London's Forgotten Children: Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital

In 1739 Captain Thomas Coram was dismayed at the sight of children dying on the dung heaps of London. These children, mostly foundlings and orphans, were products of a poverty-stricken society where the attitude towards babies born outside of wedlock meant a life of rejection and inferiority. After seventeen years of campaigning, Coram managed to persuade sufficient 'persons of quality and distinction' to support his petition to the king to grant a Royal Charter for the building of the Foun...