Hickson Genealogy

Hicksons born in Lying In Hospitals

Several lying-in hospitals were established in mid 18th century London. Records of four of these have been deposited in London Metropolitan Archives. A fifth lying-in hospital known as the New General Lying In Hospital was opened in Oxford Road near Hanover Square in 1767 under the name of the Queen's Hospital. It shortly afterwards moved to a larger house in Store Street near Tottenham Court Road, where its patients included single women. The hospital closed about 1800 and no records of patients are believed to have survived. We also have transcripts of the registers of births and baptisms in the lying-in wards of the Middlesex Hospital, Mortimer Street, St Marylebone, which opened in 1747 and closed in 1807.

These hospitals were principally intended for the wives of poor industrious Tradesmen or distressed House-keepers and the wives of soldiers and sailors. The large London teaching hospitals did not usually admit women for childbirth before the late 19th century, though their medical students and staff delivered women in their own homes. The archives of Guy's Hospital held by London Metropolitan Archives include registers of mothers delivered by Guy's Hospital Maternity Charity 1853-1915 (H9/GY/B21/1-17) and maternity record books 1871-1896 (H9/GY/B22/1-5).

From Records of Patients in London Hospitals - British Lying-In Hospital Endell Street, London

Lying In Hospital, Endell Street, Holborn, London

Founded in 1749 for married women only, it was situated in Brownlow Street, Long Acre, Holborn until 1849 when it moved to Endell Street. It closed in 1913. Registers of births and baptisms 1749-1868 are held by the Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU (RG8/52-66). They have been included in the International Genealogical Index and can be consulted on microfilm at the Family Records Centre. London Metropolitan Archives has a delivery book 1856-1860 and case books 1905-1909.

• Ann Hickson, baptised 12 October 1755, daughter of Joshua Hickson and Ann Robson
• Maria Hickson, baptised 18 November 1773, daughter of Henry Hickson and Mary Killiner
• William Hickson, baptised 13 June 1776, son of Henry Hickson and Mary Killiner
• Sarah Hickson, baptised 26 August 1819, daughter of Stephen Robert Hickson and Ann Wells
• Ann Hickson, baptised 18 November 1829, daughter of William Hickson and Margaret Johns

Quote: (from History of the Rotunda, Dublin)
Mosse encountered these appalling conditions in the course of his practice in Dublin, and he became determined to found a Lying-In Training Hospital to provide food, shelter and medical care for destitute mothers, and to train midwives and surgeons, with the hope of having a trained midwife in every county in Ireland.