The City were made trustees, and incorporated by
the name of the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the City of
London, governors of the possessions, revenues, and goods of the
hospitals of Christ, Bridewell, and St. Thomas the Apostle, to whom
the king granted 3,266 pounds 13s. 4d. per annum.
It was opened in the year 1552, in the month of November, and a good
writing-school was added to this foundation in the year 1694 by Sir
John More, Kt., and alderman.
The children admitted into this hospital are presented every year by
the Lord Mayor and aldermen and the other governors in their turns,
a list of whom is printed yearly and set up at the counting-house,
and a letter is sent to each of the said governors, some days before
the admission, reminding him of the day of choosing, and how those
he presents should be qualified, wherein is enclosed a blank
certificate from the minister and churchwardens, a blank petition to
the president and governors, and a paper of the rules and
qualifications of the child to be presented. Upon this the
governor, having made choice of a child to present, the friends of
the said child come to the counting-house on the admission-day,
bringing the said petition and certificates, rules, and letter along
with him, and on the back side of the said petition the governor who
presents endorseth words to this effect.
"I present the child mentioned in the certificate on the other side,
and believe the same to be a true certificate.
"Witness my hand . . . the day . . . of 17." Which the said
governor signeth, and the child is admitted.
The said rules and qualifications are as follows:
1. That no child be taken in but such as are the children of
freemen of London.
2. That none be taken in under seven years old.
3. That none be taken in but orphans, wanting either father or
mother, or both.
4. That no foundlings, or that are maintained at the parish charge,
be taken in.
5. That none who are lame, crooked, or deformed, or that have the
evil, rupture, or any infectious disease, be taken in.
6. That none be admitted but such as are without any probable means
of being provided for otherways; nor without a due certificate from
the minister, churchwardens, and three or four of the principal
inhabitants of the parish whence any children come, certifying the
poverty and inability of the parent to maintain such children, and
the true age of the said child, and engaging to discharge the
hospital of them before or after the age of fifteen years if a boy,
or fourteen years if a girl, which shall be left to the governor's
pleasure to do; so that it shall be wholly in the power of the
hospital to dispose of such child, or return them to the parent or
parish, as to the hospital shall seem good.
