Childhood & Death in Victorian England

Preface

Having recently studied local newspapers whilst researching my book The Derby Book of Days, I was amazed at the numerous entries regarding childhood deaths. The way that death was dealt with and the attitudes of the Victorians do have some parallels with today, but there are also many differences which, I hope, will be conveyed to you through the cases reported in this book. I found it fascinating that crimes perceived as modern in the twenty-first century were happening back then, and that people never change, only the circumstances in how they live and the technologies that enhance their lives alter. I hesitate to add the description ‘fuller lives’ because I believe that the average later Victorian child lived a richer quality of life than his modern counterparts who often live in smaller families with more distant relatives, self contained homes and computer consoles; the twenty-first century child is far more restricted than its predecessor. This book is more than an insight into childhood deaths and our need to fulfil a morbid curiosity; it is a memorial to all of the lives that never made it to adulthood.

Within these pages you will find the stories of many children, some of these tales may be brief, some a little longer as all of them spent such a short time on earth, but their experiences will stay with you for a long time. Many of these children’s stories have not been told for over a hundred years, and they may have been lost forever if not for this book. I have endeavoured to breathe at least a little of life into the stories of these very unfortunates, to place them upon the map of time so that they may enjoy an eternal existence between these pages. May their memories live on….

Sarah Seaton

February 2016

Introduction

There is definitely a parallel between Victorian society and its twenty-first century equivalent. We may believe that we have moved on as human beings, evolved further perhaps, but as you read the reports, you will see some of the same things that we read about today in our news reports and inquests. The sad truth is that we never learn from our mistakes. One exception to this rule is child labour; in this regard, we have certainly come a long way. The Victorians were responsible for creating the kind of childhoods that our children still enjoy today. They understood the benefits and importance of a child being a child. They introduced the Education Act in 1870 so that children could learn, grow and accomplish. The majority of children recorded in this book were from the lower and working class echelons of England; they have not been chosen this way, as they are true representations of incidents that have been collated over several years of research. Many middle and upper class children were not exposed to the same risks, although they were far from exempt as you will see.

During the nineteenth century, the death rate in children was high and many would die of diseases that a child would survive today. Inadequate housing conditions, poor diet and overcrowding contributed heavily to illness. Many of the deaths were not suspicious, merely a result of circumstance. In Nottingham in the second quarter of the century, around a third of deaths brought before the coroner were in children under the age of nine. The main causes were severe burns, scalding with boiling water and accidental overdoses of opium. Drowning, suffocation and road or workplace accidents were also prevalent. For the purpose of this book, I have set the time frame between 1800 and 1901, as people and attitudes did not change as soon as the reign of Victoria began. What happened during her reign was as a direct result of what came before. It is telling of the Victorian age perhaps, that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was formed sixty years before the early version of the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) which began in London in 1884, becoming a national charity five years later. The first child cruelty case was actually prosecuted under the cruelty to animals legislation.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the majority of people were still living in rural villages and hamlets, and the mother’s place was in the home where she may have taken in work to supplement the family income. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, many of these mothers would move with their families to the larger towns and cities to find work in the factories and mills. With the introduction of the Census Act in 1800 the first census of 1801 recorded that there were 8.3 million people living in England. By 1851, the population had risen to 16.8 million and by 1901, to 30.5 million. It is easy to see why, as people moved to find work in the large towns throughout the century, overcrowding and poor housing conditions would present a problem. Many struggling families relied on the local system of poor relief. In 1800 it was administered by individual parishes; overseers would collect rates from parishioners and pay out to support them should they fall into difficulty. In 1802, poor relief spent in England and Wales amounted to £4,078,000 and by 1832 it had risen to £7,037,000.

In 1834 the New Poor Law was introduced, which meant that the responsibility for pauper children came under the authority of the newly formed Poor Law Unions. Parishes grouped together and financed purpose-built workhouses, where if families needed to be admitted, they were divided into dormitories and life became harsh and regimented; for many people the workhouse was a last resort. This system existed until 1930 when the Local Government Act was introduced and where personal assistance was transferred to local councils. Guidelines under the 1834 Poor Law stated that mothers of illegitimate children should get less support; under the old Poor Law, fathers were sought out to pay for their children’s upkeep which meant examinations of witnesses and those accused as potential fathers by parish officials. New poor-law authorities were deterred from attempting to identify the fathers of illegitimate children and recover the costs of child support from them as it encouraged women to stay single and have more children without marriage. Workhouses were instructed to give pauper children at least three hours of schooling a day and to employ a school master and mistress. As well as learning about Christianity, the children were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and were trained to be useful in industry and virtue.

Instruction of Pauper Children in the South Metropolitan District School, Sutton. (Source: Illustrated London News, 1872)

Whether illegitimate or not, pauper children were a public concern; long before ‘education’ was available in workhouses, schools were established, such as Mr Drouet’s establishment for pauper children at Surrey Hall, Lower Tooting in London in 1804. In 1839 the government instructed the school to teach the children the ways of industry to help equip them for a positive future. By 1846, 723 children were resident at the school, which cost 4s 6d per week per child. As early as 1802, The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act (also known as the Factory Act) was introduced to improve the living and working conditions of children, particularly in cotton mills. Part of the act advised that children should have a basic education and attend religious services at least once a month, although its effectiveness was reliant upon the goodwill of the mill and factory owners.

Ragged schools had existed since the eighteenth century, but were not widespread; it was not until the nineteenth century, in the rapidly growing industrial towns that the Victorians introduced ragged schools on a more regular and available basis. In 1844 the Ragged Schools Union was formed which offered completely free education for poor or ragged children in the 200 schools that were created in Britain. By 1867 there were 226 Sunday ragged schools, 240 day schools, and 207 evening schools offering education to 26,000 children and sometimes adults; by 1883 it was estimated that 300,000 destitute children had received a free education in London alone. As some schools developed and grew, they offered sport and field trips to the countryside, and in later years the seaside. Books were awarded as prizes and teachers took more of a pastoral role, visiting absent children at home and engaging with parents.

By the time the Education Act was passed in 1870 there were 350 ragged day schools. School boards were created under the Elementary Education Act of 1870 to build and manage establishments where there was a need for them and to provide a non-denominational based education for all children aged between five and 13. This did not affect the voluntary schools which still continued to operate. It was not until 1880 with a further Education Act that school was made compulsory for children aged between five and 10. However in the 1890s attendance for this age group was still at only 82 per cent. By 1901 there were still 300,000 children who worked outside of school hours, which often transferred over into daytime causing major problems with truancy. The school day times were set between 9.00 am and 3.30 pm to enable these children to carry out their other obligations, whether that was working on a farm or doing chores at home. Similarly the six week summer holiday was devised for children to help with picking fruit and farming. Parents paid a fee for their children to attend school until a change in the law in 1891; the boards paid the fees of poor children. Further legislation extended the age of attendance to 11 which rose to 12 in 1899. In 1902 the school boards were replaced by local education authorities.

With the introduction of education for all children, some danger was eradicated from their daily lives, as previously many had been left at home under the watchful eye of siblings only a few years older, or they had been working in dangerous factories and mills. Education meant they were now safely ensconced within a secure schoolhouse with teachers who often looked out for their welfare.

School rooms were not only used for teaching; they sometimes ‘doubled up’ as places for other types of meetings - inquests were held locally and usually in a public house, but sometimes they were held in schoolrooms, parish churches, county gaols, workhouses, hospitals, lunatic asylums or private residences. Up until 1854, the parish constable would inform the coroner that a person had died; after this time, the responsibility passed over to the county police. According to Charles Dickens: ‘The Coroner frequents more public-houses than any man alive’. Inquests were held where there was reasonable doubt that the person had died from something other than natural causes. Because of the lack of refrigeration, the inquest was usually held as soon after death as possible, often on the same day. Usually it was the day after the death, as an inquest took some degree of arranging between the coroner’s officer, the parish officer or later, County Police.

Witnesses would be called and where applicable, medically qualified people would give evidence or their account of a post mortem, if one was carried out. A warrant would be issued to ‘good and lawful men’ between the ages of 21 and 60 to form the jury of twelve. After the jury was sworn in, they would view the body alongside the coroner who would point out any issues that they may wish to consider. The body was often attended to beforehand to make it as presentable as possible. In early days, the body would be on view for the whole of the inquest, however by the early Victorian period, it was usually placed away in a side room or outhouse; public houses of the period may still have had these buildings in situ. Many of the accounts in this book are taken from newspaper reports and inquests written at the time, which enable the reader to gain an insight into the everyday lives of the Victorian people: how mothers with children managed to carry out their work, what childcare resources they had to hand and often, what disasters this brought about, including ultimately, the death of a beloved child.

Life expectancy for a Victorian child was very low: vaccination was not yet commonplace and children were exposed to a host of diseases, only half of all babies born survived and out of those, a fifth would die before their second birthday.

‘ A sort of fatalism is very prevalent among the poor: they have… far less reliance on medical care than the upper classes. Some appear careless and apathetic; some resign themselves to the event; but from one or another of these causes, not a few of the poorest and most degraded allow their diseases to take their course.’

Source: The Life of Infants and Children in Victorian

London 123HelpMe.com 25 May 2016

With such a high death rate amongst children, the Victorians were seemingly resigned to the reality of death; one cannot help but be moved when faced with their tradition of post mortem photography. To a twenty-first century person, there are lots of visual memories (if one is lucky) of a passed loved one. In the Victorian period, photography was still relatively new, complicated and expensive; so photographs, particularly of children, were not often taken. However, it is easy to understand why photographs were taken of deceased loved ones, whether alone or with other family members, as it may be the family’s one and only chance to gain a memento of their precious child. Specialist photographers had a host of tips to position the dead person into lifelike poses, and if examined closely it is sometimes easy to spot a person assisting the deceased. In the early days, images were usually close ups of the face or a full body shot and the subject was usually dressed in their best outfit to serve as a lasting reminder of them at their ‘finest’. Children were often photographed with a parent or in a family line up showing a completed family or position in age. Some were placed in cribs and later photography would show actual coffins with the child inside and floral tributes. Before the introduction of photography, loved ones were sometimes remembered in jewellery such as a lock of hair placed within lockets, rings and cufflinks, or braided to make chains for watch fobs. If the family was affluent, they may have a painting commissioned. With the introduction of photography, small pictures sometimes replaced the hair in mourning brooches and lockets. It would be comforting to think that many of the children who are recorded within this book have memorials left to them somewhere in England; although fairly expensive, perhaps a few of them are etched for all eternity onto a gravestone, or weaved into a sampler. However they were remembered, their stories remain forever within these pages.

Chapter 1

Industrial Mishaps and Misdemeanours

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great prosperity in Britain. Market leaders in cotton, wool and other commodities, the inventors of the Victorian age pushed ever further to create ingenious machinery to drive productivity even higher. The First Industrial Revolution began around 1760, starting with new manufacturing processes in textiles, steam power and iron making, it continued through to what is termed the Second Industrial Revolution, which took place between 1840 and 1870 when even further advances were made on a much larger scale.

Where cottage industries had first thrived, they were now replaced by machines and factories situated mainly in the large towns and cities. Poverty-stricken workers had no choice but to follow the work; a study of census returns in Nottingham between 1841 and 1901 showed that many of the inmates of common lodging-houses in 1841 and 1851 tended to be whole families moving to the town to find work. Wages were low and children were encouraged to toil in often dangerous jobs to make up the family wages so that they could merely survive. During the 1830s the youngest recorded working child was four-years-old, although the average age of a child labourer was 10.

Many of the towns were ill-equipped to meet the housing needs of the newcomers; often whole families shared just one room in poorly built housing, thrown up quickly by opportunist landlords. Even the basements were let, which in some places flooded with rainwater in bad weather; inadequate housing, poor sanitation and dangerous working conditions led to the death of many. This in turn resulted in a high number of unfortunate children who ended up in the poorhouse or on relief due to the death of one or both parents.

For some of these unfortunate children, prospects became even worse; sent into the workhouse, a selection of the poor law guardians who ran these establishments used a ‘batch apprenticeship’ system that allowed them to dispatch groups of children often hundreds of miles away from home to work in mills and factories in areas such as Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumberland. London and the south of England were the most prolific at releasing numbers of children into these areas. Recent studies by Katrina Honeyman (Child Workers in England, 1780–1820: Parish Apprentices and the Making of the Early Industrial Labour Force, 2007) and Caroline Withall (University of Oxford) claimed that batch apprenticeships continued to thrive well into the 1870s. As the workhouses were financed by parish rates and run by committees of local people (Poor Law Guardians) one of their main roles was to keep costs as low as possible as most of them were overcrowded. One of the easiest ways to alleviate the cramped conditions was to farm off children who had no one to represent them. From 1845 to 1870, 244 Liverpool children aged between nine and 14 were sent to silk, worsted, flax and cotton mills, and were employed in industries such as bobbin manufacturing as part of a batch apprenticeship system, increasing their risk of death from an industrial injury.

Once in another parish, and provided they completed their apprenticeship, they then became the responsibility of that parish should they fall on hard times again (under the rules of the Settlement Act of 1662). In the early nineteenth century, it cost St Pancras Workhouse 30s. to get an apprentice indentured in the cotton industry. Compare that to the yearly cost of their upkeep within the workhouse, which amounted to four times as much and it is easy to see why so many children were sent along this pathway. The mill owner would sign a contract with the workhouse, setting out the terms and the children would sign a contract with their new employer to agree to stay apprenticed to them until they were 21. This benefitted employers immensely; for instance, adult males at Courtauld’s Mills earned 7s. 2 d. a week, whilst children under the age of 11 received only 1s. 5 d. A survey carried out in 1818 showed that half of the workers in the Manchester and Stockport cotton factories had started work before they were 10. One recorded for the Lancashire cotton mills in 1833 showed that a large proportion of workers were children and young adults.

The very youngest children, from the age of four, worked as scavengers in the mills; the lowliest of the apprentices enduring the harshest of conditions. Collecting cotton wastage from the floor underneath the machinery, and cleaning up the dust and oil meant that many children suffered serious injuries whilst under the mules, with fingers, hands, and sometimes heads being crushed by the heavy moving parts. The tenters who