From his Wikipedia entry:
‘Captain Thomas Coram (c. 1668 [Lyme Regis] – 29 March 1751) was an English sea captain and philanthropist who created the London Foundling Hospital in Lamb’s Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury, to look after abandoned children on the streets of London. It is said to be the world’s first incorporated charity.’
‘In his later years, he advocated a scheme for the education of Native American girls in America. During his time in America, he lived and worked with Native Americans leading to an interest in promoting and supporting their education: specifically the girls. Despite the general view at the time that education was not as important for girls, he was of the opinion that it was just as important for them to receive an education, if not more:
“An Evil amongst us here in England is to think Girls having learning given them is not so very Material as for boys to have it. I think and say it is more Material for Girls, when they come to be Mothers, will have the forming of their Children’s lives and if their Mothers be good or bad the children Generally take after them, so that giving Girls a vertuous Education is a vast Advantage to their Posterity as well as to the Public.”
This theme was also prevalent in his plans for the Foundling Hospital in that girls should also receive an education.’