Among the exhibits at the Foundling Museum in London, this open book seemed rather intriguing. The page records the admission of a boy on 19 May 1759, when he was about nine months old, with two pieces of fabric kept alongside the details of his arrival. He became child number 12,843 and was given the name Theodosius Williamson by the Hospital.
The admission papers were known as billets, recording details such as a child’s approximate age, sex, clothing and identifying marks. The children were subsequently christened and given new names, protecting their mothers’ anonymity while deliberately separating their new identities from their previous lives. Tokens could be small everyday objects or pieces of fabric, sometimes cut directly from the child’s clothing, which could help establish a connection if a parent returned.
Babies admitted to the Hospital were generally sent to paid nurses outside London for their early years before returning to the Hospital. The museum notes that on 24 May 1769 he was apprenticed to Hugh Morgan, a bricklayer in Barking, Essex. The name that the Hospital gave him was so unusual that it has made it easier for me to establish what happened to him after that. He married Phoebe Lawrence in Shoreditch on 29 October 1776 and he later lived at Salmon & Ball Court which I don’t think is still there, but it was located off of Bunhill Row. He died at the age of 75 and was buried at St Luke’s Church on Old Street on 20 September 1833.
A date, number, assigned name and two pieces of cloth have survived, letting visitors think a little about Theodosius Williamson over 250 years on.