Bearwood House, near Wokingham, was rebuilt by John
Walter III, the grandson of the founder of The Times, after his
father’s death in 1847. By 1860 he was extending his estate, buying
land in much of the Arborfield, Wokingham and Sandhurst area. He pulled
down the old Bearwood House and built the present mansion with its
extensive grounds and large ornamental lake. In the early twentieth
century the house became the home of the Merchant Seamen’s Orphan
Asylum. John Hann, the archivist of what later became Bearwood College,
explains the background to the fascinating history of the orphanage.
Today the house is an independent co-educational day and
boarding school, but, like many other public schools, it started life
as a charity for children in need. It was founded 175 years ago, on 25
October 1827, as the Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum. Based originally
in London’s dockland, it moved in 1834 to Bow and in 1862 to
Snaresbrook, before coming to Berkshire in 1921.
John Walter III’s
Bearwood House, Wokingham
From William IV and Queen Adelaide to our own Queen
Elizabeth every sovereign has been Patron to the charity, and in 1902
Edward VII gave permission for the word ‘Royal’ to be included in its
title. The new name was Royal Merchant Seamen’s Orphanage. By 1935
another change had become necessary. Former scholars were complaining
that it was a handicap in later life to have attended a school
described as an orphanage, and the name was therefore changed to Royal
Merchant Navy School. Finally, in the 1960s, when children unconnected
with the sea became eligible, parents were often misled into assuming
that it was a training school for the navy, and it was decided to adopt
the current name, Bearwood College.
Nowadays it is generally assumed that an orphan has lost
both parents, but in the nineteenth century this was not so. A
dictionary definition of 1857 is ‘a child who has lost father or mother
or both.’ The Managers of the Orphan Asylum assumed that the ‘inmates’
had mothers or grandparents to go home to. A child was eligible for
admission only after the age of seven and was required to leave on his
or her fourteenth birthday. Most children went home for three weeks’
holiday in July and in some years, for ten days at Christmas, though
medical advisers often objected to the winter break because the
children were likely to return with whatever infectious disease was
prevalent at the time. The Constitution of the Asylum laid down strict
rules for the admission of orphans and it was the responsibility of the
Board of Management to vet each application and confirm that the child
was eligible. First the dead parent had to be the father. A child whose
dead mother had been at sea as a stewardess was rejected out of hand -
the Constitution referred only to seamen. Second he must be British,
which meant from anywhere in the British Isles. The MSOA always claimed
to be a national institution. Although half the children were Londoners
the other half came from dozens of coastal towns around the country,
and the Asylum had representatives in no less than 38 of these
so-called ‘outports’.
Black candidates
An interesting question of Britishness arose in 1850, when
the first application was received on behalf of Richard Millington - ‘a
boy of colour’. One committee member objected that ‘he would be
objectionable in the school and lessen the respectability of the
charity’, adding that The Institution was for British only and if
anyone were asked what was the complexion of our Merchant Marine he
would say at once ‘white’. However, his was a lone voice. Another
member retorted that ‘any attempt at exclusion in consequence of
complexion will be likely to bring much odium on the Institution.’ No
vote was taken, and in due course the boy became an inmate of the
asylum.
The dead father had to have been a seaman, and following
the widespread introduction of steamships a special meeting was held to
consider whether the children of engineers and stokers were eligible.
Some argued that these men were not genuine seamen as they could work
as easily on land as at sea. Stokers especially were ‘no more than
labourers who could turn their hands to anything on shore’. Others
maintained that all persons who assisted in the navigation of a ship
must logically be seamen and these men also risked their lives at sea
for the benefit of the public. After two adjournments of the meeting it
was agreed to consider each individual case on its merits.
 |
 |
| Boy
and girl at Bow in the 1840s |
Girls
at the Snaresbrook swimming pool |
Many fathers were killed in accidents at sea, but what if
the accident left a man unfit for sea service but able to do some kind
of work ashore before his death? The father of Charles Hall had been
crippled in both hands through loss of fingers from the explosion of a
gun at sea and was subsequently employed for many years as a
ship-keeper in harbour. The child was accepted, and cases like this
were again considered on their merits.
Illegitimate children
The Constitution allowed no such latitude in cases of
illegitimacy: bastard children were ‘improper objects’. An application
from Newcastle explained that as the father had been away at sea the
parents had married after the child was born. The Committee could not
help. Another rule was, however, relaxed. A candidate had to be
destitute, but if the widowed mother remarried it was at first assumed
that the stepfather could support the child, who was promptly sent home
from the asylum. Later it was thought that this rule was only
encouraging immorality, and cases were considered individually.
Charities today often gain our sympathy by publishing
names, photographs and tragic life stories of children in their care.
Unfortunately the small print at the end hardens our hearts again when
we read that the names are false, the life stories fictitious, and the
photographs of models. Victorian charities had no such inhibitions:
their advertising was for real. Children accepted by the MSOA Committee
as candidates had still to be elected by the subscribers, who were
known as governors. At the half-yearly elections each governor had one
vote for every half-guinea subscribed. The voting papers gave details
of each candidate, including the father’s name, rank and ship and cause
of death, the mother’s name and address, and the number of children
dependent on her. Little information survives about the unsuccessful
candidates, but the annual reports which we still have give all these
details about children actually in the asylum. This can be of great
assistance to the family historian.
Election of candidates
The elections often caused excitement, with demands for
recounts and accusations of malpractice. Large sums of money could be
raised from new subscribers who were entitled to vote immediately.
Family and friends of some candidates obtained lists of governors and
canvassed for votes, but this disadvantaged other equally deserving
children. In 1837 a petition was presented on behalf of an unsuccessful
girl, Ellen Fotheringham, whose mother ‘on her dying bed was unable to
exert herself in canvassing the subscribers on behalf of her child’ who
would be ‘shortly cast upon the world a wanderer without home or
protection’. A special Board meeting admitted her at once. However,
most of those elected in the nineteenth century were children of
captains or mates, and it was even argued by the secretary of the
Foundation that this was only right. ‘The widow of a captain will toil
and slave under a constant burden of anxieties and hardships .... to
preserve her family pride.’ If the children of ordinary sailors’
‘thriffless, easy-going widows’ were admitted it ‘merely enables them
to spend more of their own earnings and doles upon themselves’.
Fortunately in recent times the number of seamen’s orphans has
declined. No elections have been held since 1915, the admission rules
have been relaxed, and the fifty or so ‘foundationers’ today at
Bearwood or elsewhere can be treated far more generously. No longer
dismissed on their fourteenth birthday, many are assisted through
university and even beyond. Finally, a word of waming to family
historians. Many ships in the nineteenth century simply disappeared,
and it was eventually assumed they had sunk with the loss of all hands.
In 1844 it was discovered that the father of John Folkes, who was
reported dead had in fact returned home a few months later, but the
mother had said nothing and the child had remained in the asylum. I
suspect there were some other undiscovered cases. At a time when the
MSOA offered education and medical care not easily obtainable elsewhere
other mothers must have been tempted to leave well alone.
In addition to the annual reports already mentioned the
Archive at Bearwood has complete Admissions Registers which often
mention the child’s educational standard and intended career. The Board
Minute Books on which this article is largely based begin in 1827
though some volumes for the late Victorian period are missing. Their
indexes enable one to find references to a number of children for
reasons either good or bad. Other records are much less complete, but
we do have copies of testimonials for many leavers between 1910 and
1940. I am happy to search for names submitted by family historians. No
charge is made for this, but contributions to the RMNS Foundation are
always welcome.
Enquiries should be addressed to: The Archivist, Bearwood
College, Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 5BD.
with any queries
