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Date updated: 17/05/2022

From Coram’s Foundling Hospital archives

A mother fights for the return of her child – the story of Elizabeth Payne

Elizabeth Payne was on her way to her father’s house in Lingfield, a village five miles from the small town of Edenbridge in Kent. It was not three weeks since she had given birth and now, having wrapped the baby in blankets against the cold, she held her child close. The birth had been in the parish workhouse. She was single. The date was 21 January 1759. Alethea Mitchell has researched the story of Elizabeth Payne in the Foundling Hospital archives held at London Metropolitan Archives and tells us what happened next.

In Elizabeth’s own words, she ‘was overtaken by three men, Thomas Walls, John Dunmore and Thomas Gaston’. All three men were officers of the parish of Edenbridge. The men brought Elizabeth back to the town, where, it was recorded, ‘by violence and against her consent, they took away her Child.’ Elizabeth later learned that they had taken the child to London and left him at the Foundling Hospital.

Elizabeth, as any mother would, recalls the clothes her child had been dressed in at the time: ‘a suit of Plain head cloaths … a Linen shirt, a flaxen Red and Blue and white striped Linnen gown, a Blue and white striped linsey Blanket, and a white flannel Blankett.’ All of which, she stated, were her property. This she tells on oath to Charles Polhill, a Justice of the Peace for the County of Kent. Charles was also a governor of the Foundling Hospital, elected, together with 44 other men of substance in the county in June 1758 in preparation for the proposed Westerham Branch Hospital (1760-69).

In what must have been an agonising six weeks, Elizabeth waited whilst her petition to the hospital was considered. The General Committee had written to John Warde, also a hospital governor and inspector for the Westerham nursery, in order that he inform the Kentish Committee of events unfolding. The Sub Committee had considered Elizabeth’s deposition sworn before Charles Polhill on the 22 January, together with the official hospital petition for the request of return of a child which Elizabeth had completed (Elizabeth made her mark in signature). The necessary charges and security for the future maintenance of the child were discussed. It was noted that the two guineas deposit on the charges had been paid on her behalf ‘by a person who came with Eliz:Payne’.

The poignancy of the billet book

The piece of fabric the Foundling Hospital receiving clerk would have cut from the gown of Elizabeth’s child as identification is blue and white striped, just as she described. It has remained attached to the billet, now bound into a volume with ninety nine other billets, for the last 258 years. The pin is slightly bent, and dark with age; the fabric stained with browned splashes. The scrap of material measures barely 6cm by 5cm.

Entry no. 11301, in the billet book for January 1759, listing the clothing the child was wearing and a piece of fabric cut from a gown being worn
Billet book, entry no. 11301, January 1759. LMA ref: A/FH/A/09/001/127

The child is noted as ‘Male about 1 weeke old.’ Against the printed list of infant clothing his clothes are described as: ‘Cap of Holond with A Lawn Border’; a biggin (cap) and a forehead cloth of the same material; and a gown ‘Blue and White striped’. His neckcloth is of Irish (linen), the roller of shalloon, with a waistcoat of “fursting” and a shirt trimmed with Irish. He arrived with two blankets, one striped flannel and the other white. Even listed is a ‘Clout [of] Dowlas’ (a nappy made of a piece of coarse linen). No ‘Marks on the Body’ are noted. Just the words ‘A Boy Christened.’ He had been given the name James Gold, and registered as Child No 11301. There is no hint of from whence the child comes. The hospital would have accepted him in good faith, although the awareness of the abuse of the Foundling Hospital by unscrupulous parishes was keen. The General Reception, with indiscriminate admission, when no questions were asked of the circumstances of the mother and child, was to end in the March of the following year (1760).

Efficiency and record keeping

Given the most likely date of admission, and Elizabeth’s statement, it took little time for the hospital to refer to the billet book and the nursery (or disposal) book to trace Elizabeth’s child. He was at nurse with Ann Cordery in Yateley in Hampshire. A letter to Mr Nunns, the inspector for the area at the time, brought a quick response and correspondence giving details of the return of James Gold, and the expenses due to his nurse. She had cared for James until 25 March when the order came for him to be returned. It is remarkable to think that the barely three week old child had been torn from its mother’s arms in January, survived the 40 mile journey from Edenbridge in Kent to the London Foundling Hospital and from there a 50 mile journey to Yateley. The child was fortunate to have had his mother’s initial care, and subsequently the care of a good nurse, Her expenses for the Yateley to London journey came to three shillings.

By 17 March 1759 the Sub Committee had ordered the parish officers, who had admitted to their offence, to pay Elizabeth Payne 2/6d weekly towards the maintenance of her child until it ‘shall arrive at the age of seven years compleat’. They were also to pay Elizabeth the sum of ten pounds. On Elizabeth’s part, she would undertake to make no further claims on the parish officers.

Author’s note

Whilst researching the Westerham Branch Foundling Hospital, the minutes of the Kentish Committee, which had been included with the Westerham contracts and agreements, were found to have a record of the Elizabeth Payne events. I later pursued the story, which is of local history interest to the Eden Valley Museum, Edenbridge. Not only does the story reveal how the superb record- keeping of the Foundling Hospital could so efficiently locate and return a child, and deal with offending parishes, but also encapsulates the poignancy of how the textile tokens helped in identification. This is also the very human story of a mother’s determination to reclaim her child.

Archive sources at LMA

  • Westerham Hospital (Kent Hospital): contracts and agreements (being extracts from General Court and General Committee minutes), May 1758-September 1760, 1 volume. Includes letters, inventory, Westerham Hospital Management Committee minutes (LMA reference A/FH/A15/005). [3 June 1758: A list of proposed governors for Kent. 6 July 1759: Sub.Cttee of 14 March re Elizabeth Payne.]
  • Committee to enquire into management of children at nurse in Kent: minutes, 1759-1769, 1 volume (A/FH/D/03/001). [19 July 1769 Letter to John Warde read at Westerham Cttee re Gen.Cttee meetings 14 and 17 March 1759 re Elizabeth Payne.]
  • Examination and petition of Elizabeth Payne of Edenbridge, Kent Pages 65-70 in JB28, March 1759, 1 document (A/FH/M/01/005/065-070)
  • Billet book, Nos 11300-11399, January 1759 [Child No 11301] (A/FH/A/09/001/127)
  • Nursery book: labelled 'Book of Children placed out to Nurse No. 3' (Nos. 9267-14223), July 1758-October 1759. Giving hospital number, child's name, nurse's name, where sent, inspectors' names, when sent, when returned or died (A/FH/A/10/003/006). [Child No 11301 James Gold shown at nurse with Ann Cordery at Yateley.]
Foundling Hospital archives at LMA

Further reading

  • Allin, D S , The Early Years of the Foundling Hospital 1739/41-1773 (LMA library reference 20.751 ALL) [p121 Note 4 regarding Yateley Inspection]
  • Clark Dr Gillian, ed. Correspondence of the Foundling Hospital Inspectors in Berkshire 1757-68 Berkshire Record Society 1994 (LMA library 20.751 CLA) [p63 Transcription of Mr Nunn’s letter LMA reference A/FH/A/6/1/12/13/32]
  • Mitchell, Alethea Westerham and the Foundling Hospital in the Eighteenth Century available as a PDF from the Foundling Museum
  • Mitchell, Alethea Hidden Treasures From The Eighteenth Century
  • Mitchell, Alethea, Westerham Foundling Hospital 1760-1769 The house called Wellstreet, now known as Chartwell
  • Nichols and Wray, The History of the Foundling Hospital Oxford University Press 1935 [Elizabeth Payne Petition transcribed p185, but not in context of a child wrongly taken] (LMA library reference 20.751 NIC)

The Foundling Hospital archive is owned by the charity Coram, undertaking pioneering work in adoption, early years and parenting from the original London site of the Foundling Hospital. You can explore the history of the Foundling Hospital further and even volunteer for an online project to transcribe its archives through the Coram Story website.