Hannah Aldworth: Difference between revisions

[[File:HannahAldworth.jpg|thumb| caption = Hannah Aldworth. Artist unknown. Photograph courtesy of St Nicolas Newbury PCC & Foundling Museum.]]

Aldworth was one of the daughters of Samuel Slocock, a prosperous brewer in the [[Newbury, Berkshire|Newbury]] area.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32203580|title=Correspondence of the Foundling Hospital inspectors in Berkshire, 1757-68|date=1994|publisher=Berkshire Record Society|others=Clark, Gillian (Independent researcher), Berkshire Record Society.|isbn=0952494604|location=Reading|oclc=32203580}}</ref>

From around 1759 to 1768 Aldworth supervised the care of children by nurses in her local area as an Inspectorinspector, a voluntary yet important role to the Foundling Hospital's operation and the expansion of care for foundling children in the [[18th century|eighteenth century]].<ref name=":0">Kathleen Palmer, 'The assistance of the fair sex', article in Ladies of Quality and Distinction Exhibition Catalogue, pp.16 - 17, p.16. Foundling Museum, London, 2018. https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/events/ladies-of-quality-distinction/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117192855/https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/events/ladies-of-quality-distinction/ |date=17 November 2018 }}</ref> A married woman named Naomi Southby, thought to be Hannah's sister,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.berkshirerecordsociety.org.uk/Volumes/BRS_Volume1_Text_pp1-124.pdf|title=The Correspondence of the Foundling Hospital|website=Berkshire Record Society|page=65|access-date=19 November 2018}}</ref> seems also to have been an Inspectorinspector, a connection which reflects the shared role of women Inspectorsinspectors amidst familial and social networks.<ref>A/FH/A/6/1/12/17/8. Foundling Hospital Archive, London Metropolitan Archives</ref>

Kathleen Palmer asserts that the involvement of women like Aldworth "in the business of an organisation with national reach, on equal terms with their male counterparts, was unprecedented".<ref name=":0" />

Aldworth's will indicates that she left £800 to endow parish [[almshouses]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D559490|title=National Archives, Will of Hannah Aldworth, PROB 11/1042/307|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Parry |first1=Francis Charles |title=An Account of the Charitable Donations to Places Within the County of Berks |url=https://archive.org/details/anaccountcharit00parrgoog |date=1818 |publisher=R. and A. Taylor |page=[https://archive.org/details/anaccountcharit00parrgoog/page/n125 107]}}</ref> She died "greatly and deservedly respected".<ref>E. Slocock, ''Incidents connected with the Slocock Family of Newbury, Berks, from 1666-1800 AD'', 1938; V.F.M Garlick, ''Newbury Charities and Gifts'' (1972), p. 54.</ref>

Aldworth's portrait now hangs in the [[St Nicolas Church, Newbury|St Nicolas Church]] in Newbury.<ref> 'The borough of Newbury', in ''A History of the County of Berkshire'': Volume 4, ed. William Page and P H Ditchfield (London, 1924), pp. 130-155. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol4/pp130-155 [accessed 18 November 2018]</ref>

[[Category:SchoolEnglish administratorswomen philanthropists]]