ABSTRACT
The London Foundling Hospital was established by a royal charter issued to Thomas Coram in 1739 and the first admissions began on 25 March 1741. The period between 1756 and 1760 was known as the “General Reception” because the hospital received parliamentary funding if it accepted all infants under two months of age brought to its gates. This policy had to be discarded when demand far exceeded supply. The resulting loss of parliamentary funding prevented the Hospital from filling all of its beds, and the men who ran it sought to remind the government that similar institutions elsewhere in Europe were supported more fully by public funds. The care of unwanted babies was very expensive, as they had to be sent to paid foster families in the countryside until they were four. The institution dealt with high demand by instating a lottery process where approximately one third of applicants were turned away from its doors.
