This was the privileged path for those few foundlings who entered a religious order and lived the rest of their lives in convents.
By contrast, the male foundlings were in a much less favourable position.
Secondly, there was no family force to serve as a brake on the foundling's marriage.
In the case of a foundling woman, however, no such restraint was to be found.$!
The foundling homes saw themselves as the guardians of the female foundlings' honour.
In the 1820s, the foundling home recorded 121 marriages of its female foundlings (for whom a dowry was paid) and, in the 1830s, 244.
The dowry played a crucial role in facilitating the marriage of female foundlings.
The female foundlings did not, however, all follow the same path in their transition to adulthood.
