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To receive exposed children, nurse and instruct.
males employed in trades till 21,
then discharged, and on a certificate thereof freemen.
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XVII. And whereas the exposed or foundling children, left yearly on the several parishes in the said city of Cork, and the suburbs and liberties thereof, are very numerous, and do frequently perish for want of due care and provision for them: be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That as soon as the said work-house shall be so built as aforesaid, the governours of the said work-house shall receive from the church-wardens of the respective parishes of the said city and liberties thereof all the exposed or foundling children, that shall then be in the said city and liberties, and from thence forward the said governours shall also receive from the church-wardens of the said parishes every child, that shall be thereafter exposed and found in the streets of the said city and liberties, which shall be left to be maintained by any parish or parishes in the said city and liberties; and the said governour shall take due care to have all such exposed and foundling children nursed; clad; and taught to read and write, and throughly instrusted in the principles of the protestant religion; and as the male children shall be severally fit and capable, such male children shall be taught and instructed in such trades or callings, as the said governours in their general court of assembly shall direct and appoint, and shall be severally employed in such trade and callings within the said house, until they shall respectively attain the age of twenty one years; at which age they shall be severally discharged from their service, and receive a certificate under the common seal of the said corporation, notifying his or their having been brought up and educated in the said house, and his and their having been instructed in such trade or profession, as he and they have been taught; and on his and their producing the said certificate, and taking such oaths as the law shall direct, he and they shall be a freeman and freemen in the said city of Cork of the corporation, in which trade or calling he or they had been instructed, and have such and the same privileges, as any other freeman or freemen of such corporation in the said city, have or can enjoy.
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