City Kids to Farm Hands: The Home Children

By the late 19th century, hundreds of British children had been sent to Canadian “placements” through juvenile migration schemes, in which they would receive room and board in exchange for work. In the British imagination, Canada was often seen as a pious land of plenty, where children would benefit from fresh air and rural labour.

“Home children” were so known as they travelled from an emigration agency’s home for children in Britain to a receiving home in Canada. Receiving homes were set up by various philanthropic organizations all over the country, including Quebec, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia. Other philanthropists, such as Maria Rye and Annie MacPherson, had their hubs in Ontario, such as in Niagara-on-the-Lake or Belleville.

Initially, Barnardo used other charitable agencies to take children from his home systems in Britain, travel with them overseas, and send them onwards to farms or home sites throughout Canada. With the growing success of the program, Barnardo decided to open his own receiving home. His first home opened on Front Street in Toronto in the early 1880s, followed by a home in Peterborough. Althought the home on Front Street soon closed in favour of the Peterborough location, with the constant stream of children coming to Canada, Barnardo realized that an official headquarters needed to be established. 

Between 1887 and 1945, Toronto served as the hub for Barnardo’s work in Canada. Over this period, Barnardo’s organization used three locations to receive and distribute children: 214 Farley Avenue (1887-1908), 50-52 Peter Street (1909-1922), and 538 Jarvis Street (1922-1945). Barnardo also opened a home for girls who became pregnant during their placements, located at 150-152 Bathurst Street, later moving into the vacated Farley Avenue headquarters.

Many children found it difficult to adapt to their new lives in Canada. Not only was the climate more extreme than what they had known in Britain, but often so was the farm work. Many of the children had no experience or skills in the tasks they were required to complete, having grown up in British cities. It was not uncommon for employers to complain about their placement’s capabilities. If the children were not working to a satisfactory level, or if their labour was no longer needed, they would be returned to the central receiving agency.

Consequently, Home Children had childhoods filled with uncertainty, made harder by living in an unknown country away from all family and friends. Worse still was the psychological and physical abuse some faced at the hands of frustrated or prejudiced employers.

In Britain, impoverished parents were described as immoral in order to justify the taking of their children. However, records show that more children entered British children’s homes due to economic reasons than issues connected to morality.  Many children were brought in because their parents or families could no longer financially support them. This misconception about the children and their families affected how they were received and treated in the program. 

While some of the children were welcomed into their Canadian homes with open arms, an estimated two-thirds of the children faced some sort of mistreatment during their placements, often because of this class-based prejudice.

Although not common, mistreatment resulted in the death of at least one Home Child. In November 1895, George Green, a 15-year-old boy who passed through Barnardo’s Toronto home, was found dead at his placement in Owen Sound. A post-mortem examination found that George was covered in bruises and cuts, had frost-bitten feet, and was suffering from infection and malnutrition. 

Having only lived on the farm for five months, George faced intense neglect at the hands of his employer Miss Helen R. Findlay. Findlay claimed she kept the boy well, and that he was responsible for his injuries mostly through clumsiness, calling the boy “slow.” However, during the court proceedings in which Findlay was charged with the boy’s murder, witnesses came forward to assert that Findlay had physically and verbally abused George. Despite the testimonials, the jury was unable to come to a verdict and Findlay was freed.

While George’s story is an extreme case, several accounts describe mistreatment that resulted in death, runaways, or suicide for Home Children. Unfortunately, most agencies, Barnardo’s included, could not properly supervise the Home Children placements to ensure the children’s safety or well-being. Agencies seldom had the resources to check the thousands of children spread throughout the Canadian countryside. In situations where mistreatment was identified, or when a child became sick or an employer wanted to discharge their ward, children would find themselves back in Toronto only to await their next placement.

The mistreatment that Home Children faced left a lasting impact. The program officially ended in Canada in 1939 with the outbreak of the Second World War, although British Columbia continued to receive children from Britain until 1948. With the closure of the child migration scheme, Barnardo’s has since pivoted to supporting displaced children, victims of abuse, and adoptions and fostering.

In their adult lives, many survivors of the Home Children program chose to keep silent about their experiences. Although it is estimated that descendants of Home Children make up 10 per cent of Canada’s current population (approximately four million people), many Canadians are unaware of their connection to the Home Children.

Although this history is relatively unknown, since the early 2000s, there has been a growing interest in understanding and preserving the history of the Home Children. Small, not-for-profit organizations, mostly created and run by descendants, have emerged all over Canada with the hopes of preserving this shared history. These organizations often highlight the impact the Home Children had on Canadian history, such as their contributions during the First and Second World Wars. Genealogical resources are often also provided, in hopes of connecting Canadians with their family’s heritage.