Children at the Birth of Empire, c. 1600-1760 Kristen Grace Lashua Camas, Washington M.A., University of Virginia, 2011 B.A., Pacific Lutheran University, 2009 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Virginia May 2015 ii Abstract Thousands of British children helped to build colonies and sail naval vessels during the first phase of British imperialism, from the rocky foundation at Jamestown to the victory in the Seven Years’ War that left Britain the premier power in Europe. Often, we think of young men as the agents of empire, but the story is far more complex. It is only when we focus on children specifically, rather than lumping them together with adult migrants, that we realize that children have their own story. Telling that story offers new ways of understanding law, labor, poverty, charity, race, and migration in the early modern world. I argue that there were cultural and legal understandings that childhood was distinct from adulthood; that children—even poor and unattached ones—mattered to early modern Britons; that concerns over kidnapping led to an increased valuation of children’s consent; and that issues of slavery, consent, and the legal definition of childhood helped to form English ideas of liberty and identity. Children were not merely commodities to be bought and sold, nor were they pawns to be deployed and sacrificed without thought or remorse. Instead, obtaining their consent to overseas employment became an important emblem of English liberty, a way to distinguish free English Selves from bound African Others. iii To the very best of parents, Dave and Charmaine McCabe, with gratitude and love iv Table of Contents Introduction: Children at the Birth of Empire 9 Part I: Understandings of Early Modern Childhood Chapter One: “To stock the next Generation with Noble Plants”: Cultural Concepts of Early Modern Childhood 28 Chapter Two: “The Law is their Guardian”: English Legal Concepts of Childhood 66 Part II: Destitute Children Abroad Chapter Three: Destitute Children and “Nursing Fathers”: The Care of London’s Youngest Vagrants 110 Chapter Four: A Global Answer to the Poore Orphan’s Cry: Children and the Growth of Empire 158 Part III: The Legalities of Child Migration Chapter Five: Spirited, Convicted, or Compelled: The Forced Migration of Children, c. 1607-1700 210 Chapter Six: Charity, Consent, and “Kidnapping”: Stolen Children and the Rise of Children’s Self-Determination, c. 1680-1760 250 Conclusion: Britain’s Children, Britain’s Liberty 301 Bibliography 315 v List of Abbreviations BL The British Library, London, UK FSL The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. GL The London Guildhall Library, London, UK LMA The London Metropolitan Archives, London, UK NMM The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK OBP Old Bailey Proceedings, <www.oldbaileyonline.org> OED The Oxford English Dictionary ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography TNA The National Archives, Kew, UK The King James Bible was used for all biblical quotations vi Acknowledgments I am gratified to be in the position of being able to thank the many people whose support have made this project a reality. The Maass Grant from the Manuscript Society, Harvard’s Dissertation Grant from the International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, and various grants from my home institution provided funding that enabled me to complete the archival work in the UK that was critical to this project. I received writing support from a Doris G. Quinn Fellowship that allowed me to finish the dissertation much sooner than would have otherwise been possible. I am grateful to the librarians and archivists at the Bristol Record Office, the British Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Lambeth Palace Library, the London Guildhall Library, the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Archives at Kew, and the National Maritime Museum for their kind assistance. David Harris Sacks, Philip Stern, and Robert Tittler were enormously generous in offering advice about navigating various UK archives. Gary De Krey kindly helped me as I tracked down the story of John Wilmore’s kidnapping case and its relationship to the Exclusion Crisis. I must mention the remarkable mentorship, encouragement, and training in historical research I received at my alma mater, Pacific Lutheran University. In particular, Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen, Mike Halvorson, Sharon Jansen, Beth Kraig, and Dennis Martin were enormously influential in my decision to pursue an academic career. During a study abroad program in London, Lisa Bowers-Isaacson made me fall in love with the history of the British empire during her history walks through that amazing city. I was fortunate to be in graduate school along with a wonderful “band of brothers,” including Jim Ambuske, Kate Brown, Martin Kane, Margaret Lewis, and Emily Senefeld. It was Nir Avissar who told me it was really “the bit about the children” that I should pursue after reading my first graduate research paper on the Virginia Company. The faculty members with whom I studied during my graduate school years were particularly generous with their time and mentorship. I must thank especially Alon Confino, Max Edelson, Cori Field, Ted Lendon, Elizabeth Meyer, Allison Pugh, Sophie Rosenfeld, Erin Rowe, and the late Lenard Berlanstein. How can I adequately express my appreciation and admiration for Paul Halliday? All graduate students ought to have a mentor who manages to be their wisest critic and greatest advocate, who simultaneously pushes them to be better and believes in them completely. I am still unsure of why Paul fished my application out of a pile and decided to give me a chance, but I am forever grateful that he did. Finally, there are many people whose love and support carried me through my time in graduate school—far too many to name here. My brother David McCabe; my sister Annette McCabe, her husband Mike Hammond, and their daughter Ahlem; my grandparents Gene McCabe, Lavon Culley, and Barbara Jefferson; my friend Jessica Howard; and my in-laws Dave, Sarah, and Emily Lashua have all cheered me on every step of the way. I wish that Shirley McCabe, Bob Jefferson, and Bill Thomson could have seen this project completed; I know how delighted they would be. Along with teaching me how to read and write, my mom gave me essential foundational training for any historian: the love of a good story, the moral imperative to be as accurate as possible vii when recounting the lives of past people, and the compulsion to “look it up!” when confronted with something you don’t know. Little did she realize that my need to “look it up” would lead me to scavenge 400-year-old manuscripts for tidbits about forlorn children. My dad gave me a priceless gift: he told me I could do anything I set my mind to, and he truly believed that I could. He also taught me by example the critical importance finding and pursuing one’s true vocation. Last, but by no means least, my husband Andrew Lashua has been my rock throughout this journey. We met while I was in the process of applying for graduate school, and ever since he has been my sounding board, my cheerleader, my shoulder to cry on, my personal comedian, my research assistant, my true partner, and my dearest friend. Only he can know how much I owe him; only he would give so generously of himself without expecting anything in return. viii A Prologue written by William Harvard, which he performed before the play Zara to benefit the Marine Society boys at Drury Lane on December 5, 1759. Britons! this night ye dignify your name; The Sons of Virtue are the heirs to Fame. And why Calestial virtue can outvie, Thy merits, all relieving Charity? O Charity! how pure thy off’rings rise The sweetest Insense that ascends the skies! The Charitable soul on Seraphs wings, Mounts to that God-head, whence his Virtue springs; The pious effort Heav’n is pleas’d to raise, And the preserver shares the Makers praise. If such the merit when to low distress, The bounteous hand is open’d to redress; If but to wipe the tear from sorrows eye, Be such a grateful office to the sky, How strong must be our feelings of delight Where Int’rest & humanity unite, And Briton’s Glory crowns the point of sight. Ye sons of Freedom! view this little band, They owe their safety to your fost’ring hand, Snatch’d from the paths of vice & branded shame, You point the road to honesty & fame, This small plantation which your hands first laid May rise in time your ornament & shade Our sons perhaps shall see with glad surprise In some of These, new Drakes, new Raleighs rise. Nobly proceed. Exert your Chymic strife Extracting spirit from the Dregs of Life, Our safety our humanity combine, And every virtue glows in the design. O may this glorious ordor still improve, This blend of Charity & patriot love Th’increasing number which your bounties save Shall in your cause the boldest dangers brave And rise triumphant, o’er the subject wave France shall look pale to see their glorious toil And tremble at the gleanings of our Isle No more contend in rivalship again But yield us the full Empire of the Main. Nor can they stand another overthrow For George by Hawke has struck the final Blow. NMM, MSY/A/1, 350-352. 1 Introduction: Children at the Birth of Empire In 1756, a philanthropic organization was founded in London to equip and dispatch boys as young as eight years old to war.1 Over the course of the Seven Years’ War, the Marine Society outfitted