Newgate: London's Prototype of Hell by Halliday Stephen

Author:Halliday, Stephen [Halliday, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Thomas Coram’s Foundling Hospital: Thomas Coram (c. 1668–1751) was a sea captain from Lyme Regis in Dorset who was a pioneer in the development of trade between Britain and the colonies in North America and Canada. He retired with a modest fortune and devoted himself to raising money to provide homes for abandoned children whose small bodies he had seen rotting in the streets near his home on Rotherhithe. He spent eighteen years (1721–39) lobbying and gained the support of both men and women among the aristocracy. Finally, on 17 October 1739, George II granted a charter for ‘an Hospital for the Reception, Maintenance and Proper Education of such cast off Children and Foundlings as may be brought to it’. The Foundling Hospital attracted the support of many prominent citizens, including painters who donated works to raise funds, notably William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Godfrey Kneller and Thomas Gainsborough. Handel gave an annual performance of The Messiah for the same purpose. The hospital acquired premises in Coram Fields, Holborn (close to the later site of Great Ormond Street Hospital) where mothers could leave their unwanted children in a basket. The Foundling Hospital moved to Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in 1935 and remained in use until 1951 when the practice of fostering replaced the need for such a home. The Berkhamsted building is now Ashlyns School and the original Holborn site is the home of the Foundling Museum and Coram Fields, the only park in London which an adult may not enter unless accompanied by a child. The Thomas Coram Foundation remains active in child welfare work.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.