Captain ^homa* (Eoram ani the 

 Jfotnibling 



By MORTON G. STUART, Esq. 



Read at Lyme Regis Tuesday, July 21st. 



"T is related that when Captain Thomas Coram, the 

 founder of the Foundling Hospital, resided at 

 Rotherhithe about the year 1720, his avocations 

 obliging him to go early into the city and to return 

 late, he frequently saw infants exposed and deserted 

 in the public streets, and as there was but one step 

 in his active mind from the knowledge of an evil to 

 a desire for remedying it he immediately set about 

 \ enquiring into the causes for so outrageous a 

 departure from humanity and natural affection. 

 (History of the design of the Foundling Hospital, with memoir of 

 the founder, by John Brownlow, secretary. 1858.) Captain Coram 

 was born at Lyme Regis in the year 1668. He was a descendant 

 of the Corams of Devonshire ; and Kinterbury in that county was 

 for several years the property and residence of the family. His 

 father was apparently by profession a sailor. At Lyme Regis at 

 that time there was a considerable coasting and Newfoundland 



