![]() ![]() The young strangers were conducted into a spacious room with long, narrow tables, and wooden benches. (2) John Brown, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe (1828) In August 1799, eighty boys and girls, who were seven years old, or were considered to be that age, became parish apprentices till they had acquired the age of twenty-one. The children were told that when they arrived at the cotton mill, they would be transformed into ladies and gentlemen: that they would be fed on roast beef and plum pudding, be allowed to ride their masters' horses, and have silver watches, and plenty of cash in their pockets. Pancras Workhouse and the owner of a great cotton mill, near Nottingham. In the summer of 1799 a rumour circulated that there was going to be an agreement between the church wardens and the overseers of St. ▲ Main Article ▲ Primary Sources (1) John Brown, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe (1828) Robert Blincoe died of bronchitis at the home of his daughter in Gunco Lane, Macclesfield in 1860. Abel Heywood got to know him in Manchester during this period: "He was a little man in height, his legs being very crooked, the result of his early life in a cotton factory." Robert Blincoe carried on the business of a cotton-waste dealer in Turner Street. It has been argued by John Waller, the author of Oliver: The Real Oliver Twist (2005) argues that he took his story from the memoirs of Blincoe. In January 1837, Richard Bentley, the owner of the journal, Bentley's Miscellany, agreed to publish Oliver Twist, a serial written by Charles Dickens. One of his sons went on to graduate from Queens College, University of Cambridge to become a Church of England clergyman. After his release he became a cotton-waste dealer and his wife ran a grocer's shop.īlincoe's business was successful and he was able to pay for his three children to be educated. Unable to pay his debts, Blincoe was imprisoned in Lancaster Castle. Robert Blincoe's Memoir (1833)Īs a result of a fire in 1828, Robert Blincoe's spinning machinery was destroyed. Five years later, John Doherty published Robert Blincoe's Memoir in pamphlet form. The story also appeared in Carlile's The Poor Man's Advocate. The story appeared in five weekly episodes from 25th January to 22nd February 1828. Robert Carlile eventually decided to publish Robert Blincoe's Memoir in his radical newspaper, The Lion. Later that year John Brown committed suicide. ![]() John Brown gave the biography to his friend Richard Carlile who was active in the campaign for factory legislation. Brown found the story so fascinating he decided to write Blincoe's biography. If this young man had not consigned to a cotton-factory, he would probably have been strong, healthy, and well grown instead of which, he is diminutive as to statue, and his knees are grievously distorted."īrown interviewed Blincoe for an article he was writing on child labour. At the same time, I was told of his earnest wish that those sufferings should, for the protection of the rising generation of parish children, be laid before the world. He later explained: "It was in the spring of 1822, after having devoted a considerable time to the investigating of the effect of the manufacturing system, and factory establishments, on the health and morals of the manufacturing populace, that I first heard of the extraordinary sufferings of Robert Blincoe. John Brown, a journalist from Bolton, met Robert Blincoe in 1822. Blincoe married a woman called Martha in 1819. Blincoe completed his apprenticeship in 1813, worked as an adult operative until 1817, when he set up his own small cotton-spinning business. ![]() The boys were to be instructed in the trade of stocking weaving and the girls in lacemaking at Lowdam Mill, situated ten miles from Nottingham. ![]() In 1799, Lamberts recruited Robert and eighty other boys and girls from St. Robert was warned by older inmates not to put himself forward." However, Robert was not a success and after a few months he was returned to the workhouse. This was why small boys were needed, but the work was dangerous - the children risked injury, suffocation, lung disease and scrotal cancer as they climbed the chimney stacks. As Nicholas Blincoe, his great-great-great-grandson, has pointed out: "As coal replaced wood-burning grates, chimneys became narrower to create a more intense draught. At the age of six Robert was sent to work as a chimney boy. He was later told that his family name was Blincoe but he never discovered what happened to his parents. At four years old Blincoe was placed in St. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |