Ɛpsilon

Faraday to Miss Miles   28 April 18491

Royal Institution | 28 April 1849

My dear Miss Miles

I am promised for June to Mr Clowes2 for the name of Prichard 3 & also for December to Dr Todd4 for another candidate. But if for any reason Prichard should be removed from the list then I shall have great pleasure in sending you my Proxy[.]

Pray give my respects to Mr and Mrs. Miles5[.]

Yours Very faithfully | M. Faraday

1
Unidentified. This letter refers to the provision a place for an orphan in the London Orphan Asylum in Clapton, founded in 1813, of which Faraday became a subscriber in 1831. See Faraday to Roberts, 24 January 1832, volume 2, letter 533. Each subscriber had one or more votes (depending on the size of their subscription) for suitable candidates for a place in the orphanage. Votes could be transferred by proxy between subscribers. For accounts of the London Orphan Asylum see Alvey (1990) and Bache (1839), 58-65. Miss Miles is not listed as a subscriber, but there were a large number of anonymous and pseudonymous subscribers.
2
William Clowes (1807-1883, DNB). Printer. He had been a subscriber since 1846. See the 1850 Report of the London Orphan AsylumSuRO 3719/1/13, p.76.
3
James Henry Prichard appears in the list of orphans in the 1850 Report of the London Orphan AsylumSuRO 3719/1/13, p.34. His father had been a compositor in Stamford Street.
4
Possibly Robert Bentley Todd (1809-1860, DNB). Physician at King’s College Hospital, 1840-1860. He is not listed as a subscriber to the London Orphan Asylum.
5
Both unidentified.

Bibliography

ALVEY, Norman (1990): Education by Election: Reed's School, Clapton and Watford, St Albans.

BACHE, Alexander Dallas (1839): Report on Education in Europe, to the Trustees of the Girard College for Orphans, Philadelphia.

Please cite as “Faraday2173,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2173