Orphelinat Evangélique des Batignolles, Paris, France
Orphelinat Evangélique (Evangelical Orphanage) des Batignolles was founded in 1854, by Pastor Louis Vernes, honorary president of the Consistory of the Reformed Church of Paris. Its aim was to train orphan girls for domestic service, most as maids and nannies, although any with a desire to become teachers were allowed to follow that path. Those admitted to the institution were required to be girls of a protestant faith, at least 9 years of age, who were either fatherless and motherless or who had lost just one parent.
The orphanage occupied premises at 15 Rue Clairault, which Vernes purchased so as to place the establishment on a firm footing. It provided accommodation for 44 girls under the supervision of a deaconess.
For many years, the the younger inmates received their primary education in the house under the care of a teacher. However, it then decided that contact with the city in which they would later have to make their way and they started attended outside schools in the neighbourhood.
At the end of their time at the home, most of the girls were found situations, either in France or abroad. Their subsequent progress was monitored and attempts were made to find them friend for them friends and protectors to watch over them.
A charge of 25 francs a month was made for the maintenance of each girl placed at the home, although the institution still relied heavily on donations for its operation.
Records
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- None identfied at present — any information welcome.
Bibliography
- Dinan, Susan E. Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France: The Early History of the Daughters of Charity (2017, Routledge)
- Fuchs, Rachel Abandoned Children: Foundlings and Child Welfare in Nineteenth-Century France (1984, State University of New York)
Links
- None identified at present.
Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.
