Foundlings and Orphans

One of the most famous children’s charities was the Foundling Hospital for unwanted and abandoned infants, founded in 1741 by Captain Thomas Coram. The first premises used by the hospital were some houses in Hatton Garden; later a grand new building was erected near Gray’s Inn. William Hogarth was one of the hospital’s patrons; later famous philanthropist Sir Thomas Bernard was a member of the hospital committee.

When mothers gave their unwanted baby to the hospital, they left a small token to help identify their child in case they ever wanted to reclaim it (only a tiny number ever did).  A silk purse, a coin, and even a lottery ticket were some of the items deposited (John Brownlow, Memoranda, or Chronicles of the Foundling Hospital, Sampson Low, 1847). 

Many charities like the Foundling Hospital, the Female Orphan Asylum at Lambeth (founded by John Fielding in 1758), and the Edinburgh Orphan School, apprenticed out the children in their care when they were old enough.

Some charities specialised in caring for the children of soldiers or seamen, like the Royal Hospital Schools at Greenwich, the ‘cradle of the navy’, founded in 1715. However it was not until 1783 that a special school-room and dormitories for 200 children were built inside the Royal Greenwich Hospital. In 1821 the Royal Hospital Schools merged with the Royal Naval Asylum for naval seamen’s orphans (founded in Paddington in 1798).  The schoolboys in the Hospital moved to the Queen’s House at Greenwich (where the Asylum had moved in 1818). If your ancestor was cared for by one of these institutions, my book Tracing Your Ancestors' Childhood has more information on archives and the types of records available.

Despite the work of charities like these, during the nineteenth century cities like London had ever-growing numbers of orphaned, destitute and criminal children and in my next blog post I’ll be discussing the way that the Victorians tackled these problems.

Images from the author’s collection:

Captain Thomas Coram. Hogarth’s Complete Works, Third Series. Chatto & Windus, 1874.

Orphan School, Edinburgh, Views of Edinburgh and Its Vicinity, 1819.

Royal Naval Schools, Greenwich:  ‘the cradle of the navy’. Old and New London Vol. VI, (Cassell, Petter & Galpin, c. 1895).

Street Children

Poor children in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were expected to work from an early age – shockingly early to modern eyes (although sadly child labour is still commonplace in many developing countries). 

 

If you strolled down a street in Georgian or Victorian England, you could hardly fail to notice the many children dressed in rags, and obviously in need of a good meal. Children helped their parents with their work at home (perhaps preparing wool or cotton for the loom), or found work in a factory, or if very poor, sold matches or gingerbread on the streets.   

Very small children were in great demand as chimney sweeps (as it was easy for them to climb chimneys), and unscrupulous parents sold their children to master sweeps for a few pounds. 

Alternatively poor children went to the poorhouse or workhouse for relief.  Children (not necessarily orphans) were often apprenticed by parish officials to ‘learn a trade’, so that they would not be a burden on the parish rates.  

Several charities grew up to look after destitute children, and I’ll look at the work of some of these institutions in my next blog post.

Images from the author’s collection:

‘The Poor Cripple Girl’ selling gingerbread, ‘The Orphans' selling matches, and ‘The Little Chimney Sweep’, from Henry Sharpe Horsley, The Affectionate Parent’s Gift, T.Kelly, 1827.

Bands of Hope

In my recent feature on youth organizations for Who Do You Think You Are? magazine I looked at the societies and organizations for children and young people which grew up during the nineteenth and early twentieth societies: Scouts and Guides, Bands of Hope, the Boys' Brigade, Church Lads' Brigade, etc.

The misuse of alcohol has caused many social evils down the ages, and in the 1830s several temperance societies like the Independent Order of Rechabites sprang up in the UK. Joseph Livesey of Preston was perhaps the greatest spokesman of the movement.‘Seven men of Preston’, including Livesey, signed the pledge (not to drink intoxicating liquors) at Preston on 1 September 1832. 

Preacher Jabez Tunnicliff  founded a temperance society for children and the first Band of Hope meeting was held at the South Parade Baptist Church, Leeds In 1847.  Members signed a pledge book promising to abstain from alcohol, and were given a certificate in return. Bands of Hope provided activities such as games, sports and outings for their child members.

You can use the records of societies like these to research your ancestors' childhood, and there's more in-depth guidance on the location of their archives, and the types of records available, in my latest book for Pen & Sword.

To get you started, the University of Central Lancashire has put digitised images of its temperance collections online here.  
Images from author's collection:
Procession of juvenile abstainers passing the Scott monument at Edinburgh, Illustrated London News, 19 July 1851.
Titles of temperance tracts 1910.
A book review (image below and left) mentions the Lancashire and Cheshire Band of Hope Union's concerts, with music by William Hoyle, at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

The Manchester Ship Canal

In the 1880s, Manchester businessmen floated the idea of building a canal broad and deep enough so that ships could sail from the Mersey estuary all the way to Manchester.  Cargoes could then be unloaded straight onto canal boats or onto railway waggons.   In 1882 a bill to construct the Ship Canal was proposed in parliament, but rejected by the House of Lords the following year. The scheme was bitterly opposed by Liverpool businessmen who did not want to see potential profits sailing past their collective noses. At last it was given the go-ahead.

 

The Manchester Ship Canal was a massive undertaking - some 76 million tons of rock and earth were excavated to complete its 35½ mile length. ‘Steam navvies’ (images left and below) were used to speed up the work, but even then over 16,000 ordinary navvies (men and boys) were employed at peak times. After the Ship Canal opened to traffic in January 1894, it rejuvenated trade and industry and the docks at Manchester bustled with cotton, grain and other imports.
The Canal still carries commercial traffic. 

If you have ancestors who worked on the Ship Canal, there's information on the location of records here on the National Register of Archives database. The main collection relating to workers (including accident books and pension records) is held at Greater Manchester County Record Office (series B10), soon to reopen as part of the new Archivesplus at Manchester Central Library.

Illustrations from author's collection:
Steamers in the Manchester Ship Canal. Lancashire Industrial & Commercial, 1935. 
English Steam Navvy, used to make the cutting for the Ship Canal. These ‘steam navvies’ could remove 3,000 tons of earth per day. Discoveries and Inventions.
French Steam Navvy, used for scooping out material for embankments along the Manchester Ship Canal. Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century, Robert Routledge, (Routledge & Sons, 1901.)