It has been suggested that the role of Ontario children’s homes, who had for half a century been helping disadvantaged children, changed significantly and immediately under the Children’s Protection Act of 1893. However, the records of the girls admitted to Toronto Girls’ Home from 1863 to 1910 suggest that this was not the case, for this home at least. For most of their history, their core clientele was the children of poor respectable parents dealing with a crisis or who could not both work and care for their children. Thus, although prior to 1893 they did also care for a significant number of neglected children, and after 1893 fewer such children were admitted, the Home continued for more than 20 years to help families as they always had, providing a form of family support for which the child protection system was not designed.
‘‘An Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to and Better Protection of Children,’’Ontario, Statutes, 1893, 56 Vict., ch. 45.
2.
Charlotte Neff, ‘‘Government Approaches to Child Neglect and Mistreatment in 19th Century Ontario,’’ Histoire Sociale/Social History, 41 (May 2008): 165-214 at 179-83. Charlotte Neff, ‘‘The Role of Protestant Children’s Homes in Nineteenth-Century Ontario: Child Rescue or Family Support?’’ Journal of Family History, 34 (January 2009): 48-88. Toronto House of Industry papers, City of Toronto Archives (CTA), SC 35 A. Concerning the origins of the Kingston Hôtel Dieu Orphan Asylum see: Sister Mary Coderre, ‘‘Hôtel Dieu of Kingston: Past, Present and Future,’’ Historic Kingston, 35 (1987): 9; Leopold Lamontagne, ‘‘Petticoats and Coifs in Old Kingston,’’ Historic Kingston, 9 (1960): 27. Concerning the Hamilton Orphan Asylum see: Carmen Nielson Varty, ‘‘The City and the Ladies: Politics, Religion and Female Benevolence in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Hamilton, Canada West,’’ Journal of Canadian Studies, 38 (2004), 151-71.
3.
For a list of the records of the TGH and other relevant primary sources see ‘‘Notes on Primary Sources and Data’’ at the end of this article.
4.
‘‘An Act to Provide for the Education and Support of Orphan Children,’’ Upper Canada, Statutes, 1799, 39 Geo. III, ch. III.
5.
‘‘An Act to Incorporate The Girls’ Home and Public Nursery of the City of Toronto,’’ Act of Incorporation, 1863, 26 Vict., ch. 63, s. 4 (power to apprentice) and s. 5 (guardianship power.).
6.
‘‘An Act to Amend the Act Respecting Apprentices and Minors,’’Ontario, Statutes, 1871-1872, 35 Vict., ch. 17; ‘‘An Act Respecting Apprentices and Minors,’’Ontario , Statutes, 1874, 38 Vict., ch. 19, s. 7.
7.
In re Smith, an Infant, [1879], O.J. No. 324; 8 P.R. 23 (Ontario Practice Court, Common Law Chambers Hagarty C.J. April 25, 1879): authority of Toronto Boys’ Home affirmed against grandmother of boy entrusted to them by his unmarried mother before her death. Re Robinson [1896], O.J. No. 173; 27 O.R. 585 (Ontario High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Divisional Court); Globe, 1895 11 12 and 1896 04 11; TGH Register, 10/71; TGH Minutes 1895 04 02, 1895 10 22, 1895 10 29, 1895 11 12, 1895 11 19, 1896 04 14, 1896 05 05 (mother’s challenge of daughter’s apprenticeship by the TGH dismissed).
8.
‘‘Osgoode Hall News, High Court of Justice Chambers,’’Daily Mail and Empire, May 24, 1898: father’s habeus corpus application for the return of his daughter, apprenticed by the TGH, dismissed.
9.
Patricia T. Rooke and R.L. Schnell, Discarding the Asylum: From Child Rescue to the Welfare State in English-Canada (1800-1950) (Lanham, MD: University of America Press, 1983), 275. Their conclusions appear to be based on anecdotal reference to Annual Reports and Minutes of many children’s homes rather than on a systematic analysis of what was actually happening at these homes.
10.
‘‘Population Urban and Rural, by Province and Territory (Ontario)’’ (1851-2006)http://www.40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo62g-eng.htm (accessed December 1, 2010).
11.
Kelso was chief architect of and first Superintendent of Neglected Children under the Act. See his Annual Reports ‘‘of Work under the Children’s Protection Act,’’ Ontario, Sessional Papers, beginning 1893 (Kelso’s Report). Andrew Jones and Leonard Rutman, In the Children’s Aid: J. J. Kelso and Child Welfare in Ontario (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1981).
12.
Kelso’s Report for 1909.
13.
The TGH Annual Reports for 1857, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1887, 1888. ‘‘Constitution’’ 1861, 1883, and 1888 appended to Annual Reports. ‘‘An Act to Incorporate the Girls’ Home.’’ ‘‘An Act to Amend the Act Incorporating the Girls’ Home and Public Nursery of Toronto,’’ Ontario, Statutes 1887, 50 Vic., ch. 91, s. 1. Report on the ‘‘First Annual Meeting’’ of the Toronto Infants’ Home, Globe Monday, November 6, 1876; Infants’ Homes of Toronto fonds, 1404, City of Toronto Archives; Annual Report of the Inspector of Asylums, Prisons and Public Charities for the Province of Ontario (hereafter Inspector’s Report) from 1876.
14.
Inspector’s Report for 1877: 175-76. The TGH Reports for 1883, 1884, and 1885, Physician’s Report; Registers. Since the TGH never took full responsibility for the future of the boys admitted, and as boys were admitted for only half the period considered, this article is based primarily on an analysis of the girls admitted.
15.
In 1862, there were six funded children’s homes in the province, including three in Toronto, the first having opened in 1848. See Neff, ‘‘Role of Protestant Children’s Homes,’’ Table 1.
16.
Emily Augusta McCaul, born about 1821, wife of Rev. John McCaul, president of University College, University of Toronto 1848-1880. Report for 1896. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, http://www.biographi. ca/. Census 1871 (Emily A Mc Caul), 1881 (Amelia McCaul), 1891 (Emily Mccaul), died July 1, 1896 (Emily Augusta McCaul), http://www.ancestry.ca. Both accessed October 8, 2010.
17.
Minnie/Mary Elliott Scott, born about 1842, wife of John G. Scott, barrister, later Master of Titles. Census 1871 and 1881 Minnie; 1891 Mary (Maud Brough listed as domestic, taken by Mrs. Scott 1887 12 28: Register 11/80, 11/85, 10/70); 1901 Mary Elliott; 1911 Mary: http://www.ancestry.ca; http:// automatedgenealogy.com for 1901 Census; both accessed December 1, 2010.
18.
Annual Reports, list of Managers and Officers.
19.
Report for 1860.
20.
Report for 1864.
21.
Reports for 1864, 1865, 1866, 1906.
22.
Reports for 1885, 1890, 1891, 1906.
23.
Reports for 1858, 1859 and 1860.
24.
Reports for 1866, 1883 ($500 bequest not invested), 1897, 1898, 1899.
25.
Reports, both Secretary’s and Physicians’ Reports. Government Register.
26.
Inspector’s Reports.
27.
Report for 1861.
28.
S.O. 1870-1871 34 Vict. C. 33 s. 3; S.O. 1881 44 Vict. C. 30 An Act for further improving the School Law, s. 1; S.O. 1885 48 Vic. C. 49 An Act to Consolidate and Amend the Public Schools Acts (The Public Schools Act 1885) s. 210; S.O. 1891 54 Vict. C. 56 An Act respecting Truancy and Compulsory School Attendance, s. 2. Charlotte Neff, ‘‘The Education of Destitute Homeless Children in Nineteenth Century Ontario,’’ Journal of Family History, Vol. 29 (January 2004): 3-46.
In 1891, W. H. Howland, a prominent Toronto philanthropist and social reformer, coined the term ‘‘boarding school for the poor’’ in talking about Industrial Schools: ‘‘Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Prison and Reformatory System of Ontario, 1891’’ (Prison Reform Commission 1891), (evidence of W. H. Howland), Ontario, Sessional Papers, 1891, no. 18: 690. Canada, Report of the Royal Commission on the Relations of Capital and Labor in Canada: Evidence - Ontario (Ottawa 1889), 162-3. Concerning Howland see: Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. XII (University of Toronto Press, 1990), 453-5; J. J. Kelso, Early History of the Humane and Children’s Aid Movement in Ontario: 1886-1893 (Toronto 1911), 73, 74.
32.
One woman requested terms, including school information, for the admission of her 7-year-old orphan niece, Minutes 1895 03 05.
33.
Minutes 1905 06 27.
34.
Admission rules were stated in the Constitution and Rules and Regulations appended to each Annual Report.
35.
Report for 1898. See also the Reports for 1896 (‘‘The majority have been claimed by parents, and from this statement you will see that one of the aims of this institution is the maintaining of the family circle, the nonseparation of parents and children insofar as the child’s welfare is involved.... These parents are encouraged to assist toward their children’s support and to retain their interest in them. [When improved circumstances allow the parents to reclaim their girls] [w]e rejoice that this Home has been the medium to save and protect the children for these happy reunions’’); 1899 (‘‘The changes in life bring to many sorrow and need.’’); and 1900 (‘‘We are glad to say we were able to relieve many parents whose circumstances, through trouble and illness, obliged them to seek the shelter of our Home for their little ones, till restored health and brighter days dawned.’’)
36.
Catherine Breton , ‘‘Nineteenth Century Child Rescue and the Development of the Toronto Girls’ Home 1860-1900,’’ in Allan Irving, ed., Social Welfare in Toronto: Two Historical Papers (Toronto, ON: Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 1991), 18.
37.
Ontario, Statutes, 1888, 52 Vic., ch. 40.
38.
Globe: ‘‘Local News - Girls’ Industrial School,’’ December 3, 1889; ‘‘Girls’ Industrial School,’’ December 12, 1889; Kelso, Early History, 55, 73, 74; Kelso’s Report for 1897, 58; Jones and Rutman, In the Children’s Aid, 28; Richard B. Splane, Social Welfare in Ontario 1791-1893: A Study of Public Welfare Administration (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1965).
39.
This should have read Alexandra School, the Victoria School being for boys.
40.
Even at the Toronto Protestant Orphans’ Home, which rarely admitted children with two parents, only 12 percent of those admitted from 1853 to 1869 were identified as full orphans. Neff ‘‘Role of Protestant Children’s Homes.’’
41.
Breton, ‘‘Nineteenth Century Child Rescue,’’ 8.
42.
Register 11/460, 10/40.
43.
Register 10/95.
44.
Register 11/341, 10/40.
45.
Register 10/150.
46.
Register 9/68.
47.
Annual Report for 1871. These are not mentioned in the Register.
48.
Register 10/111.
49.
Register 10/226.
50.
Register 10/258.
51.
Coleman was Secretary from 1891 to 1893 and again from 1894 to 1906, Duncan from 1906 to 1923: John McCullagh, A Legacy of Caring: A History of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (Toronto, Dundern Press: 2002), 277. Kelso’s Report for 1893, 15, lists Coleman as Assistant Agent and Secretary, Rev. J. Edward Starr Agent, and Secretary. Kelso, Early History lists Coleman as Secretary and Agent at the time of the first annual meeting of the Toronto CAS in Dec 1891. Toronto World December 7, 1891. The Sixth Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, 1897, lists Coleman as Secretary, Graham as agent (accessed on http://www.archive.org October 5, 2010).
Register 10/111; Register 10/166, Minutes 1891 11 03 (admitted age eleven, discharged to mother on authority of judge Age 13). Register 10/179, Minutes 1892 05 05 (admitted Age 13, placed Age 14). Register 10/158, Minutes 1894 03 06, 1894 07 03, 1894 04 02, Report for 1894.
55.
Register 10/152, Minutes 1894 02 06, 1894 03 06, 1894 05 01, 1895 03 05, Report for 1894 (not placed until Age 18 as she was considered of poor moral character). Register 10/160, Minutes 1896 05 12, 1903 01 06, 1903 01 20 (admitted Age 5, placed Age 11).
56.
Register 10/152, Minutes 1895 08 06 (admitted Age 10, placed Age 15); Register 10/165, Minutes 1893 07 04, 1893 08 01 (admitted Age 9, placed Age 12); Register 10/175 (admitted and discharged to mother Age 4).
57.
Reports for 1893, 1906. See also Minutes 1906 09 25, Register 10/379, 10/490, 13/33, 13/39.
Minutes 1903 09 02, 1903 09 22. See also Minutes 1903 07 07.
66.
Minutes 1895 11 05.
67.
‘‘Prison Reform Commission, 1891,’’ testimony of J. J. Kelso: 726; Kelso’s Report for 1893, 7, 42 (quoting from his own article in Canadian Magazine); Kelso’s Report for 1894, 17-8; Kelso’s Report for 1895, 25, 27. Neff, ‘‘Role of Protestant Children’s Homes.’’
68.
Toronto Globe October 20, 1894. Kelso’s Report for 1894: 6 and Conference Proceedings at 60-1.
Section 5: ‘‘The said Directresses and Managers may exercise over and with respect to the girls or children having the protection of the said institution, such powers as their parents or guardians would have or might exercise.’’
72.
Reports for 1896, 1900, 1901.
73.
‘‘An Act for the Further Protection of Children,’’ Ontario, Statutes, 1895, 58 Vict., ch. 52, s. 15. This legislation amended the 1893 Act.
Reports for the respective years, Globe and Mail 1894 01 27, Minutes 1905 10 16.
84.
Charlotte Neff , ‘‘Pauper Apprenticeship in Early Nineteenth Century Ontario,’’Journal of Family History, 21 (April 1996): 144-71. Neff, ‘‘The Use of Apprenticeship and Adoption by the Toronto Protestant Orphans’ Home 1853-1869,’’Histoire Sociale/Social History, Vol. XXX (November, 1997): 334-85.
85.
See, for example, the Report for 1864.
86.
Report for 1866.
87.
One such article dated July 24, 1866, inserted in the Register Vol. 9, stated simply: ‘‘I [E.S.] agree to let my child [S.S.] be bound out by the Committee of the Girls’ Home.’’ The mother of a girl sent for adoption 1881 12 06 (11/298) ‘‘signed papers to give her up.’’ See also Register 11/211 (1873), 11/96 and 11/325 (1875), 11/187 (1884), 10/84 (1885), 10/129 (1887).
88.
There are occasional references in the Register to a home being recommended, for example, 9/87 and 11/ 245 (1865); 9/85, 9/76 (1867); 11/536, 11/537, 11/547 (1881). 93/1011/135 and 11/136 (1885).
Baldwin Room, Metro Toronto Reference Library, L30 Protestant Children’s Homes, Loose Papers (Miscellaneous papers 1863-1907), Girls’ Home, H 15 June 1875 Indenture. Register 11/161, 11/163, 10/54, 12/79. The girl remained in the adoptive home only 14 months and was sent to four other placements, leaving the last service placement at Age 18 after 3 years to go to her brother.
96.
Report for 1875.
97.
Annual Report for 1870.
98.
Reports for 1885 and 1887. Such apprenticeship indentures originated in the English Poor Law and were commonly used from the earliest days in Upper Canada: see Neff, ‘‘Pauper Apprenticeship,’’ Neff, ‘‘The Use of Apprenticeship and Adoption by the Toronto Protestant Orphans’ Home 1853-1869.’’
99.
Register 10/80.
100.
Report for 1890.
101.
Reports for 1894 and 1895.
102.
Report for 1896.
103.
Reports for 1894 and 1896.
104.
Minutes 1901 06 25.
105.
Breton, ‘‘Nineteenth Century Child Rescue,’’ 18.
106.
Report for 1864.
107.
Breton, ‘‘Nineteenth Century Child Rescue,’’ 18.
108.
Rooke and Schnell, Discarding the Asylum: 321.
109.
Rooke and Schnell state, for example: ‘‘By defining the families who surrendered them as morally endangering, the POHs sought to bind the children closer to themselves and to use them to discredit the values and behavior of the pauperized segment of society.... The TGH found the loyalties between girls and their mothers particularly difficult to counteract’’ (Discarding the Asylum 152).
110.
Timothy A. Hacsi , Second Home: Orphan Asylums and Poor Families in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 55, 73, 74.
111.
http://www.ancestry.ca. The 1871 Census is also available at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/census/index-e.html ; 1851, 1901, 1906, and 1911 at http://automatedgenealogy.com/ (accessed on numerous dates in 2009 and 2010).
