THOMAS CORAM.*
ALL Mr. Compston's enthusiastic research has not been able to add much to our knowledge of the life of Thomas Coram, the old merchant shipper to whom the Foundling Hospital owes its origin. But scanty though the records are, they throw some welcome light on his chaiacter, and we see him as a bluff, generous, and somewhat arbitrary sea captain—a conception thoroughly borne out by the delightful portrait which serves as a frontispiece to the book. Nothing is known of Coram's boyhood except that he was borne at Lyme Regis, in Dorset, and went to sea first, as he relates, " at 1 years old, several years before King Charles ye 2d dyed." Somewhere in the middle " twenties " he is found settling in America, first at Boston and then at Taunton, as a shipwright. Later he returned to his seaman's life and became an enthusiast for colonization. His knowledge, gained from his numerous voyages, of the districts likely to be most suitable for emigration, was recognized by the authorities. He was appointed one of the trustees of the Colony of Georgia in 1732, and Horace Walpole, uncle of the Walpole of litera- ture, could write of him to Robert Walpole in 1735 as " the honestest, the moat disinterested, and the most knowing person about the plantations I ever talked with." Ceram, though apparently a successful skipper and shipwright, was never a wealthy man. His philanthropies absorbed most of his money, and in his old age he had to depend upon the kindness of friends and admirers. Mr. Compston claims Captain Comm as " Church- man, Empire-Builder, and Philanthropist." He was certainly earnest and indefatigable in all three riles. There are indica- tions, however, that hero and there the bluff old sea-dog's earnestness outran his discretion. Taunton, U.S.A., a hotbed of Independents, where Comm elected to settle for some years, had no welcome either for him or for the Church of which he was such a warm advocate. The prejudice against him was carried to extreme lengths. Nothing daunted, when the intrepid ship- wright had a windfall through the success of a lawsuit, he left it for the provision of a church in that town. The gift, however, was somewhat spoilt by the manner of it ; for Coram began the bequest with the words :- " That if ever hereafter the inhabitants of the town of Taunton should be more civilized than they now are, and if they should incline to have a Church of England built amongst them, or in their town, then upon application of the inhabitants of said town," &c., ke.
Compston regards this bequest as an act of magnanimity towards Taunton, and seems a little surprised that the offer was not accepted. We confess we are not.
The story of Coram's connexion with the Foundling Hospital, the most famous of his philanthropies, is an interesting ono, but ends on a pathetic note. After seventeen years ardent advocacy of the idea, the satisfaction of seeing it fulfilled and the joy of working at its development as a member of Committee, Coram was excluded from any further share in its management. The whole of the facts will never be known, for, say& Mr. Compston, "a sealed dossier on the subject had disappeared before the middle of last century." What records there are, however, accuse Ceram of aspersions, unfounded and malicious, on the staff. From what we can read of Coram's character, we agree with his biographer that it is " diff cult to imagine him as a back- stairs conspirator," and we prefer to regard it as an unfortunate instance of the indiscretion to which Coram seems to have been prone. Lovers of quaint diction will be delighted by Comm
• Thorn. Comm. By H. F. B. CompoWn. Ds. as. .eta Co. [2t% net,/
Petition to the King for the establishment of the Foundling Hospital, and by his vigorous account of the stranding and plundering of the Seaflower,' in which vessel he shipped as supercargo.
Previous page
