The fate of children of the poor to some extent depended on the category into which the parent fell. The populace were fearful that the children of beggars would become beggars themselves, thus in 1579 legislation provided that any heritor (property owner) could take a pauper child between five and fourteen years into his service. Girls had to remain until they were 18 years old and boys until they were 24.

It wasn't until 1617 that the law required that consent of the parents was needed for children under 14 and the consent of the child if over. But both boys and girls were bound to the heritor until aged 30 and, moreover, any earnings they made had to go to him. Today we would probably call such an arrangement slavery, but in those times it meant relative warmth, comfort and security although the workday would always be hard and abuse probable.

In England, orphans and abandoned children were also a cost upon the parish and Boards of Guardians under the Poor Laws actively sought means to reduce the burden. Thus as early as 1618, some 100 children were shipped to the Virginia Company in America and throughout the 17th century small groups of unwanted children were despatched to America and the West Indies. In the 18th century there was a different policy of punishment of convicted felons which saw the liability to transportation of seven year olds and upwards.

In 1663, a law was introduced in Scotland that allowed the seizure and employment of vagabonds for eleven years without pay and the Kirk Sessions were made to pay for their upkeep. In 1672, magistrates were ordered to erect work houses but most small towns and rural areas made do with existing buildings.

In the bigger towns there arose over time some substantial "Poor Houses" such as the Edinburgh Charity Workhouse which in 1778 could house 480 adults and 180 children, A further workhouse was built in Edinburgh's West Kirk in 1761 and another in 1861. The popular perception continued to be that admittance to a poor house was a shameful last resort. But the bigger cities, such as Edinburgh and Glasgow actually took pride in their modern buildings. The Parish of Govan in Glasgow, for example built and ran a poorhouse at Merryflatts which accommodated 2000 persons.

Growing urban areas and industrialisation with economic slumps in the weaving industry brought new pressures and poverty which was to have its effect on the provision of Poor Relief. Following a Royal Commission and survey of all parishes the Poor Law Amendment (Scotland) Act 1845 appointed a national Board of Supervision and each parish or burgh had its own Parochial Board. As a result for the first time receipt of poor relief was removed from religous influence.

A salutory fact remains that by the mid-18th century over half the burials in Edinburgh were those of children. How many more there might have been simply buried under the hedgerows by the poor and the ashamed unmarried mother we can only guess.

By the turn of the 18th century there had been improvement in diet with a wider selection of fruit and vegetables available and the humble potatoe making its impact in years of cereal crop failures. There was also improved child care through the widely published hygiene guidance of Dr. William Buchan of Edinburgh, who published many papers such as his "Advice to mothers on the subject of their own health and on the means of promoting strength and beauty of their offspring", (1811) and his major work "Domestic Medicine" (1769), which went to 22 editions.

His works were of themselves a milestone in public hygene and the first real, down to earth advice for the common man and woman such as on washing the body, providing loose dry clothing for children which should be changed frequently, formulae for simple medicines and self medication as well as advice on some industrial diseases.

Another important change was the elimination of the major killer, smallpox. Smallpox was especially bad in Scotland in Aberdeen in 1635 and 1641; and Glasgow had a serious epedemic in 1672 when over 800 deaths occurred. An analysis of mortality rates by a Dr. Munro in Edinburgh concluded that smallpox was responsible for 20 percent of child deaths in the mid- to late-18th century. The introduction of innoculation in 1733 only had limited success because it needed a stable and warm environment for the child to rest - which was not available to the most in need, the poor.

But innoculation was also beset by prejudice on religious grounds where it was deemed "a tempting of God's providence and therefore a heinous crime." The death of a child that had been innoculated was regarded as murder, but the death by "natural smallpox" was an Act of Providence and nobody was to blame. One consequence was that smallpox was controlled in the Highlands regions (which was less affected by the Kirk's rule) before the more heavily populated Lowlands.

The prejudice was finally overcome by vaccination dicovered by Dr. Edward Jenner in England in 1796. This was quickly adopted by Scottish doctors. and a policy of free vaccination was brought in by Glasgow in 1801. Many other towns followed suit. The result was a very rapid improvement in the incidence of the disease and a drop in the death rate such that by about 1825 the disease was at least under control.

A coincidental feature of the times that may well have been brought about by the control of smallpox was that the number of children in a family also grew alongside a lowering in the average age of the population. The 1821 Census revealed that nearly one half of the population was under 20 years of age; a quarter of the population was under 10 years. The number of children borne to a couple varied considerably but more generally varied between five and seven; some figures for 1834 give between seven and eight for cotton workers.

So we arrive at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in Scotland with a young and relatively healthy but static population, which was ready to take advantage of the benefits that mechanisation and industrial expansion had to offer. Little did the children know what dire troubles lay ahead for them. The Grim Reaper would not be denied as there was to follow a change in the cause of deaths in the middle years of childhood to measles, diptheria and Tuberculosis which flourished in the overcrowded towns and ghettos that sprang up with industrialisation.

Part One: History of Children 1200-1800
Part Two : The Industrial Revolution to Today
Part Three : The Dustbin Kids
Part Four : Reverand Canon Charles Jupp
Part Five : Quarrier Homes
Part Six : Dr. William Buchan
Part Seven : Thomas Guthrie
Part Eight : Neither Waif nor Stray, Book Review