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‘Temporary relief for specially recommended or selected deserving persons’: the mission of the House of Charity, Soho, 1846–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

PAT STARKEY
PAT STARKEY*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Liverpool, 8 Abercrombie Square, Liverpool, L69 3BX
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Abstract:

Twentieth-century voluntary social work organizations became accustomed to altering the emphases of their work in response to changing legislation or shifts in funding priorities. The House of Charity for Distressed Persons in Soho, founded in 1846, provides a nineteenth-century example of a similar phenomenon. The history of its first 70 years suggests that the intention to serve ‘selected deserving persons’ was outweighed by the need to ensure the spiritual well-being of its benefactors through opportunities for Christian service. Its primary purpose was thereby subverted, and the energies of its workers were diverted from raising funds to support ‘selected deserving persons’ to casting round for ways to fill the space in the House and to continue to give the benefactors a role.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , May 2008 , pp. 96 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

1 See, for example, Deakin, N., ‘The perils of partnership: the voluntary sector and the state, 1945–1992’, in Smith, J. Davis, Rochester, C. and Hedley, R. (eds.), An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector (London, 1995), 40–65Google Scholar; Starkey, P., ‘Can the piper call the tune? Innovation and experiment by a voluntary social work agency, 1940–1985’, British Journal of Social Work, 32 (2002), 573–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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3 Flintshire Record Office (hereafter FRO) Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1668. Prospectus, 11 Jun. 1846.

4 Now Manette Street.

5 Until March 2006, its service users were homeless women. It is currently considering how best to use its premises for work of a non-residential nature. Members of the Monro family were represented on the governing body from the beginning of the House until at least the end of the twentieth century. Dr Henry Monro was a founding member. J. Andrews, ‘Monro, Henry (1791–1891)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, on line edition, http://www.oxforddnb.com (hereafter ODNB), accessed 10 Oct. 2006.

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9 See, for example, Prochaska, F., Christianity and Social Service. The Disinherited Spirit (Oxford, 2006), 6ff and 12ffGoogle Scholar.

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12 The exceptions were William Gladstone, R.W. Jelf, principal of King's College, London, and F.D. Maurice.

13 Prochaska, Christianity, 1ff.

14 Engels, F., The Condition of the Working Class in England (London, 1973), 277–8Google Scholar.

15 Roberts, ‘Charity disestablished?’, 44.

16 Prochaska, Christianity, 2.

17 Lewis, J., The Voluntary Sector, the State and Social Work in Britain. The Charity Organisation Society/Family Welfare Association since 1896 (Aldershot, 1995), 5ffGoogle Scholar; Gorsky, M., Patterns of Philanthropy. Charity and Society in Nineteenth-Century Bristol (Woodbridge, 1999), 113–14Google Scholar; Finlayson, G., Citizen, State and Social Welfare in Britain, 1830–1990 (Oxford, 1994), 48ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Stedman Jones, Outcast London, 253.

18 Lewis, Voluntary sector, 6.

19 Kidd ‘“Outcast Manchester”‘, 60.

20 Lewis, Voluntary sector, 27–8.

21 Kidd, A., ‘Civil society and social welfare in nineteenth-century England’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 15 (2002), 117CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Owen, D., English Philanthropy, 1660–1960 (Cambridge, MA, 1964), 218–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1668. Prospectus, 11 Jun. 1846.

23 Gorsky, Patterns of Philanthropy, 158ff.

24 Stedman Jones, Outcast London, 160.

25 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1688. Prospectus. See also Low, S. jnr, The Charities of London, Comprehending the Benevolent, Educational and Religious Institutions (London, 1977), 108–37Google Scholar; cf. Finlayson, Citizen, State and Social Welfare, 73. Lewis argues that ‘character’ was crucial to mid-century views of charity and was the source both of altruism in the rich and the ambition for self-support in the poor. Lewis, Voluntary Sector, 11.

26 Ibid.

27 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1668. Prospectus.

28 Westminster Archive Centre (hereafter WAC) ACC2091 House of Charity Minute Books (hereafter HCMB), 5 Jan. 1847. Rules of the House of Charity, no. 13. Until it built its own chapel, the House used St Anne's, Soho, with whom it maintained and still maintains strong links.

29 FRO, Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1668, Explanatory Statement read at General Meeting, 26 Jun. 1846.

30 Kidd, ‘“Outcast Manchester”‘, 53. See also Gorsky, Patterns of Philanthropy, 141, for reference to the National Benevolent Institution for the Relief of Distressed Persons in the Middle Ranks of Life.

31 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 11 Jan. 1847. Rules of the House of Charity, no. 5, written in the Minutes of the House of Charity, 19 Jan. 1847. Some applicants who were refused admission were given small amounts of cash to buy food or pay for overnight accommodation. For example, Richard Blissett, an unemployed bricklayer aged 63, who had ‘been ill since Christmas’, was given 2s. 6d. and advised to go to St George's Workhouse. No explanation is given, although it is noted that ‘nothing except weakness prevents him from working’. WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 8 Jun. 1847.

32 Gorsky, Patterns of Philanthropy, 159.

33 See Lansley, J., ‘Theorising charity: the bishops and the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act’, Voluntary Action, 5 (2002)Google Scholar.

34 Foucault argued that the control of activity, primarily through the use of a rigid timetable, and the careful arrangement of activities so as to avoid the wastage of time encouraged docility. Foucault, M., Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison (Harmondsworth, 1979), 150Google Scholar.

35 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1688, House of Charity Explanatory Statement of the Principles, Constitution and Objects of the Above Named Institution read at a General Meeting of the Association held on 27 Jun. 1846.

36 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1688, Original Laws of the House of Charity agreed to at a meeting held on 11 Jun. to be submitted to a General Meeting for Confirmation on 27 Jun. 1846.

37 WAC ACC2091 House of Charity Visitors' Book (hereafter HCVB), 19 Jan. 1847, 21 Feb. 1847.

38 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 21 Feb. 1847.

39 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 19 Jan. 1847.

40 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 20 Jul. 1847.

41 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 17 Nov. 1848.

42 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 9 Jul. 1847, 8 Oct. 1847.

43 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 3 Feb. 1847.

44 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 19 Feb. 1847. Rules of the House of Charity, no. 8.

45 Stedman Jones, Outcast London, 271.

46 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 16 Apr. 1847.

47 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 5 Oct. 1847, 1 Feb. 1848.

48 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 10 May 1848.

49 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 23, 26 and St Peter's Day, Mar. 1847.

50 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 6 Apr. 1847.

51 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 21 Jul. 1848.

52 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 9 Mar. 1849.

53 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 6 and 9 Feb. 1849.

54 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 18 Feb. 1847.

55 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 24 Feb. 1847, 25 Feb. 1847, 3 Mar. 1847.

56 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 15 Dec. 1848.

57 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 21 Mar. 1848, 24 Mar. 1848.

58 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 10 Jul. 1856.

59 WAC ACC2091 Rules of the House of Charity, no. 13.

60 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 8 Oct. 1847.

61 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 9 Jul. 1847, 22 Oct. 1847, 16 Nov. 1847.

62 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 19 Jan. 1847, 8 Jun. 1847.

63 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, St Barnabas Day, 1847, 15 Jun. 1847.

64 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 12 Jul. 1872.

65 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 30 Jan. 1847, 21 Feb. 1847, Minute Book, 8 Feb. 1847.

66 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 19 Jan. 1847, 8 Jun. 1847; Rules of the House of Charity, no. 10.

67 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 31 Jan. 1847.

68 Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 151.

69 Bonham, V., A Place in Life. The Clewer House of Mercy, 1849–83 (Windsor, 1992), 202Google Scholar.

70 This was not always an amicable arrangement, and disputes arose between the Sisters and the House over a number of issues, including the personality and ecclesiastical status of the chaplain and the boundary wall between the two houses. See Starkey, P., ‘The Clewer sisters and the House of Charity: a struggle for control?’, Women's History Notebooks, 4 (1997), 3–7Google Scholar.

71 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 9 Jan. 1847.

72 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 5 Mar. 1847.

73 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 1 Jun. 1847.

74 WAC ACC2091 HCVB. 5 Jun. 1847. See Altick, R.D., The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public 1800–1900 (London, 1963), 394Google Scholar.

75 WAC ACC2091 HCVB, 24 Jun. 1847, St Peter's Day, 1847; HCMB, 25 Jun. 1847. Turner was the son of an army officer and had enjoyed a private income. He was well educated and had some teaching experience.

76 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 2 Jul. 1847.

77 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 13 Jul. 1847.

78 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 16 Jul. 1847.

79 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 14 May 1847.

80 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 2 Jul. 1852.

81 Cf. Gorsky, Patterns of Philanthropy, 135.

82 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 18 Jan. 1850.

83 There are numerous examples. See, for instance, WAC ACC2091 House of Charity Case Book (hereafter HCCB), 26 Aug. 1850; James Williams, his wife and seven children were admitted to the House for three days before embarking at Gravesend for New Zealand; 2 Oct. 1850, Richard Page, his wife and eight children were admitted for nine days, before sailing for Adelaide; 1 Apr. 1854, William, his wife and five children were admitted for 16 days before sailing for Adelaide.

84 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 17 Feb. 1879.

85 See, for example, WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 14 Feb. 1851, ‘An orphan named Brown admitted until he be sent to school’, and 1 Jul. 1851, which records that Ann Rogers was admitted while her mother was in the Lying-In Hospital.

86 Ross, E., ‘Housewives and London charity’, in Mandler, P. (ed.), The Uses of Charity. The Poor on Relief in the Nineteenth-Century Metropolis (Philadelphia, 1990), 164Google Scholar.

87 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 3 Aug. 1866.

88 Stedman Jones, Outcast London, 103.

89 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 2 Aug. to 16 Oct. 1866.

90 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1883. Cornhill Magazine, Apr. 1916.

91 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 16 Nov. 1866.

92 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 817. Letters dated 1863, addressed to Mrs Gladstone and enclosing donations to the ‘invalid kitchen’.

93 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 12 Jun. 1868; HCCB, 22 Jun. 1868. In the event, seven boys were admitted. They were discharged to Mrs Gladstone's orphanage at Hawarden two weeks later.

94 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 13 Nov. 1869.

95 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 13 Mar. 1870.

96 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 9 Jul. 1869. Henry Nye was sent to St Andrews.

97 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1057. Article about Catherine Gladstone written after her death by J.M. Adkins of Hawarden. See also FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 820. Letters to Mrs Gladstone about Newport Market Refuge.

98 See, for example, WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 18 Oct. 1969, for the case of Charles Swete, and 14 Jan. 1870, for the case of Mary Jane Dring, aged eight.

99 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 29 Apr. 1867.

100 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 30 Apr. 1869.

101 See for example, the case of Maria Wolff and her two children, WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 7 Oct. 1870, and the letter of thanks from a French doctor for the care given to his compatriots, WAC ACC 2091 HCMB, 25 Feb. 1870. Also 4 Nov. 1870, Henry Tallis, aged four.

102 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 18 Nov. 1870.

103 See Kidd, “Outcast Manchester”, 53; see also Kidd, A., ‘Charity organisation and the unemployed in Manchester c.1870–1914’, Social History, 9 (1984), 45–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 4 Dec. 1874 and 11 Dec. 1874.

105 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 21 Jul. 1871.

106 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 10 May 1872, 3 Jan. 1873.

107 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 6 Feb. 1874.

108 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 5 Jun. 1874. St Mary's, a High Anglican church in the parish of St Anne, Soho, was part of the network of High Anglican churches with which the House had close links.

109 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 11 Feb. 1881, 25 Mar. 1881.

110 WAC ACC 2091 HCMB, 8 Mar. 1885.

111 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 24 Nov., 8 Dec. 1876. 20 beds were to be made available, 10 for men and 10 for women.

112 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 5 Feb. 1850.

113 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 10 Oct. 1879.

114 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 2 Aug. 1879.

115 See, for example, the case of Alwina Craven and her two children. WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 22 Mar. 1881.

116 WAC ACC2091 HCCB, 1 Apr. 1882.

117 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 4 Jan. 1895.

118 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 13 Oct. 1899.

119 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 30 May 1902. See also 19 Oct. 1906.

120 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 18 Mar. 1909. The name was changed to the House of St Barnabas in 1919, WAC ACC 2091 HCMB, 31 Oct. 1919.

121 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 29 Nov. 1909.

122 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 29 Jan. 1904.

123 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 8 Mar. 1910.

124 WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 18 Jul. 1912.

125 Welshman, J., Underclass. A History of the Excluded (London, 2006), 23Google Scholar.

126 Westminster Archive Centre ACC2091 House of Charity Minute Book (hereafter WAC ACC 2091 HCMB), 17 Mar. 1915.

127 For example, Lady Burrell who has already been mentioned, see above, p. 111. Miss Hoare (presumably a member of the banking family with whom the House had dealings) gave £550 for ‘the use of the chapel’, WAC ACC 2091 HCMB, 19 Dec., 1880; the duke of Edinburgh gave £10 in 1875, 20 Feb. 1875.

128 See above, p. 111.

129 See for example, WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 19 Jan. 1872, for the appointment of Mr Tanner as collector. He proved to be unsatisfactory, and solicitors were instructed to recover from him the debt he owed to the House. WAC ACC2091 HCMB, 25 Jul. 1880.

130 FRO Glynne-Gladstone MSS 1668. Prospectus, 11 Jun. 1846.