This book is part of a two-volume collection of essays written by the merchant and philanthropist Jonas Hanway for the Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes in 1761. The Magdalen Hospital was established in 1758 by a fellow merchant, Robert Dingley, to help impoverished women who had resorted to sex work and Hanway was an enthusiastic supporter of the charity. The Hospital was originally based in Whitechapel, before moving to Southwark in 1772, and took in girls and women under the age of 30. The Hospital was essentially a school. It did not provide medical assistance, instead it taught women skills such as needlework and provided religious instruction in the hopes that such abilities and knowledge would prevent their 'falling' once more.

Hanway’s essays are typical of eighteenth-century opinions on prostitution. They do not address the underlying causes that led to women to feel that they had to resort to it, rather, they hold the opinion that the women had committed a sin and were in need of moral guidance. Such language towards women who sought assistance did not change for much of the Hospital’s existence. The declared remit for much of the nineteenth century was to reform ‘fallen women, especially such as are not deeply degraded’, meaning women who had not been involved in sex work for very long, and the phrase ‘Penitent Prostitutes’ was not dropped from the institute’s name until 1938.

This book appears to have been specially bound in celebration of the Royal Family, particularly the accession of George III in 1760. The plates have been hand coloured and the endpapers have been decorated with additional coloured plates depicting George III, George II, the Battle of Culloden and a scene showing the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Perhaps Hanway intended the work to be presented to a member of the Royal Family in the hopes that the Hospital would receive Royal patronage.

Due to its interesting binding, this book was one of those selected by Olwen Hedley in the 1960s as a fine example of bookbinding in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Hedley’s ‘Additional Bookbindings’ serve as a supplement to the catalogue of fine bindings compiled in 1893 by the Royal Librarian Richard Rivington Holmes.

Binding information

Bound in red sheepskin with border of roses on both boards. Front board depicts a reclining woman (possibly Mary Magdalene) with attendant. Back board bears depiction of Britannia, seated on globe with her shield beside her. She holds a trident in her left hand and a palm frond in her right. Inside front board and on flyleaf is a hand-coloured plate of the return of the prodigal son and portrait of George III. Inside back board and endpaper, medallion portrait of George II and scene of the Battle of Culloden with medallion portrait of the Duke of Cumberland.