(1829-1903)
"There are other institutions near Toronto which deserve notice, and which do not receive it from the guide-books. Among these is Miss Rye's home for girls, thirty miles away by steamer across the lake. The neat young lady, the untidy children, and the substantial house with its broad verandah, shown in the engraving, have all a special interest for English readers, for they represent Miss Rye's girls' home, the result of the education rshe causes to be given, and the raw material which she takes in hand, and changes to such good effect. Miss Rye and Miss MacPherson (Anna MacPherson who ran a similar establishment) have both shown how thoroughly successful such a system as theirs may be, when carefully worked. "
Charles Dickens writes of the horrible conditions in Victorian England for these young urchins, so to spare them from hunger, poverty, or a life of crime, the scheme certainly seemed humane. However, though many of the girls did very well, there were also many who would spend the remainder of their lives in poverty and servitude.
There were as many as fifty organizations involved in the incentive including the Bernardo Home, Annie MacPherson, Fegan Homes, Dr. Stephenson and the National Children's Home and a host of religious organizations and work houses. But the home that Mr Lorne speals of operated as Maria Rye's Emigration Home for Destitute Little Girls.
Marquis of Lorne
"The children brought over By Miss Rye have some of them been taken to their new homes in the city and different parts of the province. The remainder are at the Protestant Orphan Asylum, awaiting their guardians' arrival. The children are all smart and intelligent looking, and can all read, write, and sing. When the Peruvian was about leaving Quebec for Montreal, Captain Smith went to the railway station at Point Levi, to say good-bye to Miss Rye. So kind had he been to the children on the passage out that they gathered about
him, and it was with difficulty that he cleared himself of them; and after he had gone away and they knew they should not see him again, their little faces shewed the sadness they felt at losing so kind a friend. With more than ordinary thoughtfulness, and induced, no doubt, by his knowledge of their condition, he furnished them with sufficient bread, meat, etc., to keep them from being hungry on the way to Portland, where they all arrived in good spirits, though very tired from the sea voyage, immediately followed by their railway trip.
"Mr. Gregan, of New York, at once took charge of them and ordered beds to be spread for them in the ladies' cabin, while supper was made ready, to which they did ample justice. We trust that Miss Rye will be induced to bring another troop of these fine children to homes which are always awaiting them in this province, and that as their experience amongst other people become known in Great Britain their older relatives may find it to their interest to come over also and avail themselves of the advantages which New Brunswick offers to the industrious settler. Mr. Shives expects that those who have applied will call for the girls now in his charge before Saturday next."
It promised to make them useful members of society, and from the accounts received of the pupils who had been already placed with families in town and country, the promise had the security of the experience of the past, to induce the belief that the careful individual attention and love bestowed would not be thrown away. The official inspection had proved that the Goveernemnt authorities were well satisfied with the institution."
Illustrated London News, August 25, 1877
We have received from the lady who is with Miss Rye, at the town of Niagara, on Lake Ontario, a very satisfactory account of their proceedings. All their juvenile charges were safely provided for, on the 13th ult., except thirty, for whom they expected soon to find comfortable homes. Our correspondent says:-"Miss Rye is exceedingly particular in placing out these children, suiting the tender and timid ones to kindly and indulgent
mistresses, and the wild, lawless ones to stricter managers. Nor is she satisfied to place children with householders, even those whose certificates from their ministers are satisfactory, if she has reason to think they are hard or careless. The results of her work are certainly wonderful. About one per cent only have been found to go astray out of nearly 1200 pauper children. Boards of guardians ought to send out the contents of their
schools, they would, at their age, soon adapt themselves to Canadian requirements. This is certainly the paradise for working men and women.
The Canadians are a homely people, full of energy and enterprise, but living simple, primitive lives, among their farms, fruit, and cattle; sitting down with their servants, generally, at the same table. I am no longer
surprised at their readiness to take our children. Their wives do their own housework, perhaps with the help of one little maid, ten or twelve years old, who is brought up rather as a child of the house. She is clothed and maintained by her master and mistress, up to the age of fifteen, when she has three dollars a month wages, till she is eighteen, after which she can make her own terms, and is on the same footing as other Canadians. But the majority of Miss Rye's girls become adopted in the family and are frequently included in the testamentary arrangements made for other children. As for boys, the one thing wanting to Canada is hands to cultivate the land. At the age of eighteen anyone can claim a hundred acres of land, to clear and cultivate it, and to possess it for ever, so that our "gutter children" may become the future landlords of the country.
Whole districts are waiting to be occupied, with rich arable land, where corn can be sown and ripened in two
months, or peaches and cherries, and other fruits to supply foreign markets; with forests, minerals, and fisheries of untold value; and with vast lakes and rivers for the conveyance of their produce. But this is no country for drones. The town of Niagara, from which I write, is surrounded by a pastoral population in their thriving homesteads. The old townhall has been partly converted into a meat market, and the old county prison is now Miss Rye's Distributing Home. The Judge's court is made the dormitory for a hundred
little girls, and small beds are placed also in the spectators' gallery, while the butter and other provisions are kept in the condemned cell. Our poor little waifs and strays of London life have terribly sad histories, many being children of drunkards, suicides, adulterers, and felons now in penal servitude. Of course, they may go wrong even in Canada, but it is certain that they will have fewer opportunities to err, and no vicious
connections to drag them down. It is touching to see them here at play, before they are sent out to work." We have an implicit reliance upon the writer's correct testimony and sound judgment; and we would especially commend this statement to public attention just now, when Miss Rye's late controversy with the Local Government Board shows that her useful efforts of charity have been ill appreciated in certain official quarters. The Emigrant-Girls' Home in Canada
entire period the death rate in the number specified amounted only to fifteen. She is reluctantly compelled to admit, however, that sixteen of the workhouse girls fell, and that a considerable number besides had displayed violent temper and extreme insubordination, resulting in a frequent change of situation and sometimes in their return to the Home. Nor is this fact strange, when their previous lack of firm but gentle discipline is taken into account. She also admits having lost sight of twenty-eight girls under fifteen years of age.
"Notwithstanding these partial failures and disappointments, we receive the testimony of the Toronto correspondent of the Standard in favour of Miss Rye's proceedings. "We in Canada," he says, "know something of her work, and we in Canada are to a great extent satisfied that it is a good work, and fairly well done. It is true she is overtaxed; it is true that single-handed she is not equal to the labour and expense of doing the whole thoroughly. No one person, man or woman, however much his or her heart may be in the
work, can possibly supervise the collection of the children in England, their exportation, their reception here, the selection of homes for them, and keep up also a careful systematic supervision over them for many years..."
I have found two excellent sites should you wish to further investigate the scheme in general, or look for possible ancestors.
Dedicated to the British Home Children who Sailed with Maria Rye aboard the Samatian in June of 1874
