The Children's Protection Act of 1893 introduced Ontario's first full-fledged child protection scheme. However, for half a century, children's homes had been helping disadvantaged children, and they played a key role in the evolution of an empathetic child-protection system. During the course of the nineteenth century, the provincial government had increasingly accepted responsibility for disadvantaged children and had developed legislative definitions of a child in need of protection and of neglect that were incorporated into the 1893 Act. The work of the children's homes went hand in hand with these developments, as they not only helped needy children but also helped develop these concepts of neglect and provided models for the home placements promoted by J. J. Kelso and mandated by the Act.
Table 1 lists the Homes receiving government grants by 1880 and sources, including government records (inspector's reports, miscellaneous statistics, financial reports, incorporation statutes) and the records of six Protestant Homes (including registers, minutes, and annual reports) from which detail about individual children admitted has been extracted. Table 3 summarizes data from the 1881 census that fills some gaps in the Homes' data, especially ages, as does the 1871 census. (The 1871 census is available at http://db.library.queensu .ca/census/ and http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/1871-ontario/001016-100.01-e.php. The 1881 census is available at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_ search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp. All were accessed June 6, 2008.) The date ranges of the Homes' data, starting when they opened, refer to dates of admission of the children, but they were followed to discharge. The end dates for each Home depend on the availability and completeness of the data. None go past 1886, to ensure that most children had been discharged before any changes resulting from implementation of the 1893 Children's Protection Act. No registers have survived for the Toronto Boys' Home (TBH); its minutes are a rich source of information about individual boys, but they identify only about 75 percent of the boys, based on admission statistics in the annual reports, partly because weekly minutes are missing for the first five years.
2.
Catherine Breton , "Nineteenth Century Child Rescue and the Development of the Toronto Girls' Home 1860-1900" (Toronto: Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 1991), 7, 8.
3.
TBH, Annual Report for 1860: 5-6. (See also Annual Report for 1863: 7). Sara Posen, "Examining Policy from the `Bottom Up': The Relationship between Parents, Children, and Managers at the Toronto Boys' Home, 1859-1920," in Family Matters: Papers in Post-Confederation Canadian Family History, ed. Lori Chambers and Edgar-Andre Montigny (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 1998), 3-18.
4.
Patricia T. Rooke and R.L. Schnell, Discarding the Asylum ( Lanham, MD, and London: University Press of America, 1983), 141-42, 150.
5.
J.J. Kelso, "Second Report of Work under the Children's Protection Act" for 1894, Ontario, Sessional Papers, 1895, no. 29: 17-18.
6.
J.J. Kelso, "Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Prison and Reformatory System of Ontario, 1891" testimony of J. J. Kelso, Ontario, Sessional Papers, 1891, no. 18: 726.
7.
Kelso, "Third Report of Work under the Children's Protection Act" for 1895, Ontario, Sessional Papers, 1896, no. 17: 27, see also 25.
8.
Kelso, " First Report of Work under the Children's Protection Act" for 1893, Ontario, Sessional Papers, 1894 , no. 47: 42, quoting from an article by himself in Canadian Magazine; see also p. 7.
9.
Kelso, Report for 1893, 21; Report for 1894, 3.
10.
Toronto Globe, October 20, 1894; Kelso, Report for 1894, 6; Conference Proceedings, 60-61.
11.
Kelso, Report for 1894, 6, 60-61 (Conference Proceedings).
12.
Re Robinson, [1896] O.J. No. 173; 27 O.R. 585 (Ontario High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Divisional Court). See also Globe, November 12, 1895, April 11, 1896. TGH: Register v10 p71; Minutes 1895 04 02, 1895 10 22, 1895 10 29, 1895 11 12, 1895 11 19, 1896 04 14, 1896 05 05.
13.
TGH, Annual Report for 1894.
14.
Kelso, " Report of Work under the Children's Protection Act," Ontario , Sessional Papers, 1895, no. 29: 27-28; 1896, no. 17: 42; 1897, no. 16: 9; 1899, no. 17: 56; "Report of the Department of Neglected and Dependent Children" for 1899, Ontario, Sessional Papers, 1900 , no. 39: 97. For an overview of charitable work with children in Kingston, see Charlotte Neff, "Government Approaches to Child Neglect and Mistreatment in 19th Century Ontario" Histoire Sociale /Social History41, no. 81 (May 2008 ): 165-214.
15.
Kelso's testimony to the 1891 Prison Reform Commission: 729.
16.
Richard Splane , Social Welfare in Ontario 1791-1893 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965), 214, 259; Andrew Jones and Leonard Rutnam, In the Children's Aid: J. J. Kelso and Child Welfare in Ontario (Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1981), 27, 65.
Charlotte Neff, "Pauper Apprenticeship in Early Nineteenth Century Ontario," Journal of Family History21, no. 2 (April 1996 ): 144-71; Charlotte Neff, "The Use of Apprenticeship and Adoption by the Toronto Protestant Orphans' Home 1853-1869," Histoire Sociale /Social HistoryXXX, no. 60 (Nov. 1997 ): 334-85.
20.
Statistics Canada, Censuses of Population, 1851-2001, http://www.40.statcan.ca/101/cst01/dem062g.htm (accessed June 19, 2008). The Catholic Homes apparently had similar placement practices: Sister Julia Moore, "The Sisters of St. Joseph. Beginnings in London Diocese 1868-1878," CCHA, Study Sessions, 45(1978), 50; Annual Report of the St. Mary's Orphan Asylum, Hamilton, The Evening Times, February 4, 1865; Reports on Toronto House of Providence for 1870 and 1872, Irish Canadian, March 1, 1871, and January 29, 1873.
21.
Kelso, Report for 1898: 34; Report for 1899: 64; Report for 1913: 68. The number made wards was not usually reported, while other statistics included children charged with criminal offences or truancy.
22.
Table 5. Inspector's reports; newspaper reports of the annual meetings of the Infants' Home, Toronto Globe, November 6, 1876, October 18, 1879, November 18, 1881.
23.
Canada, Department of Agriculture, Statistical Year-book of Canada for 1902, "Population of Cities and Towns having over 5,000 inhabitants" (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1903), 87.
24.
For data in this section, see Tables 4 and 5, which also provide comparative data for three other Homes. See notes to Table 1 for sources.
25.
Toronto Roman Catholics seem to have planned a similar triumvirate of Homes. The Orphan Asylum existed by 1852. In 1862, the Toronto Female Industrial School and the Boys' Industrial School of the Gore of Toronto were incorporated, but neither apparently opened (Canada, Statutes, 1862, 25 Vict., ch. 79 and 82).
26.
TPOH: Mandate: Prospectus 1851, inserted at the front of the Minutes vol. I, also Act of Incorporation, preamble. Admission rules: 1st Annual Report for 1852, Rule VIII (rule X in later revisions).
27.
TPOH: Endorsed as policy: Minutes 1858 07 31. Admission refused: Minutes 1854 03 28, 1869 10 27; Visitors'Book 1855 07 07. Exceptions: Minutes 1863 12 01, Register #261-265, Annual Report for 1867 (five siblings); Minutes 1864 04 01 and 26 and Register #290 (three siblings); Register #246; Register #440; Register #529 and 530 (two children of laundress).
28.
TPOH: Adopted as policy: Minutes 1855 09 25. Admission declined: 1853 05 31, 1857 01 27, 1857 08 25, 1860 10 30, 1862 01 31, 1865 08 29. Admission approved, Register: Father Poor 28: #34 and 69, #35, #209, #210, #225, #226, #330, #231, #234, #235, #236, #260, #278, #279 and 466, #280 and 464, #281 and 465, #283, #285, #296, #297, #298 and 385, #307 and 581 and ER 232, #308 and 580 and ER 230, #346, #349, #350, #485, #486. Father cannot care for child 10: #32, #327, #328, #329, #383, #384, #443, #444, #445, #446. Mother Poor, large family 63: #10, #11, #13, #130, #133, #155, #156, #157, #158, #164, #165, #212, #213, #214, #218, #219, #223, #227, #228, #230, #240, #241, #249, #250 and 481, #251, #252 and 275 and 395, #259, #273, #276 and 338, #277 and 339, #302, #311, #312, #313, #314, #315, #316, #317, #318, #319, #320 and 374, #321, #345, #347, #348, #367, #368, #375, #389, #390, #392, #393, #410 and 519, #424, #425, #426, #436, #437, #438, #439, #441, #442, #457. Mother in service 5: #20 (1854), #33 (1854), #447 and 514, 448, 449 (1868). Father Health 1: #40 and 191. Mother Health 7: #14, #19, #293, #323, #324, #325, #355. Two parents, father in Asylum 1: #440.
TPOH: Register: father deserted, eleven children: Register #27 (1854), #48 (1855), #122, 123, 124, 125 (1858), #176 (1860), #177, 178 (1860), #267, 268 (1864), Minutes 1869 10 27. Mother deserted 7: #42, 43, 44, 45 (1854), #159 (1860), #451, 452 (1868). Father drinks 6: #82, 83, 84, (1856); #421, 422, and 423 (1867-not to know the address where twin daughters were placed). Father in jail 4: #269 (1864), #309, 310 (1864 bad character, in jail), 502. Mother drinks 5: #17, 18 (1853); #50, 51, 52 (1855). Mother disreputable 12: #160, 161, 162, 163 (1860 03), #174, 175 (1860), #290, 291, 292, (1864), #331 (1865), #332, 333 (1865); Mother in penitentiary 1: #126 (1858). Both parents (mother and stepfather) depraved, 5: Minutes 1863 12 01; Register #261, 262, 263, 264, 265 (1863). Two parents, father deserted: #246 (1863, mother alive, poor).
34.
TPOH: reasons: OR 26-27, ER 226-27 (1865), #52 (1863), #54 (1864), #97 (1859), #186 and 187 (1862), #144 (1860), #148 (1860), #150 and 151 (1860), #153 and 154 (1860), #192 and 233 (1862), #203 and 204 (1863), #225 and 226 (1864), #276, 277, 338, and 339 (1866). The Annual Reports also routinely referred to mothers taking their children back as they were again able to support them-for example, 1860 (seven children), 1861 (eight children), 1862 (six children), 1863 (eighteen children). Taken to be placed: #102 and ER222-3, #104, #114, #193 and Minutes 1863 03 31, #485 and 486 and Minutes 1869 10 27. Nonpayment: Minutes, 1858 05 25, 1865 04 25.
35.
TPOH, Register: disapproval: #28 and 90 and Visitors' Book 1855 04 15; #30 and 75 (1855); Annual Report for 1860 and Register #51; Annual Report for 1864; Annual Report for 1865 (three children, probably Register #279, 280, 281); Annual Report for 1866 and Register #360. Twins: #421, 422. To parent with bad character: #82, 83, and 84; #126; #51 and 52; #264 and 265 and Minutes 1863 12 01.
36.
TPOH, 1st Annual Report.
37.
TPOH, Register #653 (dwarf admitted age twenty-six, discharged age fifty-five to House of Industry); #690 (to Orillia Asylum, age twenty-two); #820 (peculiar, to Magdalene Asylum, age thirty); #658. #1066 (left with matron). #761 and census 1881 (servant); #940 (left for one month at age fifteen, returned as seamstress until twenty-one).
38.
TPOH, Minutes 1860 11 27, 1863 03 31, 1866 07 31, 1868 03 31; Annual Report 1862, 1868; Visitors' Book, 1856 09 27, 1862 10 30; Register #1; #26, 237, 284, and 386; Minutes 1857 10 27, 1872 01 30; census 1871 and census 1881 (placed several times, returned to Home suffering fits, servant in 1871 census, in Hamilton Asylum 1881 census); Register #636 (placed several times, servant in Home in 1881 census).
39.
TPOH, Register #303, 305, and 306; #340; #227, 228, 371, and 372; Minutes 1865 11 28, 1869 02 23, 1871 10 31, 1872 09 24, 1872 11 26; Visitors Book 1867 01 08, 1868 06, 1869 02 23, 1869 08 10; #396, 397, 398, and 399; #214, #341, 342, 343; Minutes 1871 11 28; #529 and 530; #745; Minutes 1874 01 27; #740 and 741; #783 and 784; Minutes 1876 08 29; #793; #814 and 815.
40.
TPOH policy: Rule II [IV], Annual Reports 1859, 1863, Minutes 1862 08 26. Minutes 1872 06 25: children in Home seventy-three, eighty inmates altogether. Minutes 1875 07 27, situation found for woman on Female Aid list. Annual Report 1877.
41.
TPOH, Minutes 1865 09 26, 1866 01 30, 1875 04 15.
42.
TPOH, Minutes 1853 06 28, 1854 02 28, 1854 03 25, Visitors' Book 1861 02 16 (foundlings); 1868 12 29 (parents unmarried); 1871 09 26 (foundling for adoption); Annual Report for 1879: the Barrie Orange Lodge withdrew their support "owing, it is supposed, to the unwillingness of the managers to break one of their most stringent rules, the nonreception of any children but those of married parents."
Even in January 1862, after the rule change, three children were sent away because their mothers were "unworthy" or of "bad character." TGH, Register v9 p19a, p20 (two sisters).
TGH, Register v9 p68 (1863: "enticed to desert by drunken mother"), v11 p183 (1871: "stolen out by mother").
60.
TGH, Annual Report for 1865. Annual Report for 1868; this girl has not been identified in the register. Register v11 p213, v10 p54 (1877).
61.
Examples of payment agreements in the Register: "admitted at $1 a month," "mother agreed to pay $3 per month." The amounts collected were as follows: 1857, $117.20, 13.2%; 1858, $211.60, 24.7%; 1859, $196.15, 20%; 1860, $156.38, 22.1%; 1861, $133.92, 15%; 1863, $206.51, 19.4%; 1864, $116.39, 10.4%; 1865, $179.47, 13.6%; 1866, $275.05, 17.8%; 1867, $225.55, 15.9%; 1868, $311.00, 11.8%; 1869, $454.30, 15.9%; 1871,* $596.50, 17.3%; 1872,* $778.22, 16.1%; 1873, $764.00, 15.3%; 1874,* ~$1,006.07, ~18.8%; 1875, $968.33, 21.3%; 1877, $711.27, 14.6%; 1878, $853.70, 17.5%; 1880, $619.20, 15.4%; 1881, $629.50, 13.5%; 1882, $829.25, 17.1%; 1883, $761.35, 15%; 1884, $563.60, 9.8% (*from Inspector's Reports, the rest from TGH Annual Reports).
62.
TGH, Register v9 p83 and v11 p453; Annual Reports for 1867, 1869, and 1889.
63.
TBH, "Object of the Boys' Home," Annual Report, 1860: 11-12; repeated in Annual Reports to at least 1882. See also TBH Annual Report 1861: 10: "the establishment and maintenance of Homes for destitute boys, is the best and most promising mode of relieving our city of its juvenile destitution and crime."
64.
See, for example, TBH, Annual Report 1863: 6; Annual Report 1867: 6.
The TBH Annual Report statistics are cited for some purposes, as the registers have not survived and information in the minutes is incomplete. However, the annual reports did not provide the same data every year.
67.
"Rules and Regulations," Annual Reports, 1860, 1874 (among others).
TBH, 15th Annual Report, 1874. Concerning the lame boy, see also vol 7 1864 07 11 and vol 1 1865 12 04 and vol 7 1865 12 11 and vol 8 1873 03 10 and vol 3 1875 05 31 and census 1871. He was placed after his operation.
TBH, Minutes: vol 3 1875 02 22 and vol 3 1875 03 22 and vol 3 1875 11 01 and vol 8 1875 11 08 and vol 4 1880 02 23.
89.
TBH, Minutes: vol 8 1875 05 10 and vol 8 1875 06 14 and vol 3 1875 06 21
90.
See, for example, TBH, Minutes: 1879 10 06 and 11 10: failure to pay for boy cited as entitling managers to refuse to give him up to mother, said to be "living a very bad life in one of the vilest dens in Montreal."
91.
TBH, Minutes: vol 1 1867 04 15; vol 3 1876 05 29 and 10 16 and 10 23; vol 8 1876 09 11 and vol 3 1876 10 23 and vol 3 1878 01 04, 1878 vol 4 09 02 and vol 4 1879 08 25; vol 4 1878 08 26 and 11 18 and vol 9 1880 02 09.
92.
TBH, Minutes: Boy taken: vol 1 1866 06 25. Order required: vol 7 1867 03 11 and vol 1 1867 06 03; vol 2 1869 06 21 and vol 2 1871 04 17 and 05 01 and 07 03. Order resisted: vol 2 1869 10 18 and vol 2 1871 02 20 and vol 8 1871 03 13 and vol 2 1871 03 27 and 1 05 01 and vol 2 1872 03 25.
93.
Ontario, Statutes, An Act to Amend the Act Respecting Apprentices and Minors (35 Vict [1871-1872], ch. 17), An Act respecting Apprentices and Minors, 38 Vict. (1874) ch. 19 s. 7, R.S.O. 1877 ch. 135 s. 4. Orders: vol 8 1875 10 11 and vol 3 1875 12 06; vol 4 1879 08 25 and vol 4 1880 04 19; vol 9 1881 08 08 and vol 5 1881 08 15 and 08 22.
94.
TBH, Minutes: vol 4 1878 09 30 and vol 4 1879 01 27 and vol 8 1879 02 10 and vol 4 1879 02 17 and vol 4 1879 02 24 and vol 4 1879 03 03 and vol 4 1879 04 21 and vol 4 1879 04 28. 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.
95.
TBH, Minutes: vol 2 1873 06 30 and vol 3 1877 02 26 and 04 30 and 11 19 and vol 4 1879 05 26.
96.
TBH, Minutes: vol 8 1878 05 13 and vol 4 1878 05 20 and 06 03.
TBH, Minutes: to mother: vol 1 1867 11 25 and vol 1 1868 03 23; vol 2 1869 06 21 and vol 2 1871 04 17 (two boys); vol 8 1874 07 13 and 09 14; vol 3 1874 11 30 and vol 3 1876 12 04 (two boys); vol 4 1879 11 03 and vol 9 1880 03 08 and vol 4 1880 07 26 and vol 5 1883 09 17 (two boys); vol 4 1879 06 02 and 08 25 and vol 8 1879 09 08 and vol 4 1879 09 29 (two boys); vol 4 1881 04 04 and vol 5 1881 08 15 and 08 22 (two boys). To father: vol 1 1866 12 31 and vol 1 1867 10 21; vol 3 1875 09 06 and vol 8 1877 06 11 and vol 3 1877 07 16; vol 8 1876 02 14 and 09 11; vol 8 1877 04 09 and 10 15; vol 4 1880 03 15 and 03 22 and 1880 03 29 and 04 26. To parents: vol 1 1866 05 21; vol 2 1874 06 01; vol 2 1874 06 01; vol 3 1874 10 19 and vol 3 1875 05 03 and vol 3 1875 05 31 (two boys); vol 3 1876 10 23 (two boys); vol 4 1881 01 17; vol 4 1881 01 31 and 05 16 and 06 20; vol 5 1883 04 16.
103.
Posen does not mention this early evidence that they saw a significant part of their function to be providing temporary care for families in crisis, but instead cites a statement showing that this was the policy by 1913 (15-16). In doing so, she also does not acknowledge the possible implications of the introduction of the child-protection system in 1893 for the role of the children's homes.
104.
Charlotte Neff, "The Education of Destitute Homeless Children in Nineteenth Century Ontario," Journal of Family History29 no. 1 (January 2004): 3-46.
105.
Neff, " Use of Apprenticeship and Adoption," 341-46.
