Canadians Just Wanted to Use me as a Scullery-Maid

Google Image Photo–Edward Norris – “”I worked hard – I was slapped” he recalls. “Sometimes I thought of my mother, in despair, and started to cry”.

When I grew up in the Eastern Townships I used to hear stories about the British Home children from my Grandparents that had arrived from England in the early 1900s and made Cowansville, Quebec their home. They never really stated anything was horribly wrong, but the looks on their faces made me understand all was not well. I just felt that the words Home Children was a dirty word.

To tell you the truth I never really thought about it much until I moved to Lanark County, Ontario where a large number of children had been also sent. Sometimes I heard stories that made me embarrassed to be a Canadian. After I watched a few documentaries about them I wondered if Canada had been in the same league as slave labour.

On Saturday at the Lanark County Genealogical Society meeting, Gloria F. Tubman told us about the 129,000 British Home Children (alleged orphans) were sent to Canada by over 50 British Child Care organizations from 1870-1957.

These 4-15 year old children worked as farm labourers and domestic servants until they were 18 years old. The organizations professed a dominant motive of providing these children with a better life than they would have had in Britain, but they had other ignoble and pecuniary motives.

Photo- Google Image-Edith Hutchinson – “My first assignment was at a ministers house. I did not like his wife.  She told me all Barnardo Children came from the slums and I replied that I had as good a home as she.  She did not send me back to Hazel Brae but sent me to a farmer down the road where I was happy”.

The UK organizations began to rid themselves of an unwanted segment of their society and profited when they “sold” these children to Canadian farmers. Siblings in care in Britain were suddenly separated from their families and each other when they were sent to Canada. Most never saw each other again. Many spent their lives trying to identify their parents and find their siblings and most were unsuccessful.

A letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen March 16 1928. B. Roberts Barnardo boy writes from Lanark, Ontario.

After arriving by steerage, the children (300-400 per boat) were sent to distributing and receiving homes, such as Fairknowe in Brockville, MacPherson sisters in Belleville, Dr. Bernado in Peterborough and Toronto and then sent on to farmers in the area. Although many of the children were poorly treated and abused, some did experience a better life here than if they had remained in the urban slums of England. Many served with the Canadian and British Forces during both World Wars.

A month ago I wrote a story about local Western migration and how young men 18 and up were offered land grants. It seems a lot of the male home children were offered the same deal in Russell, Manitoba, but were underwritten by Dr. Bernardo. They would give them what they needed as long as they paid it back in 5 years.

Doris Frayne – “Canadians just wanted to used me as a scullery-maid”.

Many believed that these children would have a better chance for a healthy, moral life in rural Canada, where families welcomed them as a source of cheap farm labour and domestic help. So did these agencies make money bringing these children to Canada? According to the site British Home Children & Child Migrants in Canada– the government began to provide a grant of $2 per child brought into Canada. This clearly expressed the governments approval of the importation of child labourers. Interesting also to note is that there was no bonus paid for children who came from the workhouses in England.

1894 Bonus Report

These children arrived in Canada with the usual kit given to child immigrants: a Bible, a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, writing materials, a brush and comb, a work bag with needles, thread and worsted for darning. All this was packed into a wooden trunk along with a nicely trimmed dress and hat for Sabbath wear and a wincey dress (made of a plain or twilled fabric), a dark hat for winter, a liberal supply of underclothing for summer and winter, three pairs of boots, four pairs of stockings, gloves, collars, aprons, pinafores and a warm hood.

They thought they were doing a favour to these children– but were they? Certainly a dark period of Canada’s history.

William  Price – “To be a home boy—it’s so hard to explain—there’s a certain stigma. I know that for a fact. You’re just in a class. You’re an orphan. Years ago you counted as dirt. You were a nobody. That was only common sense. You were alone in the world.”

.

Julie–My grandmother Alice Anne Newby and her older sister Louise and younger sister Emily were also taken to the Bernardo home from England. The little one was adopted by a family in Toronto. My grandmother and older sister were sent out to families to work. At 17 my grandmother was given a new dress and told she was going to marry. She was sent off with my grandfather Ora Cooper who was in his 40s to be married. They lived in Knowlton, Quebec and had 6 children.

Sheila Perry-My grandmother, Elizabeth Cowley, came over on the SS Parisian in 1900 from a Liverpool home, connected with The Barnados Home. Her mother and father had died and she was passed around amongst her siblings , and then sent to the home as they could not keep her. She was 13 when she came over with other Barnados children. She landed in Halifax , then on to the Knowlton Home, in Knowlton, Quebec. From here she was sent to different farms to work. At one she was abused , and the keeper from the home rescued her and brought her back to the home in Knowlton.She had left 3 sisters and a brother back in England . There were letters sent back and forth between her sister and a friend Polly , but she never saw her siblings , or any of her family ever again. She met my grandfather, Arthur Perry, and married and had 8 children, one being my Dad, Lawrence Perry.

Photo-British Home Children in Canada—Knowlton Distributing Home, Quebec

Quebec Eastern Townships Information

Townships Heritage Magazine article

Home Children, 1869-1932

Please sign this petition:

Official Recognition of the Contributions of the British Home Children in Canada

MacPherson Home Knowlton Quebec

KNOWLTON, APR. 01 & AUG. 05,1880

1901, 1902, 1906 KNOWLTON MARRIAGE REPORTS

THE HOME CHILDREN

Related reading

Have you read???

Canadians Just Wanted to Use me as a Scullery-Maid

Laundry Babies – Black Market Baby BMH 5-7-66

More Unwed Mother Stories — Peacock Babies

British Home Children – Quebec Assoc click

Ontario East British Home Child Family click

British Home Children Advocacy & Research Association click

The Wright Brothers– British Home Children

Home Boys and Family–Mallindine Family — Larry Clark

Clippings of the Barnardo Home Boys and Girls

Lily Roberts of Drummond The Rest of the Story

Did You Know About Dr. Bernardo’s Baby’s Castle? British Home Children — Home Boys

 

All photos- Patricia St-Onge

Derek LacosteMy grandmother came at age five must have been a real culture shock .Luckily she was adopted by a kind family from Bolton Glen ,they raised her as their daughter .sadly she died in her twenties ,My wife Kathy Andi visited the Isle of Man and restablished ties to the family she had left behind.Life was hard then for the unfortunate youth

Trevor JenneMy great grand mother went there in 1892 at the age of 5. I am waiting for Barnardos to open in England so I can get more information about her.

Taylor McClureMy great grandfather was sent here from Liverpool when he was 12. I completed a research project on the British Home Children for an organization in Sherbrooke called Actions Interculturelles and I was able to trace back my family tree. The Knowlton Distribution Home was one of 3 in the Townships. A very sad period in Canadian history.

George AddisDon Cherry’s Grandfather & Gilles Duceppe’s were placed here when they arrived. Thank You to The British Home Children’s Advocacy & Research Association I was able to complete my family tree back to Pontypridd Wales. I now have all Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates from Great Britain. Don’t try to dig to deep into the past of these young Children unless your prepared to find a lot of Skeletons in the closet. They had a rough Childhood over there.

All photos- Patricia St-Onge

British Home Children Advocacy & Research Association