Lost and found children 1827

Loretta reports:

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LONDON
LOST CHILDREN.

The Gresham committee having humanely provided a means of leading to the discovery of lost or strayed children, the following is a copy of the bill, issued in consequence of their regulation : —

TO THE PUBLIC.
LONDON.
If persons who may have lost a child, or found one, in the streets, will go with a written notice to the Royal Exchange, they will find boards fixed up near the medicine shop, for the purpose of posting up such notices, (free of expense.) By fixing their notice at this place, it is probable the child will be restored to its afflicted parents on the same day it may have been missed. The children, of course, are to be taken care of in the parish where they are found until their homes are discovered.

From the success which has, within a short time, been found to result from the immediate posting up notices of this sort, there can be little doubt, when the knowledge of the above-mentioned boards is general, but that many children will be speedily restored. It is recommended that a bellman be sent round the neighbourhood, as heretofore has been usually done.

Persons on receiving this paper are requested to fix it up in their shop-window, or other conspicuous place.

——

The managers of Spa -fields chapel improving upon the above hint, caused a board to be placed in front of their chapel for the same purpose, and printed bills which can be very soon filled up, describing the child lost or found, in the following forms:—

CHILD LOST                                                               CHILD FOUND
Sex                         Age                                                  Sex                  Age
Name                                                                              Name
Residence                                                                      May be heard of at
Further particulars                                                      Further particulars

The severe affliction many parents suffer by the loss of young children, should induce parish officers, and others, in populous neighborhoods, to adopt a plan so well devised to facilitate the restoration of strayed children.
—William Hone, The every-day book and table book, or Everlasting calendar of popular amusements, sports, pastimes, ceremonies, manners, customs, and events incident to each of the three hundred and sixty-five days in past and present times...Volume 3

Illustration of children dancing, 1820s, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.