Charlotte & the Workhouse

Charlotte was in love.  With the bricklayer to whom she had been engaged for three years.  They had not married as they had not enough money to rent a home; bricklaying work had all but ceased in London and George had been forced to take on gardening work instead.  Charlotte had fallen pregnant after George seduced her one night when they were out walking, as they did to seek time alone, seeing as George lived with his widowed charwoman mother.

Being pregnant, with no family in London and George now denying paternity, Charlotte arrived at the door of the Croydon Union Workhouse in late 1881.   As related in Oliver Twist, the parish workhouse was where one went if found destitute on the streets or unable to pay rent on a home.  With unmistakable images in mind of the situation in which Oliver Twist's mother found herself, my great grandmother Charlotte had herself classified as a pauper when she was eight months into her pregnancy and her situation as a live-in servant was no longer tenable.

Her admission details were recorded on 4 August 1881 in the workhouse's Discharge & Admission book as:

- Charlotte Elizabeth Boyt                             - No. affixed to the Pauper's Clothes: 31
- Next Meal after Admission: Supper            - Parish from which admitted: Wallington
- Calling: Servant                                          - By whose order admitted: Ebbutt
- Religious Persuasion: Baptist                     - Observations on condition at the time of admission:
- When Born: 1857                                          Pregnant

Charlotte entered the Croydon Workhouse Infirmary in the old workhouse in Duppas Hill, where it had remained after the new Croydon Union Workhouse opened in 1866 in Queens Road, Croydon.  She had been born in Christchurch, Hampshire but had come to London in order to work.  Her employer, Mrs Parrott, was unwilling to keep her on in her situation as a household servant, once her pregnancy could no longer be concealed.  Until well into the twentieth century the only hospitals which made no charge for treatment were the infirmaries attached to workhouses, so Charlotte, having little money, had no choice but to enter a workhouse in order to be attended by a midwife during her labour.

Whilst resident in a workhouse an inmate was required to work and "picking oakum" became a common occupation in Victorian era prisons and workhouses and could not leave unless they found a job outside.  "Oakum" was a preparation of tarred fibre used in shipbuilding, for caulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels and deck planking of iron and steel ships.  It was recycled from old, tarry ropes by painstakingly unravelling these into fibre.  I don't know if Charlotte was required to engage in this occupation or if she was allowed to partake in a less arduous one such as crocheting lace cuffs, which Charlie Chaplin's mother did as a resident of the Lambeth Workhouse in 1896 when she, Charlie and his brother were forced by poverty and ill health to live there.  Records now made available by the London Metropolitan Archives show that workhouses at this time were no more benevolent in regard to other conditions: Charlie was placed on a 'number 4' diet, basically a diet of gruel.  I expect a similarly meagre diet was the only one available to Charlotte 15 years earlier once she entered the workhouse door.  At the new Croydon workhouse in Queens Road it seems women were employed in the laundry, but whether Charlotte, in her advanced state of pregnancy was put to work in the Infirmary laundry, I do not know. 

It would be several weeks before she gave birth, an event recorded on 28 September as:

- Boyt female infant                         - By whose order admitted: Burt        
- Parent: Charlotte                            - Observations on condition: Girl

It must have been an extremely difficult and dispiriting time for Charlotte, as her future after the birth was an uncertain one, save for the sad fact she may have had to live in the workhouse until her child was old enough to be sent to a workhouse school.  She may then have been able to resume her live-in occupation as a servant, unhampered by a child. 

But, on 15 October 1881, she was discharged at her own request "with a female infant."  The Croydon Infirmary Midwife had been impressed by Charlotte, finding her "respectable and well-disposed" and so recommended her as a wet nurse to a Mrs Rickett.  Charlotte was thus spared any further time in the workhouse and able to leave with her baby for a secure situation, at least for the time being.

Thanks to the staff of the Family Studies Section of the Croydon Library, who enabled my research by making available the Croydon Workhouse Admission & Discharge Books, Minute Books and Creed Registers for the relevant period.

References: Article by Daniel Cochlin, Daily Mail Online, 16 September 2008
My Autobiography Charlie Chaplin (1964) Barnes & Noble
The Croydon Workhouse Paula McInnis & Bill Sparkes (KEY Croydon & The Croydon Society)