ABSTRACT
Anne Aikin was the wife of an affluent Liverpool merchant, James Aikin, who was active in numerous philanthropic ventures in the city, including a sailors’ home and a charity school for children of Scotch parentage. Pivotal to the success of the orphanage was the practical and financial support of Harmood Banner, an accountant whose father had founded the Liverpool stock exchange. The first orphan, aged ten, was admitted in 1840, and by 1842 forty girls were resident. By the 1860s, all the asylum buildings were concentrated in Myrtle Street. The rules of admission were, as the forms below indicate, strict: children had to be legitimate and baptized in the established church, bereft of both parents, healthy, local to the city and have no other route to support save the workhouse. The Annual General Meeting summaries indicate the extent to which the orphanages were patronized by the Anglican Liverpool elite and establish an overview for the accompanying admissions to the asylum.
