Lying-In Charities
These institutions were founded in the early nineteenth century to provide linen and food for poor reputable married women during pregnancy. Hull’s was founded around 1802 and the Beverley equivalent was founded in 1812.
What records are held at the History Centre?
At C DMM/49 is an annual report and accounts for the Hull Charity on Behalf of Poor Lying-in Women (1812), and at U DDCV/15/540 are rules of the charity (1812).
At U DDCV/15/541-550 are records for Beverley’s Lying-in Charity. (1812 to 1916).
What records are held elsewhere?
The following records cannot be accessed at the Hull History Centre:
Hull Police Temperance Society Home
This home was located at 6 Fountain Street and took in ‘fallen women’. Records relating to the home can be found at the East Riding Archives in Beverley, at the reference POL/4/6/2. There is an article on the home in the East Yorkshire Family History Society journal, The Banyan Tree, July 2010, No.123, a copy of which can be found at the Hull History Centre.
York Diocesan Maternity Home
The York Diocesan Maternity Home opened at 14 Linnaeus Street, Hull in 1915. It was associated with the York Association for Preventative and Rescue Work. Merging with the Hull Family Welfare Council, in 1971, it was later run as the York Diocesan Family Welfare Centre. Admission and discharge books, (1940-5, 1961-70) and some baptism papers (1920s to 1970s) are at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. The Hull Sheltering Home for Girls was a branch of this home in the 1920s.
Newington Home for Girls
Opened on Nile Street in 1861 as Hull Temporary Home for Fallen Women, it moved to Evans Square in 1900. It eventually closed in 1939 due to lack of funds but between 1861 and 1878 it had been home to about 500 women.
Unfortunately no records of this home are known to exist.