Context: 18th-Century England & the Foundling Hospital
Why Context Matters for Coram Boy
Jamila Gavin’s Coram Boy (2000) is set in Georgian England, a period of stark contrasts between wealth and poverty, refinement and cruelty. The novel spans approximately 1741–1750 and draws heavily on real historical events and places. For the Edexcel exam, you must weave contextual knowledge throughout your essay — not bolt it on as a separate paragraph — to show you understand how the setting shapes characters and themes.
Edexcel assesses AO3 (context) heavily in Section B. You must connect historical facts about 18th-century England directly to how Gavin presents characters, settings and themes in the novel.
Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital
Captain Thomas Coram was a retired sea captain who was horrified by the sight of abandoned babies and children on London’s streets. After seventeen years of campaigning, he persuaded wealthy patrons to fund the Foundling Hospital, which was granted its royal charter in 1739 and took in its first children in 1741. It was the world’s first incorporated charity and the UK’s oldest children’s charity. Mothers who could not care for their babies could leave them at the Hospital, where they would be given a new name, educated and trained for employment.
In the novel, the Foundling Hospital becomes a place of salvation for Aaron, contrasting sharply with the fate of babies who fall into Otis Gardiner’s hands. Gavin uses this real institution to explore the theme of how society chooses which children deserve protection and which are disposable.
The composer George Frideric Handel was one of the Foundling Hospital’s most important benefactors. He conducted annual performances of his Messiah at the Hospital from 1750, raising thousands of pounds. In Coram Boy, Handel is a living character whose music runs through the narrative like a thread. Gavin uses Handel and his music to represent beauty, redemption and the possibility of transcending one’s birth — Aaron’s musical talent connects him to this world of art and grace, despite his origins as an abandoned child.
Abandoned Children and Child Trafficking
In 18th-century England, thousands of unwanted children were abandoned each year. Illegitimate children faced social disgrace and were often left to die. Before the Foundling Hospital, there was virtually no institutional support for these children. Some were taken in by baby farmers who charged a fee but frequently neglected or killed the children entrusted to them.
Gavin draws on this dark reality through the character of Otis Gardiner, who collects babies from desperate mothers for a fee, promising to deliver them to the Foundling Hospital. In reality, Otis and his son Meshak bury most of these babies in the countryside. This child trafficking plot is not invention — it reflects documented 18th-century practices where unscrupulous individuals exploited vulnerable mothers for profit.
Baby farming was a real and widespread practice in 18th-century England. Gavin uses Otis Gardiner’s child-collecting scheme to dramatise how the most vulnerable members of society — infants and unmarried mothers — were exploited for profit.
Class, Wealth and the Social Hierarchy
Georgian England had a rigid class system. The landed gentry like the Ashbrooks lived in grand country estates, while the urban poor lived in squalor. The gap between rich and poor is central to Coram Boy: Alexander Ashbrook grows up in privilege at Ashbrook House in Gloucestershire, while Meshak and the foundling children exist at the very bottom of society. Gavin uses these contrasts to explore whether a person’s worth is determined by birth or by character.
The novel is set during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Gavin includes Toby, a Black child at the Foundling Hospital, to remind the reader that the exploitation of children was part of a wider culture of treating human beings as property. The character of Mrs Lynch also references the slave trade through her connections. By weaving slavery into the narrative, Gavin broadens her exploration of who in 18th-century society was considered fully human and who was not.
Gavin’s Purpose: Why This Context Matters
Gavin wrote Coram Boy in 2000, drawing on years of historical research. She was born in India and grew up in England, and her work frequently explores the experiences of outsiders and marginalised groups. By choosing to set her novel in 18th-century England, Gavin invites the modern reader to see parallels between historical and contemporary attitudes to children, poverty and race. The novel was adapted for the stage by the National Theatre in 2005, receiving four Olivier Award nominations including Best New Play, which brought Gavin’s themes to an even wider audience.
Understanding this historical context is not optional for the exam — it is how you unlock the deeper meanings of Gavin’s novel. Every character, every setting and every plot event connects back to the realities of 18th-century England. When you write about the Foundling Hospital, the class system, child trafficking or slavery, you are engaging with AO3 — and demonstrating that you understand the world Gavin recreates and why she chose to recreate it.