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The Historical Timeline Of The Middlemore Homes Progress of the Homes Reports & Legislation 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act setting up workhouses 1850 Emigration of Children Act permitted assisted emigration of workhouse children 1869 Maria Rye’s first party to Canada including some workhouse children 1869 Canada Immigration Act required medical …
A Heritage Lottery Funded Project The Background In 1873, twenty-six waifs and strays, from the poorest backgrounds imaginable, set sail for Toronto, Canada, some 4000 miles from the industrial heart of Birmingham City. Many left parents and siblings behind. These were the first of c.6000 children to be emigrated from …
The archives in Birmingham Library contain quite a number of letters sent back to England by children emigrated to Canada. Some are positive. One girl wrote, “I have got fat and red cheeked now and I go to school every day. I am learning the times tables and doing sums …
Sir John Throgmorton Middlemore, 1st Baronet (9 June 1844 – 17 October 1924) was an English Liberal Unionist politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham North. He was the son of William Middlemore, who had a leather business at Holloway Head, Birmingham. He gained a degree in …
Child emigration by the Middlemore Homes continued until 1949. By this date government legislation (the Children Act of 1948) and changes in attitudes to child welfare meant emigration was seen as appropriate in only a small number of cases. During the period 1949 – 1954 the Middlemore Homes’ only activity …
The Middlemore babies’ home (Crowley House) The Middlemore Homes also ran a babies’ home at Selly Oak called Crowley House. This was established in 1938 for children under school age, who were too young to be emigrated. The babies’ home closed in 1954.
The first group of children, a party of 29, departed for Canada on 1st May 1873, accompanied by John Middlemore. On arrival in Canada, the children were settled with families. Older children were settled as farm or domestic assistants, receiving board and, in some cases, wages. Younger children were often …
The Middlemore Homes were founded in 1872 by John Throgmorton Middlemore as the ‘Children’s Emigration Homes’. The first home, for boys, opened on Beatrice Crescent, St. Luke’s Road in September 1872. In December 1872, a similar home for girls opened at 36 Spring Street, Birmingham. In 19th Century Birmingham, John …
