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Childhood ended, and adulthood began at a much earlier age in Victorian Stogumber, just as it does today for millions of children in the developing world.
Children were certainly considered to be children as long as they were very young, but there are good grounds for supposing that they were no longer thought of as children by the time they were aged around seven or so – and they were definitely expected to making a contribution to the household by thto 14 were still expected to work an 8 hour day. A government report in 1851 for instance, talked about one million ‘healthy unemployed .. between the ages of 5 and 12’ – we still have a problem with youth unemployment nowadays but there can be very few who consider the number of unemployed six year olds to be a problem.
This sounds shocking when you first hear it, and it is, but it also makes sense – it would have been physically impossible to support the half of the population which were aged under 15 if they remained wholly dependent on adults. Adults on their own would have been physically incapable of producing enough to sustain the whole population in a much more manual and less technologically advanced age.
The youngest children were expected to mind their younger siblings – those who were still infants and there were a variety of other household tasks to which they were gradually introduced. But they also played a part outside the home however, which obviously increased as they got older. We will be hearing in due course about the types of work in which they were engaged and the contribution – often a critically important contribution – they were able to make to the family’s income and to the local economy.
Adulthood had generally been reached by the age of 13, and the majority of children left home by the time they were 15. Some before this; some even before the age of 10. The usual way for children to enter the formal world or work was to enter into an annual contract with board and lodging provided at the employers house. Here is an example from 1834
Mary Ann Withcombe
When I was 16 I went to Mr George Burnett of the parish of Stogumber, shopkeeper who I had heard wanted a person in his shop. My mother went with me. She is since dead. She said to Mr Burnett that she heard he wanted a person in his shop and that I was willing to come. He said he had no objection to my coming a month upon trial. I went accordingly and served in his shop for a month at the expiration of which I said to him that I should like to stay another month before I made up my mind and he assented and I went for another month. When that month was up I asked him if he thought I was capable of learning the business. He replied that he thought I was. I then agreed to apprentice myself to him for four years. He was to find board and lodging and to pay me one pound the second year, two pounds the third year and three pounds in the last year and to teach me the business. I was to find my own clothes - He drew up an agreement in writing which we both signed. [I] finally left his service in April 1834.
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Poor children – that is children receiving poor relief – were bound out as apprentices by the parish authorities under a magistrates order until aged 21. The vast majority were bound out as domestic servants – farm or housemaids for the girls and agricultural labourers for the boys.
6th May 1802 Robert James, aged 8, son of William and Mary James, bound out to John Giles yeoman farmer of Stogumber until aged 21
16th August 1802 Amy Wood aged 9, daughter of Francis and Amy Wood, bound out until 21 or until married whichever shall be sooner, to James Moore, yeoman farmer of Stogumber
19th March 1804 Richard Chapel aged 10 parents both dead to Francis Pearse yeoman farmer of Stogumber
1st May 1805 Thomas Ford aged 9 bastard child of Sarah Ford bound out to Charles Routley yeoman farmer of Stogumber
23rd May 1805 Charlotte Webber 10 daughter of George and Ann Webber bound out to James Moore Yeoman
1st May 1805 Robert Hood aged 8 son of Francis and Jane Wood to John Milton yeoman farmer of Stogumber
This last lad had a brother who was two years older, aged 10, who was also bound out the same day to a different farmer elsewhere in the parish – what a black day that must have been for those two.
There were around 20 children a year bound out in this way - the oldest I came across was 16, the youngest a lad of just 7 called James Ford listed as bastard child of deceased – not even a name for his mother.
Not all apprentices were bound out as maids or agricultural labourers – a very few were despatched to learn a trade, John Norman was sent off to apprentice the butcher in Williton; another was sent off to apprentice to a soap boiler, another to a tailor, another to a clerk whose address was given in Kent.
©Duncan
Taylor 2009
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