It is impossible to be anything but moved when looking at the tokens on display at the Foundling Museum in London.
The 400 tokens come from the Foundling Hospital, an eighteenth-century home for abandoned children that was established in 1739. Having been left at the Hospital between 1740 and 1760 by the mothers of the foundlngs, the tokens were meant to serve as a form of identification in case the situations of the mothers improved and they were able to come back and reclaim their children. There are many reasons mothers were forced to abandon their children – mostly poverty or illegitimacy – but the overwhelming thing that is conveyed through these tokens is the love these long dead women had for their children, and their genuine hopes they would one day be reunited.
Here are some of them. They break my heart.
“You have my Heart/ Tho wee must Part/ I.W./ Nat. [born] 6th Sept 1759.”
The identity of I.W. is unknown.
A hazelnut. It is possible this was the only thing the mother could afford to leave with her baby, or that she intended it as some kind of protection for her child. In English folklore, hazelnuts are thought to shield against evil.
“Maria Augusta Handel. Born April 15th 1758.”
This is one of the tokens we know a little bit about. When Maria arrived at the Hospital, she was renamed Ann Ketelby by the staff. She stayed at the Hospital until 1763 when John Covert, a friend of her parents, came and reclaimed her. Four months before Maria/Ann’s birth, her father, John Harris, had been transported to Australia for stealing coal. This is possibly why Maria/Ann was left at the Hospital, as her mother might have been unable to financially support her in her father’s absence.
An embroidered heart. Then, as now, the heart was a symbol for love. A piece of paper with the name “William” has been pinned to it. This was possibly the abandoned child’s name.
This is a victory medal of Frederick of Prussia, dated 1757. It was left at the hospital in the same year by Jane Strudnall along with her daughter, Priscilla. On admission, Priscilla was renamed Elizabeth Glyn. This token has been successfully identified by researchers because in 1762, Jane wrote to the Hospital and asked for her daughter to be returned to her. Apparently, she had not seen Priscilla/Elizabeth’s father Christopher for four years, but felt she was now in a better place and described the medal in intricate detail. Unfortunately, the staff had to inform Jane that her daughter had died shortly after admission to the Hospital.
Most of the tokens have become separated from the paperwork that would allow us to identify the mothers and children, but work is ongoing to connect the tokens to the children who are known to have lived at the Hospital.
All photos in this post were taken from the Foundling Museum’s website, and more information about the tokens can be found here.
