The Asylum for female orphans in Regency London

The Dining Room at the Asylum
from Ackermann's The Microcosm of London (1808-10)

What was the Asylum?

The Asylum was a refuge for female orphans established by Sir John Fielding, a philanthropic magistrate, in 1758, and incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1800. 

Its aim was to house and educate orphaned girls. Orphans were the responsibility of the parish where their parents had resided. If this parish or settlement could not be established, they theoretically became the responsibility of the parish in which they lived. In the case of orphans of soldiers, sailors and other indigent persons, the settlement of their parents could often not be found, and the orphans could be left destitute and far away from any relations. The charity aimed to relieve this suffering and protect young girls who might otherwise be drawn into prostitution.

The Asylum for Female Orphans 1823 from The History
 and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth by T Allen (1827)

Where was the Asylum?

The Asylum was situated south of the River Thames in St George’s Fields, Lambeth, 'directly opposite the road which leads from Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall.'1

The charity took out a lease on the premises of the Hercules Inn from the Corporation of the City of London in 1754 at a rent of £8 10s a year. When the lease expired in around 1823, they bought the freehold for about £16,000 and demolished the old building, with the exception of the chapel and the residences for the officers and matron. They replaced it with a neat, low building with wings on the design of Mr Lloyd.

The New Asylum for Female Orphans 1826 from The History
 and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth by T Allen (1827)

How was it run?

Her Majesty Queen Charlotte was the patroness of the Asylum and Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, was President. The charity was governed by a committee of 19 gentlemen, elected annually, who met at the Asylum every Thursday at 11 o’clock in the morning.

The Asylum received an income from stocks and consols and was supported by annual subscriptions amounting to about £500 a year and by collections taken at the chapel doors each Sunday amounting to some £2,000 a year more.2

A gentleman could become an annual guardian of the charity by subscribing at least three guineas a year. Alternatively, he could become a perpetual guardian by a donation of thirty guineas or more, or by being the first named executor on a legacy of £100 or more. A guardian could recommend a girl for admission when a vacancy arose.

According to Allen in The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth (1827): 'Ladies subscribing certain specified sums are entitled to vote by proxy.'3

The charity employed various staff to run the asylum and chapel. In 1827, their annual salaries were as follows:

Chaplain and secretary £200

Alternate morning preachers £100 each

Evening preacher £126

Organist £63

Writing master £50

Apothecary (including supply of medicine) £70

Messenger £52

Matron £60

Assistant matron £20

First school-mistress £40

Two assistant mistresses £15 15s each

Nurse £20

Chapel clerk £21

Four chapel keepers £12 each4

Life in the Asylum

Girls were admitted between the ages of nine and twelve, housed and educated, and then apprenticed as a domestic servant or into a trade from the age of about fifteen.

The Microcosm of London described the education of the girls:

Carefully instructed in the principles of religion; in reading, writing, needlework, and household business, they are trained to habits of industry and regularity, by which means there is a supply of diligent and sober domestics for the use of that public, which, by its contributions, has so nobly acquired a right to their services.5

The girls were required

... to make and mend their own linen; make shirts, shifts, and table-linen; to do all kinds of plain needle-work, and to perform the business of the house and kitchen; to which latter twelve are appointed weekly, according to their age and abilities, to assist the cook, to wash, iron, and get up all the linen. They are likewise taught to read the Bible, write a legible hand, and understand the first four rules in arithmetic.6

The girls helped support the Asylum with their work:

All kinds of plain needle-work are taken in at the Asylum, and performed by the children at certain rates, which are regulated by the committee.7

Visits by gentlewomen

According to The Microcosm of London, the guardians

... earnestly solicit the ladies, who are particularly qualified for that purpose, frequently to visit the charity, inspect the management of the house, and particularly the employment of the children; also to see that they are properly instructed in housewifery, so as to be qualified for useful domestic servants; and from time to time communicate to the committee, by letter or otherwise, such observations as they shall deem proper to make.8

The chapel

A very neat chapel is included in the plan, in which some respectable minister officiates as preacher on Sundays. The girls also sing, accompanied by a good organ.

A number of the nobility and gentry frequent this place of worship, and at the same time become contributors to a noble charity, which preserves from probable destruction a great number of indigent female orphans, and makes them at the same time a comfort to their remaining relations, and a benefit to the community.9

What happened to the girls?

When the girls were about fifteen years of age, they were apprenticed:

They are to be bound apprentices for seven years, at the age of fifteen, or sooner, as domestic servants to reputable families in Great Britain.10

When a girl was old enough to be apprenticed, the guardian who presented her was asked if he had a placement for her in mind. If this was not the case, the girl could be sent to any respectable person who applied for an apprentice, once the committee had approved their character.

If a girl completed her apprenticeship and their master or mistress vouched for their good behaviour, she was given five guineas by the committee.

If the committee deemed that the girl was unfit for domestic service, they could apprentice her into any trade they thought proper. The maximum they would pay to secure this apprenticeship was £10.

The success of the Asylum

According to The Microcosm of London:

Two hundred deserted females are daily sheltered and protected from vice and want, supplied with food and raiment, and taught what-ever can render them useful in their situation, or comfortable and happy in themselves.11

Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian Regency era romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

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Notes

(1) From Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1809 (1809).

(2) These amounts are taken from Allen, Thomas, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth (1827).

(3) From Allen, Thomas, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth (1827).

(4) Ibid.

(5) From Ackermann, Rudolph and Pyne, William Henry, The Microcosm of London or London in miniature Volume 1 (Rudolph Ackermann 1808-1810, reprinted 1904).

(6) Ibid.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Ibid.

(9) Allen op cit.

(10) Ackermann op cit.

(11) Ibid.

Sources used include:
Ackermann, Rudolph and Pyne, William Henry, The Microcosm of London or London in miniature Volume 1 (Rudolph Ackermann 1808-1810, reprinted 1904)
Allen, Thomas, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth (1827)
Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1809 (1809)

The Real Persuasion by Peter James Bowman – a review

Did Anne Elliot live happily ever after?

Are you a fan of Jane Austen’s Persuasion? Have you ever wondered what happened to Anne Elliot after she married Captain Wentworth? Judging by the huge popularity of Austen variations, it would seem that many people have. The Real Persuasion is not an Austen variation, but it does describe what Anne’s life might have looked like after her marriage by telling the true story of Katherine Bisshopp, a real-life Regency heroine whose life bore remarkable similarities to that of Anne Elliot.

Anne Elliott was the daughter of Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall, an impoverished baronet. Katherine was the daughter of Sir Cecil Bisshopp of Parham in Sussex and like Anne, she too was forced to quit her home because of lack of money. Katherine’s father squandered great sums of money proving his lineage in order to claim the barony of Zouche, which he did successfully in 1815, only to run out of money two years later. Sir Cecil sold the contents of Parham and shut it up; Sir Walter was forced to rent out Kellynch Hall and go to Bath.

Parham Park, Sussex from Excursions in the County of Sussex (1822)

Both Anne and Katherine fell in love with naval officers but were unable to marry. Lady Russell believed Captain Wentworth was unworthy of Anne and persuaded her to break off her engagement. Katherine sought in vain for her parents’ consent to her marriage to George Pechell.

Both Anne and Katherine had to wait a long time to marry the man of their choice. Anne waited eight and a half years; Katherine three years longer. Despite George’s promotion to captain and his improved fortunes since he first sought Katherine’s hand, it seems that her family still did not think him good enough. It was not until Katherine was in her early 30s that her parents finally caved in on the grounds that otherwise she would end up marrying no one.

A Captain in the Navy from A book explaining
the ranks and dignitaries of British Society (1809)

Both women also had invalid sisters, though Anne’s sister Mary Musgrove was more querulous than Katherine’s sister Harriet. I also think that Harriet was more genuinely unwell than Mary ever was. I wondered from the accounts of her illness whether she might have suffered from chronic fatigue.

Did Katherine’s story end happily? Mostly. Katherine and George loved each other for the rest of their lives. George was made a vice-admiral and inherited a baronetcy. They leased and then bought Castle Goring as their home and had three children. But their lives were not without sadness. Katherine and George were devastated by the death of their only son, Captain William Pechell, who was killed in Sebastopol whilst serving his country.

An engaging story

This is a well-written story that draws heavily on original sources – letters and journals – which are widely quoted in the text. I love primary sources and this makes the book very exciting reading for me, even without the story that goes with it.

There is a handy timeline at the back and some lovely plates in the middle. A family tree might have been useful for keeping track of the different family members.

For me personally, I found the passages at the end of each section detailing the correspondences with Persuasion detracted from the story. As someone who knows Persuasion well, I had no difficulty in seeing the similarities as the narrative progressed and stopping to spell them out spoilt the flow of the story a little. I would have preferred it if they had been gathered up into a single comparison section at the end, but for someone who is less familiar with Persuasion, the ongoing comparison might be more helpful.

A true-life Austen continuation

If you love Persuasion like I do, I am sure that you will be fascinated by the amazing similarities between the stories of Katherine Bisshopp and Anne Elliot and see Katherine’s story as one way that Anne’s might have worked out. 

 

 

Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian Regency era romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

The Green Park in Regency London

Horse guards parading past the Canade Gate, the Green Park

The history of the Green Park

The Green Park was an area of meadowland enclosed by Charles II after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Lying between St James’s Park and Hyde Park, it was formed to link up the royal parks, and was known as Little or Upper St James’s Park until 1746. Charles II built icehouses in the middle of the park. 

Rocque's Map of London of 1741-5 showing the Green Park
in London in the Eighteenth Century by Sir Walter Besant (1902)

During the 1730s, George II’s wife, Queen Caroline, developed the park. She built a reservoir called the Queen’s Basin which provided water for St James’s Palace, and commissioned a path to the reservoir known as the Queen’s Walk which became a fashionable place to promenade. She also built a pavilion in the park known as the Queen’s Library. It was after a walk to her library that Queen Caroline was taken ill with the complaint from which she never recovered:

On the 9th [November 1737], her majesty [Queen Caroline] having walked to her library in the park, and break fasted there, was taken suddenly ill on her return to the Palace of St. James, with a complaint that was erroneously believed to be the gout in her stomach.1

The Queen's Library
from The History of he Royal Residences by WH Pyne (1819)

In 1767, George III reduced the size of the Green Park to enlarge the gardens of Buckingham House.

The peace celebrations of 1749

On 27 April 1749, a huge firework display was held in the Green Park to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. George II commissioned Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks to accompany the display. An enormous pavilion, known as The Temple of Peace, was built in the park for the event and caught fire during the firework display.

View of the peace celebrations in Green Park in 1749
from Old and New London by E Walford (1878)

Another party in the park

On 1 August 1814, another grand firework display took place in the Green Park, to celebrate 100 years since the Hanoverian Succession and peace with France. Another huge building – The Temple of Concord – was built in the park for the event.

The Temple of Concord in the Green Park on 1 August 1814
from An Historical Memento by E Orme (1814)

An Historical Memento (1814) recorded:

At ten o'clock, a loud and long continued discharge of artillery announced the commencement of the fireworks; which were, certainly, if not the most tasteful, yet on the grandest and most extensive scale that we have ever witnessed. From the battlements of the castle, at one moment, ascended the most brilliant rockets: presently, the walls disclosed all the rarest and most complicated ornaments of which the art is susceptible: the senses were next astonished and enchanted with a pacific exhibition of those tremendous instruments of destruction invented by Colonel Congreve. Some notion even of their terrible power might be formed from this display, and their exceeding beauty could be contemplated, divested of its usual awful associations. Each rocket contains in itself a world of smaller rockets: as soon as it is discharged from the gun, it bursts and flings aloft into the air innumerable parcels of flame, brilliant as the brightest stars: the whole atmosphere is illuminated by a delicate blue light, which threw an air of enchantment over the trees and lawns, and made even the motley groups of universal London become interesting, as an assembly in romance. These several smaller rockets then burst again, and a shower of fiery light descends to the earth, and extends over many yards. Such was one of the beautiful fireworks, which, during the space of two hours, amused and astonished the people.

But the public, who had been on their legs all day, and were not sufficiently accommodated with seats, began at length to be tired with the endless repetition even of the most striking beauties, and became impatient for the grand metamorphosis of the castle into a temple. This was now the principal object to which the attention of the spectators was awake—the conversion of a fabric, designed for the purposes of war, into a temple of peace, and an illuminated monument of victory. The metamorphosis took place with somewhat less than the celerity generally witnessed in our theatrical pantomines: it resembled the cautious removal of a screen, rather than the sudden leap into a new shape. When fully developed, however, it presented a spectacle, which, for extent of splendour, and not less for tastefulness of arrangement, deserved the admiration, and satisfied the hopes which it had inspired.2

According to some sources, The Temple of Concord met the same fate as the Temple of Peace and was destroyed during a firework display, but Old and New London wrote:

Near Constitution Hill a building was erected from the design of Sir William Congreve (of rocket celebrity), which, with all its palings, and the cordon of sentries round it, covered one-third of the Green Park. This building received the name of the Temple of Concord. The materials of this structure, and of the other erections set up on that occasion, were sold afterwards by auction, and fetched only about £200.3

The Times of 12 October 1814 recorded that The Temple of Concord:

… after having been ineffectually offered for sale by private contract, with all its remaining magnificence, fell yesterday, ingloriously, under the hammer of the auctioneer … It was doubtless the subject of regret to its admirers, that this temple, after shining in all its brilliancy but for one night, should be doomed to such speedy destruction.4

The Green Park in the Regency

The Fountain in the Green Park in 1808
from Old and New London by E Walford (1878)

The Picture of London for 1813 described the Green Park:

An inclosure, called the Green Park, is a beautiful spot, gradually ascending from St. James's Park, which it immediately joins to Piccadilly, being separated from it by a wall in some parts, and an iron railing in others, and this park is now become the fashionable evening promenade. The lodge of the ranger of Hyde Park stands at the top of this ascent, near the centre, facing Piccadilly and, with its gardens and pleasure-ground, is a very picturesque spot.5

The entrance to the Ranger's Lodge
from The story of the London Parks by J Larwood (1874)

The Green Park was a popular place to walk, especially on Sundays:

In spring and summer the eastern side of the Green Park forms a favourite promenade for the genteel inhabitants of the metropolis; and in fine weather, on every evening, and on Sundays in particular, it is always crowded with well-dressed company. At the north-east corner of this park there is a fine piece of water, which is supplied by the water-works of Chelsea, and forms at once a beautiful embellishment and a useful reservoir.6

Green Park today

Green Park was opened to the general public in 1826. During the reign of Queen Victoria, the Queen’s Basin was filled in and all the buildings were demolished. Several war memorials have since been erected in Green Park, which is open all day, all year round.

View down Constitution Hill from the top of the Wellington Arch
showing the Green Park on the left
and Buckingham Palace gardens on the right

Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian Regency era romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

 

Notes

(1) Pyne, WH, The History of the Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, St James's Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House and Frogmore (1819).

(2) Orme, Edward (ed), An Historical Memento (1814).

(3) Walford, Edward, Old and New London: A narrative of its history, its people, and its places (Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878, London) Vol 5

(4) The Times Digital Archive: "Temple of Concord, in the Green Park." Times [London, England] 12 Oct. 1814: 3. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 5 Sept. 2017.

(5) Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1813 (1813).

(6) Ibid.

Sources used include:

Crosby, B, A View of London; or the Stranger's Guide through the British Metropolis (Printed for B Crosby, London, 1803-4)

Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1810 (1810)

Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1813 (1813)

Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1818 (1818)

Orme, Edward (ed), An Historical Memento representing the different scenes of public rejoicing, which took place the first of August, in St James's and Hyde Parks, London, in celebration of the Glorious Peace of 1814, and of the Centenary of the Accession of the Illustrious House of Brunswick (1814)

Phillips, Richard, Modern London; being the history and present state of the British Metropolis (1804)

Pyne, WH, The history of the Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, St James's Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House and Frogmore (1819)

Walford, Edward, Old and New London: A narrative of its history, its people, and its places (Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878, London) Vol 5

Royal Parks website

Times Digital Archive

Photos © RegencyHistory