1743.
1. Benjamin Hoadly, bishop of Winchester. W. Hogarth pinx. B. Baron sculp. The plate belongs to Mrs. Hoadly.
2. Captain Thomas Coram, who obtained the charter[1] for The Foundling Hospital. Mezzotinto; a three-quarters. The first print published by M'Ardell. The original is a whole length. The captain has the seal of the charter in his hand. Before him is a globe; at a distance a prospect of the sea. This is perhaps the best of all Hogarth's portraits, and is thus described in the Scandalizade, a satire published about 1749.
"Lo! old Captain Coram,[2] so round in the face,
And a pair of good chaps plump'd up in good case,
His amiable locks hanging grey on each side
To his double-breast coat o'er his shoulders so wide," &c.
[1] In which the name of William Hogarth stands enrolled as one of the earliest governors of the charity.
[2] Mr. Coram was bred to the sea, and spent the first part of his life as master of a vessel trading to our colonies. While he resided in that part of the metropolis which is the common residence of seafaring people, business often obliging him to come early into the city and return late; he had frequent occasions of seeing young children exposed, through the indigence or cruelty of their parents. This excited his compassion so far, that he projected The Foundling Hospital; in which humane design he laboured 17 years, and at last, by his sole application, obtained the royal charter for it.[A] He died at his lodgings near Leicester-Square, March 29, 1751, in his 84th year: and was interred under the chapel of the Foundling Hospital, where the following inscription perpetuates his memory:
"Captain Thomas Coram,
whose Name will never want a Monument
so long as this Hospital shall subsist, was born about
the year 1668; a Man eminent in that most eminent
Virtue, the Love of Mankind;
little attentive to his private Fortune, and refusing
many Opportunities of encreasing it, his Time and Thoughts
were continually employed in endeavours to promote the
public Happiness,
both in this Kingdom and elsewhere, particularly
in the Colonies of North America; and his Endeavours
were many Times crowned with the desired Success. His
unwearied Solicitation, for above Seventeen Years together,
(which would have battled the Patience and Industry of any
Man less zealous in doing Good)
and his Application to Persons of Distinction of both Sexes,
obtained at Length the Charter of the Incorporation
(bearing Date the 17th of October, 1739)
For the Maintenance and Education
of Exposed and Deserted Young Children,
by which many Thousands of Lives may be preserved to the
Public, and employed in a frugal and honest Course of
Industry. He died the 29th of March, 1731, in the
84th Year of his Age, poor in worldly Estate, rich in good
Works; was buried, at his own Desire, in the Vault
underneath this Chapel;
(the first here deposited)
at the East End thereof; many of the Governors
and other Gentlemen attending the Funeral, to do
Honour to his Memory.
Reader, thy Actions will shew whether thou art sincere
in the Praises thou may'st bestow on him; and if thou hast
Virtue enough to commend his Virtues, forget not to
add also the Imitation of them."
[A] For his other charitable projects, see Biog. Dict. 1784, vol. IV. p. 120.
3. The same engraving, for the London Magazine.
4. Characters and Caricaturas, "to show that Leonardo da Vinci exaggerated the latter." The subscription-ticket to Marriage à la Mode.