Foundling Tokens
Courtesy of the Foundling Museum, London
In the 18th century thousands of poor women left newborn babies in London’s Foundling Hospital, believing that this would be best for them. The hospital, considered to be a relatively kindly and enlightened institution, asked the women to leave identifying tokens with the babies, in case circumstances improved and they wished to return to take their children home. The names of the babies were not officially recorded, and mothers were advised to keep some material evidence to show that the children were theirs. The Hospital promised that great care would be taken to preserve the identifying tokens.
From 1741 to 1760 over 16,000 babies were taken in anonymously, but only about a third of their mothers left tokens, probably because they were so poor and distressed that they didn’t suppose that it would ever be possible to provide adequately for their babies. Once they were received by the institution the children were given new names and their lives began again; within a few days they were sent to the countryside, where they were taken to new homes and suckled by wet nurses; at the age of six, if they had survived, they returned to London for basic schooling, after which the boys were apprenticed and the girls were trained for service. Only 152 of the foundlings were ever called for by their mothers.
The tokens included medals, coins, necklaces, keys, and padlocks. More often they were made from pieces of inexpensive fabric, probably taken from dresses, bearing images of birds, flowers, butterflies, and buds, as well as numerous hearts - cut out, embroidered, drawn on paper. Among the most frequent tokens were ribbons, made from silk in various patterns and colours, which at the time were a cheerful and inexpensive way of adding a touch of charm to the plainest of frocks. Ribbons were also a symbol of romantic courtship, sometimes acquired as ‘fairings’, small presents that were exchanged by friends and lovers at fairs and holidays. A constant character in 18th century ballads was the young woman courted at a fair with keepsakes and promises of marriage, only to become pregnant and eventually abandoned by her lover.
The cloth Foundling tokens can bring to mind the strips of ribbon, fabric, and rag that used to be attached to trees, usually hawthorns, next to wells and springs in Ireland and Scotland. Known as ‘rag trees’, ‘raggedy bushes’, or ‘Clootie Wells’, many are still to be seen today, and it is sometimes said that they are especially revered by Traveller communities. In recent years, however, they are often sustained - or created - by visitors and tourists who want to keep in touch with what they believe to be an old Celtic tradition. Originally, fabric would have been dipped in the water and tied to branches after saying a prayer, usually to a saint, but also to a goddess or nature spirit in pre-Christian times. It was a ritual for people seeking healing and for those hoping to have wishes fulfilled. Sometimes ailing parts of the body were washed with the wet cloth before it was attached to the tree, and as the fabric disintegrated, the complaint was supposed to disappear with it. Additional votive offerings, including rosaries, religious medals, and crosses, were also hung on branches or left in the wells and springs.
There is still much interest in ‘rag trees’ and Holy Wells, probably because the urge to forge a meaningful connection with a particular place or with the sacred has not completely disappeared from contemporary life. Something comparable can be found in the present-day practice of attaching ‘love padlocks’ to bridges, fences, gates and monuments, their keys thrown away afterwards, often into a nearby river, in order to mark and symbolise unbreakable love. This custom has increased dramatically in the last two decades, to the point where it is considered to be a form of littering or vandalism. Whether or not this ritual of remembrance, like the creation of new ‘rag trees’, is a superficial act of sentimentality or something more significant is debatable, but they both pale in comparison with the poignancy and emotional resonance of the Foundling tokens.
For further exploration:
A PDF of the collection of Foundling tokens can be downloaded here:
https://www.scribd.com/document/270042128/Textiles-Foundling-Hospital-Swatches
An exhibition of the tokens was held at the Foundling Museum:
https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/events/threads-of-feeling/
An article on ‘Clootie Wells’:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/clootie-wells-where-the-trees-are-weighed-down-in-rotting-rags
Courtesy of the Foundling Museum, London