My dear child | History Hamper

Many of the boys and girls brought up in the Foundling Hospital lived through great difficulties as they left its protection and sought to find their way, virtually alone, in a world of adults that they encountered when still, in reality, naïve and vulnerable children. If their problems, especially those of the girls, can move us to pity, spare a thought for those, their mothers, who made the heartbreaking decision to give up their babies and had to live with the pain and guilt which plagued them in the following years. This study will not attempt a full assessment of the plight of these mothers. Rather, an insight into their state of mind will be gained from reading the letters that two unhappy mothers addressed to the Hospital.[1]

A large number of mothers inquired after their children. In the General Committee on 3 February 1855, Secretary John Brownlow reported that a total of 118 mothers ‘enquired after Children belonging to the Hospital’ between 15 August 1853 and 15 August 1854. Five mothers of children admitted in 1838 (mothers who would have been aware that their children were about to leave the Hospital), five mothers of 1842 entrants, eight mothers of 1843 babies, nine of 1848 babies, seven of 1849 babies and seven of 1851 babies made inquiries during the year. Not surprisingly, most inquiries came from mothers who had left their children at the Hospital relatively recently. Twenty-two mothers of children admitted in 1852 made inquiries, including one mother who wrote 13 times. Inquiries came from thirty mothers of children admitted in 1853; three mothers wrote 11 times, two 8 times, one 7 times, one 6 times, four 5 times, four 4 times, three 3 times, two twice and nine once. Ten mothers of children admitted in 1854 made inquiries (before 15 August); two wrote 7 times, one 4 times, one 3 times, five twice and one once.[2] The two mothers who will be the focus of this study, Sarah Goodrick and Ann West, were among those who wrote time after time, almost obsessively, as they lived through the torment of separation from their babies.

Sarah Goodrick’s baby son was born on 4 February 1853, when she was still eighteen years old. The alleged father was Thomas Reynolds, a painter in Chelsea, who, a few weeks after they met, ‘took me to a house in Sloane Street which he said was a friend’s. Crim[inal] con[versation] took place here… No promise of marriage. It was twice repeated. When pregnant I told him & he s[ai]d he could do nothing for me… If relieved I propose going to service.’[3] Inquirer Twiddy, investigating on behalf of the Hospital, discovered that this was not the whole truth: a ‘fraud’ had been attempted ‘in order to rescue [the] Petitioner from her perilous condition’. She was thrown out of her mother’s house by her husband (Goodrick’s stepfather) when the pregnancy was revealed, a glimpse of the stain of illegitimacy. Deserted by Reynolds (‘no trace of him can now be gained’) and, after the birth, entirely without ‘means of supporting herself & child’, Goodrick had been rescued by another man:

[O]n petitioner’s necessitous condition being made known to Meech, who had been a fellow workman with Reynolds, the Father, he offered to take her under his protection, and to marry her, on condition that the Child was removed, and provided for, without being chargeable to him. [The] petitioner, having no home, her step-father still refusing her his house, was compelled to yield to these terms, and has since continued to live with Meech, as his wife – he, however, refuses to marry until the child be provided for, and thus petitioner has been impelled step by step towards her present condition…

Twiddy, urged by Goodrick and her mother, intervened to persuade the stepfather to ‘receive her again under his roof’ at 38 Hasker Street; ‘and in order to accomplish this object, he would remove from his present abode into a distant locality’. Thus separated from ‘the man Meech’, Goodrick reverted to being a single mother who could not support her child, and the Hospital’s leaders had the good sense to overlook one of their rules (‘if any deception is used the Petition will be rejected’) and accepted the child.[4] On 11 July 1853, Goodrick brought her son to the Foundling Hospital, which christened him George Rodney (foundling number 20,586) and sent him to a wet-nurse in Peckham.[5]

Goodrick’s letters were written on small, cheap sheets of notepaper. She did not use any form of punctuation, but the meaning is clear and, therefore, the script has not been amended. The wording of the first fourteen letters, written over a period of fifteen months, did not differ in any significant respect. Periodic surges of love and longing drove her to inquire after her child’s wellbeing. To say more, to describe her feelings or her current situation, would have been unavailing. She had only one thing to say and she said it over and over again.

Kind Sir
I should feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the hospital the 11 day of July 1853
I remain your humble servant
S A Goodrick 38 Hasker St Chelsea
December 13 1853
to Mr Brownly[6]

……………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kind Sir
I would feel greatly obliged if you will forward me information respecting the health of my child he was admitted into your kind [illeg.] on the 11 day of July 1853
[Sarah Goodrick][7]

………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

December 26^th / 53
Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853
I remain your humble servant
S Goodrick
38 Hasker St Chelsea[8]

Kind Sir
I should feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the Hospital the 11 day of July 1853
I am your humble servant
S A Goodrick 38 Hasker St Chelsea
Friday noon Jany 14 / 54[9]

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853
Yours respectfully
S Goodrick 38 Hasker St
Chelsea[10]

……………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853
I remain your humble servant
S Goodrick 38 Hasker St Chelsea
May 22 1854[11]

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
Sarah Goodrick 38 Hasker St
Chelsea
July 24^th / 54[12]

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
S Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea[13]

………………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kind Sir
I shall feel obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853
I am your humble servant S Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea
monday morning[15]

21^st October 1854
Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11^th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
Sarah Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea[16]

November 20^th
Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant Sarah Ann Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea[17]

January 30 1855
Kind Sir
I shall feel very much obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853 I am your humble servant Sarah Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea[18]

March 1^st 1855
Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11^th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
Sarah Ann Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea[19]

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853 we have removed from 38 Hasker St Chelsea to 12 Robert St Kings Road Chelsea I remain your humble servant S A Goodrick
April 2^nd / 55[20]

Kind Sir
I shall feel very much obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
S Goodrick 12 Robert St Kings Road Chelsea
May 2^nd 1855[21]

Kind Sir
I shall feel extremely obliged to you by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
Sarah A Goodrick
12 Robert St
Kings Road
Chelsea
June 5^th / 55[22]

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the Hospital the 11^th day of July 1853 my address was 38 Hasker St Chelsea by now it is S Goodrick 5 Victoria Terrace Beaufort St Kings Road Chelsea I remain your obedient servant S Goodrick[23]

So, the first variations concerned changes of address, not the central, repeated message, to which she returned:

Kind Sir
I should feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11 day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant S Goodrick
5 Victoria Terrace
Beaufort St Kings Rd
Chelsea[24]

Kind Sir
I should feel extremely obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
Sarah Goodrick
No 1 Walton St
Chelsea
July 5th[25]

Goodrick’s letter of 7 August 1855 evoked a response from Hospital Secretary John Brownlow, who scribbled words which instructed a clerk to reply that the child was well:

Answer
Well
JB
Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant Sarah Goodrick

1 Walton St
Chelsea
August 7^th[26]

…………………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Goodrick’s next letter, on 29 August, opened up an entirely new front, the possibility that she might retrieve her son:

Kind Sir
When I left my dear child I understood that I could have him out if ever I was in a position to keep him As my fatherinlaw [stepfather?] is gone abroad and my mother and I are liveing together we should be glad to have him home if the gentlemen will allow me I return you my sincere and grateful thanks for your kindness to my dear child he was admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant S Goodrick
1 Walton St Chelsea
August 29^th / 1855[27]

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

An application for return of the child would have to go before the General Committee (‘the gentlemen’). On 1 September – the speed with which Hospital business was conducted is remarkable – Goodrick appeared before the General Committee to ask for the return of her son, who, not yet three years old, would still have been with his foster-mother in Peckham:

Sarah Ann Goodrick who placed a Male Child in this Hospital on the 11^th July 1853 attended and requested that the said Child may be restored to her.
Ordered, That the consideration of Sarah Ann Goodrick’s application be postponed.[28]

Most such applications failed, rejected because the mother was ‘unable to produce satisfactory proof of her ability to maintain or properly to provide for’ her child.[29] Goodrick’s next letter contains a suggestion that the Committee questioned Goodrick’s ability to support her child:

Kind Sir
As regards having my child home I have thought the matter over and shall take the advice of the gentlemen and wait till I get my money before I have him but feel truly thankful for the care that has been bestowed upon my child and remain your humble servant S Goodrick
1 Walton St Chelsea[30]

As shown below, the idea of waiting ‘till I get my money’ referred to the legacy that Goodrick expected to receive from her grandfather. The governors seem to have asked for her to wait until it materialised. The correspondence then reverted to the standard, uniform queries about the welfare of ‘my dear child’.

Kind Sir
I should feel extremely obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant Sarah Goodrick
1 Walton St
Chelsea
October 2^nd 1855[31]

November 1^st 1855
Kind Sir
I shall feel obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant Sarah Goodrick
1 Walton St
Chelsea[32]

Kind Sir
I shall feel extremely obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
S Goodrick
1 Walton St
Chelsea
December 5th 1855[33]

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
S Goodrick
1 Walton St
Chelsea
Jany 3^rd / 1856[34]

…………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear child is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
Sarah Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea
April 1^st / 1856[35]

….……………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Goodrick’s return to her mother’s house in Hasker Street later proved to be significant.

Kind Sir
I shall feel greatly obliged by your sending me word how my dear boy is he was kindly admitted into the institution the 11th day of July 1853 I remain your humble servant
Sarah Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea[36]

….….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

….………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This was Goodrick’s last letter in 1856. She wrote 31 letters to the Hospital in the 34-months period between December 1853 and October 1856. All are reproduced here to communicate some idea of the gnawing agony of separation from her baby.

It is impossible to know how many of the letters received a response from Brownlow and the Foundling Hospital. No letters from the Hospital to Goodrick are extant. There is no evidence that Mrs Mills, the wet-nurse, was asked if the child was well, and none of Brownlow’s surviving letters to Robert Starling, the Inspector for Kent (and Mills’s manager), mentioned the matter. Brownlow ordered the answering of Goodrick’s letter of 7 August 1855 (‘Answer Well’) and her application to have her son returned clearly elicited an invitation to the Hospital. Beyond that lies mere conjecture. Did her reference (5 August 1856) to enclosing stamps indicate that the Hospital had mentioned the matter or, alternatively, that she was disappointed to have received few (or no) replies? Above all, is it conceivable that the Hospital would ignore approaches made by a distraught mother? Of course, her letters, not so much their language as the compulsive repetition, bear testimony to the extent of her distress – and if any of them went unanswered it must have been unbearable.

*************

Fortunately, the experience of Ann West points to the likelihood that letters of this sort were answered. Ann West’s son was born on 15 November 1854, when she was twenty-two. After ‘crim con took place’ between West and the father, a soldier (bandsman), she lived with him and told her parents that they were married. He then went out to the Crimean War – she had ‘the wedding ring he gave me just before he went abroad’ – and ‘died of Diarhea [sic] at Scutari Hospital 28^th August 1854’. In the wake of this tragedy, West’s family learnt that she had not been married at all (when ‘she could not substantiate the truth of her allegations as to her marriage, on making application for relief from military and other authorities’). West had returned to her parents’ home with her child and was now ‘quite dependent’ on them, but they had seven other, younger children. She had the baby accepted by the Hospital on 30 April 1855, when he was christened Allan Flint (no. 20,646).[39]

In one respect, Ann West’s torment might have been even greater than Sarah Goodrick’s, as she began to beg for news of her five-and-a-half months old baby boy just one week after giving him up. She posted ten queries about her child in less than five months in 1855 – a short, frenzied period when she was clearly in a very anxious and disturbed state.

May 7^th / 55
Honour d Sir
I should be ever grateful if you would be so kind as to let me know how my Child is getting on as I left him on Monday last the 30^th of April as I feel very anxious to hear about him if you would be so kind it will relieve my mind his letter is T I remain
Honour d Sir
Your Most Obedient
Ann West
36 York Street
Westminster[40]

May 22^nd / 55
Honor d Sir
I should feel much obliged to you if you will be so kind as to inform me how my Child is getting on hoping he is quite well – he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
I Remain Honor d Sir
Your Most Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street Westminster[41]
…..……………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

June 4^th / 55
Honor d Sir
I should be much obliged if you will be so kind as to inform me how my Child is getting on hoping he is quite well – he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
I Remain Honor d Sir
Your Most Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street
Westminster[42]
…….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

June 18^th / 55
Honor d Sir
Would you have the kindness to inform me how my Child is getting on and weather [sic] he enjoys good health he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
I remain Honor d Sir
your Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street
Westminster[43]
….……………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

July 4^th / 55
Honor d Sir
I should feel much obliged to you if you would have the kindness to inform me how my Child is getting on hoping that he is quite well he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
I remain Honor d Sir
your most Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street
Westminster[44]
………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

July 31^st / 55

Honor d Sir
Would you have the kindness to inform me how my Child is getting on hoping that he is quite well he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
I remain Honor d Sir
your Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street
Westminster
Please to direct [to] Mrs West[45]
……………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

July 18^th / 1855
Honor d Sir
Would you have the kindness to inform me how my Child is getting on hoping he is quite well he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
Honor d Sir
I should be much obliged to you if you would have the kindness to direct my letter to my Mother Mrs West as the People in the house takes [sic] notice and not wishing them to know my affairs I should feel ever grateful
I Remain
Honor d Sir
Your Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street Westminster[46]
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

                                                                                                                                           August 22 / 55
Honor d Sir
I have taken this opportunity [sic] of writing to you to enquire how my Child is getting on hoping he is quite well he was admitted on the 30^[th] of April 1855 his letter is T
I Remain
Honor d Sir                                                                                                        please to direct
Your Most                                                                                                          [to] Mrs West
Obedient Servant
Ann West 36 York Street Westminster[47]
………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

September 5^th / 55
Honor d Sir
I have taken the liberty of writing to you about my Childs Health hoping he is quite well he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^[th] of April 1855 his letter is T
I remain
Honor d Sir your Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street Westminster
Please to direct [to] Mrs West[48]
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

September 22^nd / 55
Honor d Sir
Would you have the kindness to inform me how my Child is getting on hoping he is quite well he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
Sir
Would you be so kind as to direct my letter to Mrs West as when it is directed otherwise the People take notice of it if you will be so kind as to oblige me I shall be ever grateful
Ann West
36 York Street
Westminster[49]

Honor d Sir
Would you have the kindness to inform me how my Child is getting on he was admitted into the Institution on the 30^th of April 1855 his letter is T
I remain
Honor d Sir
Your Most
Obedient Servant
Ann West
36 York Street
Westminster
Please to direct to Mrs West[50]

West’s ongoing anxiety regarding identifiable Foundling Hospital letters addressed to her, another glimpse of the shame of illegitimacy, indicates that the letters were being answered, which suggests that Sarah Goodrick, too, probably received answers to at least some of her letters.

*************

In March 1857, Sarah Goodrick applied successfully for the return of her son, George Rodney:

Kind Sir
I hope you will pardon my troubling you but I and my mother are going to Australia and it is my wish as well as my mothers to take my dear child with me I should not like to go and leave him behind hoping the gentlemen will allow me to have him my mother is willing to wait on them any time to give them any information they may require

My Brother [is] in Australia
I remain your
humble servant
S A Goodrick
38 Hasker St
Chelsea
March 19^th 1857[51]

Two days later, on 21 March 1857, both Goodrick and her mother appeared before the General Committee. The mother, Mrs Ellis, provided an assurance regarding the child’s future care. Though hand-written, it is on Foundling Hospital notepaper.
Foundling Hospital
London March 21^st 1857
I hereby agree to support and maintain the child of my daughter Sarah Ann Goodrick, restored to her by the Governors of the Foundling Hospital, March 21^st 1857, in case of inability, on the part of my daughter, to provide for the maintenance, in future, of the said child under any contingency.
Elinor Ellis

Accompanying this note in the archive was Goodrick’s less formal declaration:

Goodrick – living with my mother – taking in needle work – I have a little money – left by my Grand Father – £400 or 500£ – I earn 10s or 12s a week – so does my mother[52]

Four or five hundred pounds was a substantial sum, ‘satisfactory proof’ of a mother’s ability ‘to maintain or properly to provide for’ her child. The General Committee made an immediate decision:

Sarah Ann Goodrick, who placed a male child in this Hospital on the 11^th July 1853, attended with her mother & requested that the said Child may be restored to them as they are about to proceed to Australia. And both parties having been separately questioned as to their means,
Resolved
That George Rodney, no. 20 586, be given up to the care of her mother, Sarah Ann Goodrick.[53]

George Rodney, now over four years old, was returned to Sarah Goodrick on 7 April 1857.[54] Ann West’s child, Allan Flint, remained with the Hospital until March 1869 when, almost fourteen, he was placed with a ‘Smack Owner, to be instructed in the business of a Fisherman’.[55]

During its long history, the Foundling Hospital was criticised for allowing women who behaved irresponsibly to dispose of their babies and carry on their lives with impunity. Emma Brownlow’s evocative painting, The Foundling Restored to its Mother (1858), depicts an elegant and beautifully dressed young woman who was evidently capable now of caring for her child. Thus, Emma Brownlow gave a bold answer to the critics: yes, the Hospital saves women as well as children, allowing the mothers of illegitimate children to recover from their mistakes and rebuild their lives. That was one answer, but the letters of Sarah Goodrick and Ann West provide another: they speak of the pain and yearning suffered by these mothers, who did not simply walk away.

[1] All of the sources used here are from the Coram archive. The Foundling Hospital continues today as the children’s charity Coram (http://www.coram.org.uk), which owns the Coram Foundling Hospital Archive in London Metropolitan Archives.

[2] Minutes of the General Committee, A/FH/K/02/053, 3 February 1855.

[3] Petition, A/FH/A/08/001/002/062, 20586, Goodrick’s petition (statement in the first person, but written by (or for) the Hospital’s Inquirer).

[4] Ibid., Report of the Inquirer, James Twiddy. The doctor who attended the birth confirmed that her statement was ‘perfectly correct’, but he clearly knew nothing of what happened after the birth. Ibid., Neale to Twiddy, 22 June 1853.

[5] Register, A/FH/A/09/020/001, 11 July 1853, Sarah A. Goodrick.

[6] Secretary’s Correspondence, A/FH/A/06/001/111/007, Goodrick to Brownlow, 13 December 1853.

[7] Ibid., n.d. (1853). The writing on this letter was so faded as to be almost illegible.

[8] Secretary’s Correspondence, A/FH/A/06/001/112/007, Goodrick to Brownlow, 26 December 1853.

[9] Ibid., 14 January 1854.

[10] Ibid., n.d. (1854).

[11] Ibid., 22 May 1854.

[12] Ibid., 24 July 1854

[13] Ibid., n.d. (1854).

[14] Ibid., 20 September 1854.

[15] Ibid., n.d. (1854).

[16] Ibid., 21 October 1854.

[17] Ibid., 20 November 1854.

[18] Ibid., /113/007, Goodrick to Brownlow, 30 January 1855.

[19] Ibid., 1 March 1855.

[20] Ibid., 2 April 1855.

[21] Ibid., 2 May 1855.

[22] Ibid., 5 June 1855.

[23] Ibid., /112/007, Goodrick to Brownlow, n.d. (1855). This letter and the next have been included in the 1854 bundle at LMA, but it is clear from other letters that Goodrick was still at Hasker Street in March 1855.

[24] Ibid., n.d. (1855).

[25] Ibid., /113/007, Goodrick to Brownlow, 5 July 1855.

[26] Ibid., 7 August 1855.

[27] Ibid., 29 August 1855.

[28] Minutes of the General Committee, A/FH/K/02/053, 1 September 1855.

[29] Ibid., /045, 15 May 1839. This example, Catherine Upton’s application, was noticed in the earlier study of John Brownlow (1839-40).

[30] Secretary’s Correspondence, A/FH/A/06/001/113/007, Goodrick to Brownlow, n.d. (Autumn 1855).

[31] Ibid., 2 October 1855.

[32] Ibid., 1 November 1855.

[33] Ibid., 5 December 1855.

[34] Ibid., /114/007, Goodrick to Brownlow, 3 January 1856.

[35] Ibid., 1 April 1856.

[36] Ibid., n.d. (1856).

[37] Ibid., 5 August 1856.

[38] Ibid., 9 October 1856.

[39] Petition, A/FH/A/08/001/002/064, 20646, West’s petition, with her statement and Inquirer Twiddy’s report. Register, A/FH/A/09/020/001, 30 April 1855.

[40] Secretary’s Correspondence, A/FH/A/06/001/113/019, West to Brownlow, 7 May 1855. Each child was given a letter, in this case ‘T’, which was recorded in the Register; the mother was told this letter, to aid recognition, but not the child’s name or number.

[41] Ibid., 22 May 1855.

[42] Ibid., 4 June 1855.

[43] Ibid., 18 June 1855.

[44] Ibid., 4 July 1855.

[45] Ibid., 31 July 1855.

[46] Ibid., 18 July 1855.

[47] Ibid., 22 August 1855.

[48] Ibid., 5 September 1855.

[49] Ibid., 22 September 1855.

[50] Ibid., /114/018, West to Brownlow, n.d. (1856).

[51] A/FH/A/08/001/002/062, 20586, Goodrick to Brownlow, 19 March 1857

[52] Ibid., declarations by Ellis and Goodrick.

[53] Minutes of the General Committee, A/FH/K/02/054, 21 March 1857.

[54] Register, A/FH/A/09/020/001, Sarah A. Goodrick.

[55] Apprenticeship Register, A/FH/A/12/003/003, page 37.