Irish women and the London Foundling Hospital, 1850-1906

From the late eighteenth century, the London Foundling Hospital was utilised by many unmarried women living in London and travelling to London to deal with crisis pregnancies. Some women had been ‘seduced’, others were involved in sexual relationships, with and without the promise of marriage. Many were ‘respectable’ women, servants, or those from the respectable classes.            

This paper will look at the interactions of Irish women with this institution from the end of the Great Famine to 1906. It will investigate how and why these women approached the authorities; whether they presented any particular problems for the committee; to what extent their religion and socio-economic background were factors in their acceptance or rejection; and the position of their infants within the hospital. It will add to the existing historiography on this institution, but also provide a more nuanced view on the experience of Irish women in London. As Jessica Sheetz-Nugen has pointed out in her excellent study of the institution, most often petitions from Irish women were rejected by authorities. The reasons why will be examined, in particular the importance of respectability, religion, and class and illuminated with individual examples. Finally, it will provide a glimpse of the complex relationships between men and women in this city setting.