The education of children in London’s foundling hospital, c. 1800–1825

ABSTRACT

This article examines the education provided to the children in the London Foundling Hospital in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. These children were abandoned children, paying for the immorality of their parents. However, the Foundling Hospital provided them with an opportunity to escape their hereditary poverty. This research utilizes the education records of the London Foundling Hospital as well as its records of apprenticeship, to examine the education received by Foundling children, and the various career paths the children took during the early part of the nineteenth century.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood
• foundling hospital
• education
• poverty
• apprenticeship
• nineteenth century

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of the editors of this special edition, Dr Jane Eva Baxter and Dr John Burton. Additionally, she thanks the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and ideas and Dr Christopher Phillips for proof reading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Claire Marie Rennie completed her PhD at the University of Leeds in 2017, on the care of sick children in eighteenth-century England. Her research more broadly focuses on children in institutions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She teaches early modern and modern history at The Open University and Leeds Beckett University.