A silver-gilt chalice and paten presented to the chapel of the Foundling Hospital, London by an anonymous gentleman and supplied by the London goldsmith Fuller White in 1753-4.

Communion cup and paten lid

Lent by kind permission the Coram in the care of the Foundling Museum

The chapel silver which consisted of a pair of chalices and patens and an almsdish was given by an anonymous gentleman.
The Chapel silver from the Foundling Hospital is engraved with the coat of arms which was devised for the hospital by William Hogarth.

Gifts to Charity
Public benefactions were seen as evidence of the donor’s faith. In 18th-century London, leading citizens founded institutions to assist the poor, sick and isolated. Prevention was better than a cure, and in 1758 the Asylum for Female Orphans was founded to prevent prostitution. In the same year the Magdalen Hospital was established to reform repentant prostitutes.

Hospital governors recognised the importance of religion in educating and nurturing those for whom they cared. Regular communion was considered part of the healing process. In poorhouses parish officers saw that communion was celebrated and prayer books distributed.

The Foundling Hospital was founded by Captain Thomas Coram in 1746 to provide a home and education for orphans and abandoned babies. The Hospital Governors wanted the children to be 'early instructed in the Principles of Religion and Morality'. They erected a Chapel adjoining the Hospital in Lamb's Conduit Fields as there was no place of public worship to which the Children and Servants of the Hospital could conveniently resort. The Governors resolved that thechildren 'do constantly attend Divine Service in the Chapel on Sundays & that the officers of the Hospital do often remind them of the lowness of their Condition, that they may early imbibe the Principles of Humility and Gratitude to their Benefactors'. The chapel opened in 1753 with a special performance of music by the composer George Frederick Handel.

The chalice, paten and alms dish were used during Holy Communion to serve the consecrated wine and bread and to collect donations.

They were an anonymous gift to the Foundling Hospital in London. The chalice is engraved with the hospital’s coat of arms, designed by William Hogarth, in which Nature and Britannia support a shield with a foundling. Its motto is ‘Help’. The paten bears the crest of a lamb with an olive branch.

The Foundling Hospital was started by Captain Thomas Coram in 1746 to provide a home and education for orphans and abandoned babies. The governors wanted the children to be instructed in the ‘Principles of Religion and Morality’ and to go to church on Sundays. They were also to be reminded of the ‘lowness of their Condition, that they may early imbibe the Principles of Humility and Gratitude to their Benefactors’.

LOAN:FOUNDLING MUSEUM.1:2-2005