Child migration

• Tasks
• Background
• Teachers' notes
• Connections to curriculum

Old Bailey records reveal that thousands of children were transported to Australia as criminals between 1787 and 1868.

However, from 1869-1930, 80,000 children were forced to migrate to Canada. Behind this forced migration were individuals such as Maria Rye, Annie Macpherson, and Thomas Barnardo, and institutions such as the poor law unions, local government board, and the Home Office.

Use this lesson to find out why children were sent abroad in the period 1869-1913.  What was the justification for doing this?

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Tasks

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Background

For thirty years from 1869 onwards, Maria Rye’s agency brought 3,623 girls to Canada. The children were first sent to a reception centre in a converted court-house and jail at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, later called ‘Our Western Home’. The children sent there were called ‘Home children’. They were fostered by farming families, where they were destined to become domestic servants and farm workers. Some children were adopted within these families.

Out of the 1,100 girls Rye brought to Canada before 1875, 900 came from English poor-law unions, which sponsored their emigration. Workhouse girls had some form of education and were not the ‘gutter children’ she is pictured gathering up in the cartoon shown in this lesson.

For twenty years, Rye brought girls to Canada supported by Lord Shaftesbury and the public. She retired in 1895, after which her reception centres in Peckham (London) and Niagara were run by ‘Church of England Incorporated Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays’, known today as the Children’s Society.

Another philanthropist, Annie Macpherson, set up her Home of Industry in Spitalfields, London, in 1869. It provided shelter, work, education and religious instruction to children. From this home she took groups to Canada who were first received at Bellville and others at Knowlton or Galt. Again, these children were later placed with families to work on farms and become domestic servants. According to information provided to the Canadian government, Macpherson brought out 2,000 children from 1870 onwards. Out of that total, 300 were girls and 1,700 were boys. This represented ‘350 from various workhouses and 1,650 from distressed and orphaned families or waifs gathered from the streets of London or other large cities’.

Andrew Doyle, a Local Government Board inspector, inquired into the Canadian migration schemes for workhouse children in 1874. His report, ‘Boarded out to Canada: Report on Child migrants in 1874’, concluded that they merely provided cheap labour for farmers in Canada. He was particularly disapproving of how children were placed in families and the lack of aftercare given by Rye’s scheme. The Canadian Government justified their position and rejected the findings of Andrew Doyle.

Dr Thomas Barnardo also became a crucial figure in child migration. 30,000 children were sent to Canada from 1882 to 1939 from his homes. He saw it as an opportunity to help grow the population of the Empire. These children would settle, marry and have their own children thus contributing to the labour market and economy. However, the numbers sent to Canada declined with the impact of losses caused by First World War accompanying a fall in the birth rate.

It seems incredibly sad that the actual feelings of these child migrants were not considered at the time. They were taken away from all that was familiar and placed in a harsh physical environment, away from any family or people they knew. It is hard for us today to contemplate their reality. However, the letters used in this lesson that concerned the case of Mr Rowe and his daughters give us a glimpse into this world.

Both of Mr Rowe’s children were placed in Dr Barnardo’s Girls Village Home in Ilford in 1907 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act 1904. Their mother had died and their father had been sent to prison for neglecting his daughters on two occasions. His heartfelt plea failed to prevent their migration to Canada from Southampton in June 1911.

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Teachers' notes

This lesson is designed to introduce pupils to different historical sources concerning child emigration schemes to Canada led by Maria Rye, Annie Macpherson and Thomas Barnardo. Through these records, students can explore the justification of these schemes at the time.

Students are introduced to the philanthropist Maria Rye and her child migration scheme via a cartoon and article extract created and written by satirist George Cruikshank in 1869. It is an opportunity to explore how Rye justified her plan and how Cruikshank opposed it.

The work of Annie Macpherson is examined through a series of extracts recording the experience of several children who were migrated to Canada. These are taken from records created by Macpherson 1872-74 and include notes of visits, short quotes from children’s letters or statements from foster families.

Students can examine extracts from a Canadian Government Report on Immigration and Colonisation from 1874, which references both Rye and Macpherson and their leading critic, Andrew Doyle, a Local Government Board inspector who inquired into the Canadian migration schemes for workhouse children in 1874. The continued involvement of the Poor Law in such schemes is illustrated by a source from ten years later.

Publicity material is used as evidence to explain the activities of Dr Thomas Barnardo. Finally, two letters from Home Office records relating to a particular case of child migration in 1911 by Dr Barnardo are included.

If you wish, you could use the Empire Builder’s image at the top of the web page as a lesson ‘starter’ to introduce and discuss the topic of child migration.

To find out more regarding the social context for these children’s lives you could also ask students to consider other sources. Students can explore some of the pauper letters that reflect life in the workhouse in our Workhouse Voices Collection and sources in Victorian Industrial Towns, a collection of documents that provide information about living conditions for the poorest in society, including newspapers, letters, reports, a census return and photographs.

Students can work in pairs or small groups to study each source and report back to the whole class to discuss the answers to the questions. Alternatively, they can work through the tasks independently. All sources are transcribed and difficult language defined in square brackets or glossaried at the end of the online transcript.

In order to consider the theme of migration over time, students could also discuss the following extension questions relating to other developments:

• Can you explain the difference between migration and evacuation during the Second World War? (See Evacuation to Canada and Evacuation to Shropshire.)
• Can you find out about the role of The Children’s Overseas Reception Board (CORB) who evacuated 2,664 British children to protect them from the threat of German invasion and enemy bombing?

Resources

The following two resources help provide context for the lives of migrated children migrated in the 19^th century:

• Victorian Industrial Towns: What made them unhealthy?
• Workhouse Voices: What did paupers say about the Poor Law?

This lesson uses sources following the story of child evacuation to Canada during Second World War: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/evacuation-canada/

Further National Archives records on child migration in the 1880s can be found in this blog: https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/too-young-to-cross-the-road/

Podcast from The National Archives on the History of child migration to Canada. Some of the records described in this podcast appear in this lesson. https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/child-emigration-to-canada/

More detail on Andrew Doyle and link to his original report 1874: https://britishhomechild.com/?s=doyle&submit=

Sources

1. A cartoon and extract from a pamphlet on a proposal to send poor children to 1869, George Cruikshank © The Trustees of the British Museum.
2. Extracts from a report entitled: ‘Report as to the Children sent to Canada by the Bristol Incorporation of the Poor to Canada, under the protection of Miss Macpherson’, 1874, Catalogue ref: MH 32/20.
3. Extracts from a Report of the Proceedings of the Committee of the House of Commons on Immigration and Colonisation, 1874 Catalogue ref: MH 32/20.
4. Poster from the Poplar Poor Law Union in London listing children proposed for emigration to Canada, 12^th September 1884, Catalogue ref: MH 12/7698.
5. Extracts from publicity material produced by the charity Dr Barnardo’s. The material covers emigration of girls and boys to Canada, 1913, Catalogue ref: HO 144/1118 pgs. 2, 11.
6. Letter from George Code, Honorary Secretary for Dr Barnardo’s Children’s Homes, Stepney, London to Mr. Rowe concerning his two daughters, 20 January 1911, Catalogue ref: HO 144/1118/203442
7. Rowe to Dr Barnardo about the plan to send his daughters to Canada, 22 January, 1911, Catalogue ref: HO 144/1118/203442

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Connections to curriculum

AQA GCSE History

Thematic study: Britain: Migration, empires and the people: c790 to the present day

Key stage 3: The development of the British Empire

Key stage 2: Significant People

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