Child 5 Boarder in a orphanage ???

[Guest]

I have a William Wallace born 1856 as a Boarder in an orphanage in New Road South Mimms in 1861
it also says Scholar
This child was not an Orphan, would this be set up as a School maybe ??? and surely a 5 year old would not be boarding ???

[Olde Crone Holden]

Why would a 5 year old not be a boarder? Also, remember, an orphan in Victorian times was someone whose father was dead, not necessarily both parents.

OC

[naomiatt]

Hi - there's quite a lot of info out there for South Mimms and that area generally (my OH is from around that way)....http://www.pbhistory.co.uk/

[Guest]

both his parents are alive OC ??? and he is a patient in a convalescence hospital in 1871 in the same area ??? just seems odd

[Guest]

hello Naomi you are a mine of info you really are thanks so much

[naomiatt]

hello Naomi you are a mine of info you really are thanks so much

Not a prob. Some children were sent to orphanages/homes when parents were alive...the child might have been taken away, the parents couldn't afford to look after him..
a number of reasons.....I've found some of my ggp's children in a home, albeit in the East End area...

[Chrissie Smiff]

Or perhaps his mother was ill in hospital at the time of the census and he was being looked after there until she recovered. I don't think many fathers in those days looked after babies and young children the way they do now.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Even when I was a child, it was very common for parents to pay into a charitable fund so that the children could be boarded out if anything happened to the breadwinner! In my case it was the Bluecoats School, which had been renamed from the Bluecoats Orphanage.

However, another possibility is that the child was handicapped (or difficult) in some way. Victorian Doctors were very keen on sending handicapped children to boarding schools or the workhouse or whatever.

OC

[Guest]

thanks everyone , that would make sense OC as he is in the convalescence home in 1871 ??? this one is proving a slippery customer .

[naomiatt]

Do you know if he married or when he died, was buried etc? Was he born in South Mimms?