THE CLIMBING BOY CAMPAIGNS in BRITAIN, C. 1770-1840
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THE CLIMBING BOY CAMPAIGNS IN BRITAIN, c. 1770-1840: CULTURES OF REFORM, LANGUAGES OF HEALTH AND EXPERIENCES OF CHILDHOOD Niels van Manen PhD September 2010 IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ www.bl.uk BEST COpy AVAILABLE. VARIABLE PRINT QUALITY IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ www.bl.uk PAGINATED BLANK PAGES ARE SCANNED AS FOUND IN ORIGINAL THESIS NO INFORMATION IS MISSING IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ www.bl,uk BLANK PAGE IN ORIGINAL 2 ABSTRACT This thesis offers the first systematic analysis of the regulation of child labour in chimney sweeping in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth century Britain since George Phillips' England's Climbing Boys, 1949. Far from isolated dialogues between progressive and conservative parliamentarians and between humane philanthropists and abusive sweeps (Phillips), we find multifaceted conversations between heterogeneous alliances through a variety of media. This thesis therefore focuses explicitly on the complex formation of health policy, integrating a biographic analysis of those who participated in the campaigns, a structural analysis of the procedures that shaped their initiatives, and a discourse analysis of the rhetorical strategies that they adopted in different settings. Through this inclusive approach, the thesis offers new perspectives on the study of reform, medicine and childhood, and shows that labour reform gave rise to new ways of thinking about these issues. With respect to reform, the thesis highlights the increasing interconnectedness of voluntary activism, law-making, and administrative practice in Britain during this period. It also suggests the need to integrate all three activities in a single analysis when examining social policy formation and to consider the contributions of those targeted by regulation. With respect to medicine, the thesis suggests that the health of children and of workers were prominent topics of medical and political investigation at the time. Debates addressed a broader set of conditions and resulted in different policies to those in the period around 1900, which has often been viewed as the formative period of paediatrics and occupational medicine. These findings invite medical historians to investigate earlier paradigms of child health and occupational health before their onset as formal specialisms. With respect to childhood, the thesis suggests that the regulation of child labour, commonly associated with the discovery of the helpless, dependent child, also extended the opportunities for young workers lO.iofluence their own conditions. 3 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9 ABBREVIATIONS 11 CONVENTIONS 13 INTRODUCTION THE CLIMBING BOY CAMPAIGNS IN BRITAIN, c. 1770- 1840: Cultures of Reform, Languages of Health and Experiences of Childhood 15 Statement of Context 18 Childhood 21 Medicine 25 Reform 32 The Climbing Boy Campaigns 37 Chapter Outline 43 CHAPTER 1 THE CLIMBING BOY REFORMERS, c. 1770-1840: a Collective Biography 49 1.1 Climbing Boy Philanthropists, c. 1770-1800 51 1.2 Reluctant Master Sweeps, c. 1770-1800 58 1.3 Climbing Boy Abolitionists, 1800-1840 67 1.4 Respectable Master Sweeps, 1800-1840 94 1.5 The Parliamentarians, 1788-1840 105 Conclusions 112 6 CHAPTER 2 PHILANTHROPIC INmATlVES TOWARDS CUMBING BOYS, c. 1770-1800: Child labour, Occupational Health and the Promotion of Medical Police 119 2.1 Preserving the Lives 0/ In/ants, 1767 121 2.2 Promoting the Police, 1773-1775 129 2.3 Promoting Solidarity within the Trade, 1780 134 2.4 The Need/or Comprehensive Policy, 1785-1788 139 2.5 Sweeps and Non-Sweeps Joining Hands, 1792-1800 145 Conclusions 149 CHAPTER 3 PRACTICES OF PHILANTHROPY IN THE CUMBING BOY CAMPAIGNS, c. 1803-40 153 3.1 Initiating Reliel 1803-1840 156 3.2 Seeking Funds, 1803-1840 166 3.3 Promoting Mechanical Sweeping, 1803-1840 172 3.4 In/orming the Public, 1803-1840 187 3.5 Petitioning Parliament, 1803-1840 199 Conclusions 204 CHAPTER 4 LEGISLATING THE WORK AND HEALTH OF CHIMNEY SWEEPS, 1788-1840 211 4.1 Initial Regulation o/the Trade, 1788 215 4.2 Failed Attempts to Secure Better Implementation, 1804 222 4.3 First Attempts to Prohibit Climbing, 1817-1824 228 7 4.4 Further Regulation and Prohibition, 1834-1840 257 Conclusions 272 CHAPTER 5 AGENCY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF LONDON'S CHIMNEY SWEEP APPRENTICES, c. 1780-1840 277 5.1 The Binding of Parish Apprentices 280 5.2 Managing Existing Contracts and Prosecuting Abuse 291 Conclusions 297 CHAPTER 6 CHIMNEY SWEEPS' CANCER IN THE CLIMBING BOY CAMPAIGNS, c. 1770-1840 301 6.1 Percivall Pott on Chimney Sweeps' Cancer, 1775 302 6.2 Sweeps' Cancer in Climbing Boy Relief, 1770-1800 304 6.3 Sweeps' Cancer in Climbing Boy Relief, 1800-1834 306 6.4 Chimney Sweeps' Cancer in Parliament, 1817-1819 310 6.5 Chimney Sweeps' Cancer in Parliament, 1834 318 6.6 Sweeps' Cancer in Climbing Boy Relief, post-1834 328 6.7 Sweeps' Cancer in Medical Treatises 330 Conclusions 333 CHAPTER 7 BODILY RHETORIC IN THE CLIMBING BOY CAMPAIGNS, c. 1770-1840 337 7.1 Childhood 339 7.2 Slavery 347 7.3 Sentiment 357 8 Conclusions 367 CONCLUSIONS 371 APPENDICES 383 Appendix 1: Tables, Plates and Maps 383 Appendix 2: Bills and Acts regarding Chimney Sweeps, 1788 1840 417 Appendix 3: Parliamentary Activity regarding Chimney Sweeps, 1788- 1840 425 BIBUOGRAPHY 431 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I took the first steps on this 'sooty' journey in the summer of 2006, at the 'Raduno Spazzacamini' in Valle Vigezzo, Italy, and wish to thank Lisa Wenger, Benito Mazzi and Anita Hofer for inspiring me with their stories about Italian and Swiss climbing boys. My deepest gratitude goes out to my supervisor, Mark Jenner, for his tremendous support and intellectual stimulation throughout the project. I also wish to thank Barbara Schmucki and Joanna de Groot, who read much of the thesis as members of my Thesis Advisory Panel. I am indebted to the Wellcome Trust for funding the research. The York Georgian Society funded crucial research trips to archives in Bristol, Derby, Liverpool and Sheffield and the Royal Historical Society supported a period of focused writing at the end of three years of research. I am grateful to Neil Dowlan, Pearl Shipley and all the front-of-house staff of Armley Mills Industrial Museum, Leeds, for their great hospitality and for providing a home to the fantastic 'Ernestine Henry Collection'. Thanks also to Dawn Dyer at Bristol Local Studies Library for helping me reconstruct the rich lives of Bristol's master sweeps. Conferences and seminars at Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, London and Warwick provided excellent opportunities to test parts of the argument. The Institute of Historical Research, London, provided an intellectual home during the final year of my PhD. Katrina Honeyman read parts of the thesis and offered generous and constructive feedback. Madge Dresser and Nick Foggo kindly shared their knowledge of merchant philanthropists in Bristol and Liverpool. Mike Bolan, Jeremy Lankshear, and Vicki and Chris Pickard showed wonderful hospitality during numerous research trips to London. I am grateful to Chris and Vicki, John Paul Flaherty, Gina Cavan, and Anu and Nidhi Trehan for helping me improve the text stylistically. Both David Sanderson's and Koji Yamamoto's friendship have enriched this project and my life in so many ways. Thanks to Santosh and Vijay Trehan for welcoming me into their family and providing a warm home. Thanks to my brothers and sisters, and Maarten and Werner, for their love. My mother acted as a sounding board - intellectually and emotionally - for so many aspects of this project, and Henk's terrific support helped me to keep focused in the final stages of write-up. My father and Irma always expressed tremendous belief in me. Vidhi, my wife, stood by me from start to finish, showed understanding when I was absorbed in the world of the sweeps, and spurred me on with love and encouragement. I dedicate this thesis to her. 10 11 ABBREVIATIONS CMCS Committee of Master Chimney Sweepers HC The House of Commons Hl The House of lords ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography OED Oxford English Dictionary SPICSA Society for the Protection and Instruction of Chimney Sweepers' Apprentices SSNCB Society for Superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys USMCS United Society of Master Chimney Sweepers 13 CONVENTIONS When citing eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sources, I have retained the original spelling and punctuation. Bill appeared with capital and without; chimneys also appeared as chimnies. These have been retained without further reference. Other differences to modern spelling have been indicated with (sic). Parliamentary and SSNCB reports have been given simplified titles for reference purposes. Full titles can be found in the Bibliography. 15 INTRODUCTION THE CLIMBING BOY CAMPAIGNS IN BRITAIN, C. 1770- 1840: CULTURES OF REFORM, LANGUAGES OF HEALTH AND EXPERIENCES OF CHILDHOOD In 1775, Percivall Pott, professor of surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital, london, wrote about chimney sweeps:1 The fate of these people seems singularly hard; in their early infancy they are most frequently treated with great brutality, and almost starved with cold and hunger; they are thrust up narrow, and sometimes hot chimneys, where they are buried, burned and almost suffocated; and when they get to puberty, become liable to a most noisome, and fatal disease. Few readers will be familiar with this passage in Pott's famous lecture on scrotal cancer. Many medical historians have championed Pott as the founding father of occupational epidemiology for linking the cancer to sweeps' exposure to soot.2 However, few have noted his concern for sweeps' health beyond this 'noisome and fatal disease' or investigated how his writings related to contemporary attempts to improve conditions in the 1 Percivall Pott, Chirurgical Observations Relative to the Cataract, the Polypus of the Nose, the Cancer of the Scrotum, the Different Kinds of Ruptures, and the Mortification of the Toes and Feet (3 vols, London, 1775), vol.