The Sailors' Families' Society is a maritime charity caring for the children of deceased and disabled seafarers, and those in severe financial hardship, from the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy and general fishing backgrounds. The Society has its origins way back in 1821 after a public advertisement was placed in the Boys' Schoolroom, Salt House Lane, to organise a Society, originally called 'The Port of Hull Society for the Religious Instruction to Seamen'. It began life as a seaman's bethel - a place of worship for seamen - before becoming the largest orphanage in Hull, where at its peak over 300 children were looked after and educated on the Newland Estate. Like many charities set up in the nineteenth century, it had a Christian missionary aim as much, if not more, than a welfare one.