Title:
Coram Boy: England’s Abandoned Children
Learning Resources
Created: 25.05.2006
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Coram Boy: Charity and Philanthropy – RESOURCE 1
A timeline of Thomas Coram’s life
1668
Thomas Coram was born at Lyme Regis in Dorset. He grew up with
the sea: his father worked loading and unloading ships in Lyme
harbour.
1671
Thomas’s mother died.
1679-1684
Thomas’s father sent him to sea.
1684-1688
Thomas worked as an apprentice to a shipwright in London. He
learned the art of building ships.
1693
Thomas sailed to America and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. In
those days Massachusetts was one of thirteen colonies in North
America that belonged to Britain and were populated by English
people.
Thomas tried hard to make a living as a shipwright in Boston, but he
found it very difficult. The people didn’t like him because he was a
very devout member of the Church of England; the people of Boston
were puritans who didn’t think the Church of England was anything like
strict enough.
1700
Thomas married his wife, Eunice, in Boston. She became his very
close companion, though they never had any children.
Meanwhile the people of Massachusetts were even more hostile to
Thomas. He had to fight an expensive lawsuit (an argument which has
to be taken to court for a judge to settle it) against his enemies, and
he lost. At one point, Thomas even feared for his life.
1703
Thomas and Eunice returned to England and settled in London.
Thomas started working as a shipwright.
1713-1720
Thomas campaigned to get a special hostel built in Massachusetts for
old soldiers. Although he fought hard for the hostel, in the end he
failed.
It was during Thomas’s time in London that he began to take notice of the children left
starving in the street and decided to do something for them.
1722
Thomas launched his campaign for a Foundling Hospital. To get it, he
needed special permission from the king in a Royal Charter, but King
George I would not give him one.
After that, Thomas tried to get some important and influential men to
sign a petition asking King George to grant a charter to the hospital,
but they wouldn’t help either. Then Eunice suggested that Thomas try
their wives instead.
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URL:
1
http://www.stagework.org.uk
Title:
Coram Boy: England’s Abandoned Children
Learning Resources
Created: 25.05.2006
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1729
The Duchess of Somerset signed Thomas’s petition to the King. Soon
other rich and titled ladies signed it too. That persuaded their
husbands to sign!
1739
Thomas presented his petition to the king, George II (George I was
dead by then). This time the king granted the charter and Thomas
could start to raise money for his hospital. He was helped by the artist
William Hogarth, the composer George Frideric Handel, and the King’s
personal doctor, Dr Richard Mead.
1740
Eunice died. She lived to see the Royal Charter, but not to see the
hospital open.
1741
The Foundling Hospital opened. Almost immediately the other
Governors threw Thomas off the hospital’s Board of Governors: they
thought he would prove too troublesome to deal with. To make
amends, they decided that the first boy to be baptised at the hospital
would be called ‘Thomas Coram’ and the first girl ‘Eunice Coram’.
Thomas lived on at the hospital, where he used to like to talk with the
children and give them gingerbread. But he wasn’t allowed to help in
actually running his hospital.
1751
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URL:
Thomas died. He was buried in the chapel of the Foundling Hospital.
2
http://www.stagework.org.uk