The Cravens and the Foundling Hospital

    The first Lord Craven made the name illustrious through his military prowess and indomitable loyalty to the Stuart dynasty. Yet it could be argued that his successor, the third Lord (1700-1739) made it no less illustrious through his contribution to one of the great philanthropic foundations of the age, the London Foundling Hospital.

     The Foundling Hospital was the brainchild of Thomas Coram, a retired naval officer, who decided to do something about the cruel fate of babies abandoned by mothers who could not care for them. Coram was horrified to see such children left to die on the streets, but the problem was often regarded as a shameful matter that decent people did not want to be associated with. 

William 3rd Baron Craven, engraving after a 
portrait by John Faber c.1730.

    Coram needed the patronage of the rich and powerful, so one of those he approached was the young William, third Lord Craven, who had inherited his father's title and estates at the age of only eleven. He was sympathetic to the idea, perhaps all the more so because his marriage to Ann Tylney produced only one child, who died infancy. He agreed to become a governor of the Hospital, as did the artist William Hogarth. Dozens of the nobility were persuaded to become patrons.

    The foundation was granted a royal charter in 1737, and it started to take in children in 1741. Four hundred boys and girls were taken in, fed, clothed and educated sufficiently to be able to earn their living. They spent the first five years of their lives in the care of foster families in the countryside, then were brought back to London when old enough. The regime was strict and Spartan but preferable to being abandoned to die of starvation. In case the mothers ever wanted to make contact with them again, they would leave a unique token with the child that enabled them to be identified years later, even when grown up. Its imposing building in Bloomsbury was not completed until 1752 and Lord Craven died before the project was complete, but he was a generous donor and is listed on the charter as a founding governor.

     Gradually, attitudes changed and some very distinguished people were proud to be associated with this cause. Henry Fielding entitled his greatest novel Tom Jones, A Foundling, and George Frederick Handel stipulated in his Will that there should be an annual performance of The Messiah in aid of the charity. The Foundling Hospital lasted into the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was gradually superseded by systems of adoption and fostering.

      The third Lord Craven was noted for one other thing. Like his ancestor, the first Lord Craven, he was very devoted to all the Stuarts, even after they had lost the throne. He and his brother Fulwar Craven, who succeeded him in the title, remained covertly loyal to James II's successors and were involved from time to time in Jacobite plots.

Lord Craven with Lady Castlemaine at the Wanstead Assembly
by William Hogarth c.1728-32

At the time of the Atterbury Plot, in 1721, Lord Craven was named as a possible suspect or accomplice. He was questioned along with other members of the House of Lords - Lords Scarsdale, Strafford, Bathhurst, Gower, Bingley and Cowper. Naturally they denied it as it was a charge of high treason. His brother, Fulwar Craven, was also suspected of being a Jacobite. If the plot had succeeded, George I would been toppled from the throne and the Old Pretender would have been crowned as King James III. ¹

    In a play by Susanna Centlivre, The Gotham Election, a character alleges that an election candidate is a secret Jacobite, and probably a Roman Catholic to boot. "Ay the Interest of the Church of Rome not that of England, why I'll undertake to prove this Fellow deep in the Interest of young Perkin [the Young Pretender] and that he and his Friend at Villa Coumbe has bought up and sent for his Service more than two thousand Horses within these last four Years and can such a Man be a proper Person to represent you in that august Assembly where the People of Gotham expect to have these pernicious Measures redrest."

    Villa Coumbe is surely an allusion to Coombe Abbey, Lord Craven's house in Warwickshire, and if anybody could afford to provide two thousand horses, it was a rich peer such as him. The Cravens were not actually Roman Catholics, as far as is known, although questions have been raised about the possible allegorical meanings in the depiction of Craven in a painting by Hogarth, "The Wanstead Assembly". Lord Craven is shown with his hand on his heart, in a gesture of devotion, turning towards a half-hidden figure dressed in black, with a hood, standing behind his wife. Only a glimpse of the top of her face can be seen, in profile. Who is she? What does she represent? Jacobite loyalties or secret Catholic belief? Undoubtedly this intriguing image suggests that the third Lord Craven was a man of secrets.

usanna Centlivre "The Gotham Election,

If you enjoyed reading this please show your appreciation by buying me a coffee. Here is the link.

https://ko-fi.com/juliagasper11400

1. Dr. Doran (John) London in the Jacobite Times, Volume 1. R. Bentley & son, 1877 page 4032. Arthur S. Marks "Assembly at Wanstead House" by William Hogarth
and
http://wansteadvillagedirectory.com/2019/06/26/hogarth-wanstead/s

With thanks to Egerton Skipwith for pointing out identity of Lady Castlemaine in the Hogarth painting.