester and Ipswich also set up institutions modelled on Bridewell.
London Corporation of the Poor
In around 1650, almost a century after Bridewell opened its doors, Londonâs first workhouses proper were set up by the cityâs Corporation of the Poor, which was given two confiscated royal properties â Heydon House in the Minories, and the Wardrobe building in Vintry. The Corporationâs provision for the children in its care included the teaching of singing. A verse of one of the childrenâs songs paints a very rosy picture of their treatment:
In filthy rags we clothed were
In good warm Raiment now appear
From Dunghill to Kingâs Palace transferred,
Where Education, wholesome Food,
Meat, drink and Lodging, all thatâs good
For Soul and Body, are so well prepared.5
Following the Restoration in 1660, when Charles II reclaimed his estates, the Corporation ceased its activities. It was revived in 1698, however, and established a new workhouse on Bishopsgate Street where all the Cityâs âpoor children, beggars, vagrants, and other idle and disorderly personsâ were to be accommodated and employed. The âpoor childrenâ included those whose family or friends could not support themselves, the children of soldiers and sailors who had died or become incapacitated in the service of the Crown, and petty criminals who might otherwise have ended up facing the gallows. The children, up to 400 in number, were taught to read and write and to cast accounts. They were also employed in tasks such as spinning wool and flax, winding silk, sewing, knitting, and making their own clothes or shoes. Their uniform, made of russet cloth, had a badge on its breast representing a poor boy and a sheep and the motto âGodâs Providence is our Inheritanceâ.6
The Bishopsgate workhouse was a substantial edifice, some 400 feet long, and divided into two sections, the Stewardâs side, where the children were accommodated, and the Keeperâs side, where the âidle and disorderlyâ adults were confined. The cost of maintaining the children was mostly covered by payments from their home parish, with funds for the running of the establishment also coming from money raised by the Corporation, from private charities, and from income produced by the childrenâs own labour.
Charity Schools
Following the example set by Christâs Hospital, a modest number of other Blue Coat institutions gradually appeared. In the early 1700s, however, a major expansion began to take place in the provision of schools for poor or orphan children, mostly funded by public subscription or private benefaction.
The growth of the charity school movement owed much to its promotion by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), founded in 1698 to âspread practical Christianity among the godless poorâ.7 The provision of a Christian-based education for the poorest children was seen as a useful way to assist in this endeavour. The Society offered encouragement and advice for those wishing to set up schools, providing sample rules for their operation, and acting as a central co-ordinating body. The curriculum taught in the schools typically comprised reading and writing, plus casting accounts for the boys and sewing for the girls. It also aimed to remind the children of their lowly position in life and the duty and respect that they owed to their betters.
Supporting charity schools became a fashionable activity for the well-to-do and a large number were eventually opened, some notable examples being the Greenwich Blue Coat Girlsâ School (1700), the Nottingham Blue Coat School (1706), and the Liverpool Blue Coat School (1708). Others were founded in towns and villages all across the country; in 1792 it was reckoned that a total of 1,631 charity schools had been established since the Reformation.8
Although the majority of charity schools were day schools, some were residential, effectively operating as childrenâs homes. Typical of these were Yorkâs two subscription charity Schools â the Blue Coat School for boys and Grey Coat School for girls â both founded by York Corporation in 1705 in association with the SPCK. The schools catered for orphans or children from poor, large families, and provided accommodation for forty boys and twenty girls between the ages of 7 and 12. They were taught reading, writing, basic arithmetic and were instructed in the catechism. The boys became apprenticed to tradesmen in the city, while the girls were prepared for domestic service.9 Conditions in the schools sometimes left much to be desired. In 1795, it was reported that the girls at the York Grey Coat School were consistently underfed and ill-treated, their appearance sickly and dejected, and their ignorance extreme. At the same date, children at the London Grey Coat Hospital were said to be utterly wretched from constant flogging and semi-starvation.10
The Foundling Hospital
A significant development in childrenâs residential care came in 1739 when Captain Thomas Coram founded a new institution for the âeducation and maintenance of exposed and deserted young childrenâ. The Foundling Hospital, Englandâs first charity devoted exclusively to children, opened its doors on 25 March 1741 in temporary premises in Hatton Garden.
Infants up to the age of two months could be deposited at the Hospital, with no information needing to be given about the motherâs identity. Those handing over a baby were asked to leave a âmark or tokenâ, such as a ribbon or scrap of material, by which they could identify the child at a future date if required. Infants accepted into the Hospital were baptized and named, then placed with a wet nurse in the country until the age of three. After returning to the Hospital, they were taught to read and âbrought up to labour to fit their age and sexâ.11 At the age of 14, boys were apprenticed into a trade or went to sea. At 16, the girls were placed in domestic service, with some entering into employment at the Hospital.
In September 1742, the foundation stone was laid for the Hospitalâs new premises in Bloomsbury Fields to the west of Grayâs Inn Lane. The 56-acre, green-field site, part of the Earl of Salisburyâs estate, cost ÂŁ6,500, the Earl giving the Hospital a ÂŁ500 discount on the landâs market value. The new building was intended to accommodate up to 400 children.
Demand for places at the Hospital rapidly exceeded the number available. In October 1742, following unruly scenes when the doors had been opened to admit a new batch of applicants, a system of balloting was introduced using a bag of red, white and black balls. If a mother drew a white ball, her child would be admitted if healthy; a red ball placed them on a waiting list, and black ball meant outright rejection.
The Foundling Hospital became the capitalâs most popular charity and was supported by the greatest artists of the time such as Reynolds and Gainsborough who donated paintings. One of its most notable patrons was William Hogarth, himself a foundling, who had no children of his own. He designed the charityâs coat of arms and uniforms for the Hospitalâs inmates. He was also appointed as an âInspector for Wet Nursesâ, and he and his wife Jane fostered a number of foundling children. Another supporter was the composer George Frideric Handel, who gave benefit performances of his work in the Hospital chapel and also provided it with an organ. The music in the chapel on Sundays became a special attraction and the choir, composed of the children themselves, was assisted at various times by many of the most distinguished singers of the day. After morning service on Sundays, visitors were able to observe the children at dinner.
In 1756, as a condition for receiving a substantial parliamentary grant, the Hospital was required to adopt an open-ended admissions policy, taking any child presented who was under the age of two months (later increased to twelve months). A basket was then placed on the Hospitalâs gate where a child could be left and a bell rung to announce its presence to the staff. Perhaps, not surprisingly, the Hospital was inundated with infants from far and wide, many being offloaded from parish workhouses. A trade soon grew up among vagrants who offered, for a fee, to convey an infant to the Hospital. Many such children did not survive their journey or died soon after arrival. Others were just dumped by their courier, who in some cases even removed and sold the childâs clothing. The overall mortality rate in this trade was reckoned to be in the order of 70 per cent.12
Children at play in front of Londonâs Foundling Hospital in about 1900. Boys and girls had their own separate areas.
The era of indiscriminate admission ended in 1760 when it was calculated that the cost of the exercise had now risen to around ÂŁ500,000. Parliamentary support for the scheme was withdrawn and the Hospital was forced to rely on its own funds, charitable support, and payments by parishes for the maintenance of children that they placed. From 1756 to 1801, a procedure also operated where a child could be accepted on payment of ÂŁ100.
Early London Orphanages
From the second half of the eighteenth century, a growing number of other homes or âasylumsâ for orphan children were founded in and around London. These included the Orphan Working School, Hampstead (1758), the Female Orphan Asylum, Lambeth (1758), the St Pancras Female Orphanage (1776), the Home for Female Orphans, St Johnâs Wood (1786) and the London Orphan Asylum, Clapton (1813).
The St Anneâs Society (later known as the Royal Asylum of St Anneâs Society) might also be included in this group. The Society was founded in 1702 by Thomas Bray, Robert Nelson, and other gentlemen in the parish of St Anne and St Agnes, Aldersgate. The Societyâs initial object was to clothe and educate twelve sons, orphaned or otherwise, of parents who had been reduced to a necessitous condition. It was only in the 1790s that the Society began to provide residential accommodation on a modest scale, moving in 1829 to large, purpose-built premises in Streatham Hill in South London.
Rather more typical of these early institutions was the Female Orphan Asylum in Lambeth. Its founding, in 175...