In the year 1779, a tenant of mine, at Hasketon in the county of Suffolk, died, leaving a widow and fourteen children, the eldest of which was a girl under 14 years of age. He had held under me 14 acres of pasture land, in four enclosures, at a moderate rent of £13 a year; and had kept two cows, which, with a very little furniture and clothing, was all the property that devolved, upon his death, to his widow and children.

The parish of Hasketon is within the district of one of the incorporated houses of industry; one of the first that was erected in the kingdom. The rule of the house is to receive all proper objects within the walls, but not to allow any thing for the relief of the ‘out poor’, except in cases which have a peculiar claim. The directors of the house of industry, upon being made acquainted with the situation of the family, immediately agreed to relieve the widow, by taking her seven youngest children into the house. This was proposed to her but, with great agitation of mind, she refused to part with any of her children. She said, she would rather die in working to maintain them, or go herself with all of them into the house, and there work for them ; than either part with them all, or suffer any partiality to be shewn to any of them. She then declared that if I, her landlord, would continue her in the farm, as she called it, she would undertake to maintain and bring up all her 14 children, without any parochial assistance.

She persisted in her resolution; and being a strong woman about 45 years old, I told her she should continue the tenant, and hold it the first year rent free. This she accepted with much thankfulness; and assured me, that she would manage for her family without any other assistance. At the same time, though without her knowledge, I directed my receiver not to call upon her at all for her rent, conceiving that it would be a great thing if she could support so large a family, even with that indulgence.

The result, however, was that with the benefit of her two cows, and of the land, she exerted herself so as to bring up all her children, all of whom she placed out in service, continuing to pay her rent regularly of her own accord to my receiver every year after the first. She carried part of the milk of her two cows, together with the cream and butter, every day to sell at Woodbridge, a market town two miles off, and brought back bread and other necessaries with which, and with her skim-milk, butter-milk, &c. she supported her family. The eldest girls took care of the rest while the mother was gone to Woodbridge and by degrees as they grew up the children went into the service of the neighbouring farmers.

The widow at length came and informed me that all her children, except the two youngest, were able to get their own living and that she had taken up the employment as a nurse which was a less laborious situation, and at the same time would enable her to provide for the two remaining children, who indeed could now almost maintain themselves. She therefore gave up the land, expressing great gratitude for the enjoyment of it, which had afforded her the means of supporting her family, under a calamity, which must otherwise have driven both her and her children into a workhouse.

OBSERVATIONS.

This is an extraordinary instance of what maternal affection, assisted by a little kindness and encouragement, will do. To separate the children of the poor from their parents, is equally impolitic and unkind.

It destroys the energy of the parent, and the affections and principles of the child. Man is a creature of wants. From them are derived all our exertions. On the necessity of the infant is founded the affection of the mother, and among the poor (I except those cases where parental affection may be chilled and enfeebled by extreme depression of circumstances) — but, generally, among the poor, where that necessity exists in the greatest force, natural affection is the strongest. Among the rich, children are too frequently the subject either of pride, or of penitence.

The supplying of cottagers with cows, and with the means of feeding them, will tend to diminish the calls for parochial relief and to render unnecessary that barbarous system, of removing the child from its natural and most affectionate guardians. The year’s rent remitted, and the land confided to this poor widow, not only enabled her to support and educate her children at home, but was the means of saving the parish a very considerable expense ; as the reception and feeding and clothing of the seven youngest children, at an expense of hardly less than seventy pounds a year, would probably have been followed by nearly an equal expense with the widow and the other children. Besides this, the encouragement of industry and good management among the poor in their cottages, and assisting them in their endeavours to thrive, will contribute to the increase of a hardy and industrious race of people ; and will afford a supply to our markets of eggs, butter, poultry, pigs, garden stuff, and almost every article of life ; tending to lower the price of provisions, to prevent monopoly, to enrich the country, and to make it powerful both in people and produce, to a degree beyond all calculation. 6th Nov. 1798.

From the Belfast Commercial Chronicle – Monday 18 September 1826.