When London’s Foundling Hospital opened its doors on 25 March 1741, it aimed to provide an alternative to mothers abandoning their babies in the streets of the city. Mothers unable or unwilling to care for their infants could, instead, bring them to the Foundling Hospital and seek to have them admitted into the institution. The process to have a child received into the Hospital changed throughout the eighteenth century, and from the 1760s the petitions of mothers became an increasingly important part of the application process.

My research is uncovering the lives of children of the African and Asian diasporas who were taken into the care of the Foundling Hospital during the long eighteenth-century, and the petitions in the archives have provided an important starting point for identifying children of colour. These have included passing references to the places of origin of the parents, or additional comments by the governors after interviewing the mothers. However, what I had not anticipated was how the stories of the mothers of African and Asian children would become as important in my thesis as those of their infants. Their stories allow us glimpses into the lives of women of the African and Asian diasporas, helping us to understand the circumstances surrounding the presence of children of colour in the eighteenth-century Foundling Hospital.

Lucy Strange petitioned the Foundling Hospital in November 1773, stating:

That your Petitioner was born in the East Indias, was sent to England by her Master, with the care of a child, and during the voyage was debauched and got with child, but being ignorant of the English language, and not knowing the person’s name, cannot say more but requests your protection… she must in a few weeks return to her Master in the East Indies’.[1]

Typically in this period, officials of the East India Company employed Indian women known as ayahs to care for their children. These servants often accompanied British families on return voyages to England, where some remained as servants in their households. Others sought new positions with EIC employees travelling out to India, enabling them to return to their country of origin. It appears that Lucy was working as an ayah, having accompanied her master’s child on the voyage to England, during which her petition suggests that she was a victim of rape, resulting in pregnancy. Without a settlement in England, Lucy was not entitled to parish relief, and as a young woman who did not speak English, giving birth in an alien country without the support network of family or friends must have been a terrifying experience. Lucy’s son was admitted to the Foundling Hospital aged one month, and christened Christopher Rowland.[2]

The story of Henrietta Dislie has many similarities with that of Lucy Strange.  Henrietta presented her petition to the Foundling Hospital’s governors in November 1780, in which she revealed that she was ‘…late of the Island of Antigua’ and had ‘been with Child by an European, a clerk to a Store-keeper in the said Island…’. She had travelled to England with her master, an officer, and his family without disclosing her condition, and was delivered of a ‘Mulato [sic] Child’ during the voyage. Henrietta’s petition states that her master will discharge her from his service if her child is not taken into the institution, and it emphasises that she is ‘here without friends or money & therefore a proper object of compassion…’.[3]

British officials, plantation owners and military men living in the Caribbean, often returned to England with Black servants, many of whom were enslaved. However, Henrietta’s petition suggests she was a free woman of colour, as she was threatened with the termination of her position if she did not give up her baby. It is unsurprising that she did not inform her master of her pregnancy before they departed Antigua as she would surely have been dismissed. It is also possible that she feared having her child taken away and sold into slavery if she remained in Antigua. Henrietta’s daughter was admitted into the Foundling Hospital aged ten weeks. She was christened Jane Eyre and sent to be nursed by Mary Atkin in Odiam, Hampshire.[4]

Tracing children through the Foundling Hospital archives is possible because of the unique identification number each was given on admission, and the detailed records kept by the governors. However, the stories of the mothers of these children usually begin and end with their petitions. Though I have been unable to discover what happened to Henrietta, it is likely that she did remain in the service of the Captain and his family, as giving up her daughter removed the threat of her dismissal. From EIC records I was able to find a reference to ‘Lucy, an Indian’ on a list of servants travelling with Colonel and Lady Anne Monson to Bengal in March 1774, which suggests Lucy did indeed return to India after her son was admitted into the Hospital.[5] Sadly, Lucy’s son Christopher died aged only six months at about the time Lucy left England, and Henrietta’s daughter Jane died aged one year.

These two examples offer a small window into the lives of women of the African and Asian diasporas in London during the eighteenth century. Giving up their children into the care of the Foundling Hospital allowed Lucy and Henrietta to remain in employment and therefore maintain themselves, when otherwise, without any support network or source of financial assistance, they would almost certainly have ended up destitute and living in abject poverty in a foreign country. Not only do their stories help in understanding the circumstances surrounding the presence of children of colour in the Foundling Hospital, but also the lived experiences of these women; their employment, relationships, movement across the empire, and as unmarried mothers in an alien land.

Hannah Dennett is a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick and holds an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award from Midlands4Cities, working in partnership with the Foundling Museum, London. Her thesis, Forgotten Foundlings: Black lives and the Eighteenth-Century Foundling Hospital is uncovering the lives of children of colour taken into the institution in this period. She is curating the exhibition, Tiny Traces: African and Asian Children at London’s Foundling Hospital at the Foundling Museum from 30 September 2022 until February 2023. It explores the stories of mothers such as Lucy Strange and Henrietta Dislie, and the lives of their children.

he Children of Edward Holden Cruttenden with their Indian Ayah, Joshua Reynolds c.1763 is from wikicommons.

[1] A/FH/A/08/001/001/004, Petition of Lucy Strange (London Metropolitan Archives).

[2] A/FH/A/10/003/007, Nursery Book 4 (London Metropolitan Archives).

[3] A/FH/A/08/001/001/0011/135/a1, Petition of Henrietta Dislie (London Metropolitan Archives).

[4] A/FH/A/10/003/007, Nursery Book 4 (London Metropolitan Archives).

[5] IRO/B/89, EIC Court Book Apr 1773-Apr 1774 (British Library).