Why the Workhouse?
We all know that the sons and daughters of Dorset have spread around the world – even a casual wander through the Dorset History Centre online catalogue will reveal the names of countries and territories from all around the globe. Often the records refer to business interests in foreign or empire countries and can reflect colonialism and exploitation. But who would have thought that a bunch of pauper children from Sturminster Newton workhouse would go on to populate a settlement in Newfoundland in the mid-nineteenth century?
This article was prompted by six Roberts children being identified in an account book of the Overseers of the Poor in Sturminster Newton. At the end of the book are a list of admissions and discharges, 1823-1832. This workhouse was not the building in Bath Road, Sturminster Newton which was built in 1838 to house 150 inmates. The Roberts children where admitted to an earlier and smaller workhouse built to accommodate up to 50 people.
The six Roberts children were all admitted, without their parents, on Tuesday, 18 May 1824:
- Matthew Roberts 14 years. Left for Newfoundland April 18th 1825, aged 15
- Marke Roberts 9 years. Left for Newfoundland April 6th 1831, aged 16
- Luke Roberts 7 years. Left for Newfoundland April 20th 1831, aged 14
- John Roberts 4 years. Left for Newfoundland April 5th 1833, aged 13
- Hester Roberts 12 years. 1826, went to Mrs. Mitchells at Hinton St. Mary, aged 14
- Ann Roberts 2 years. April 1833, went to George Fish, aged 11.
Using Ancestry.co.uk to view the Parish Registers for Dorset revealed the baptism records for all six children, confirming their ages as recorded in the Overseer’s accounts. The baptism records also gave their parents names – John and Elizabeth Roberts – and their father’s occupation as labourer. The five eldest children where all baptised at Hinton St Mary, but the youngest, Ann, was baptised at Manston.
Further research found John Roberts had married Elizabeth Rowlands at Hinton St Mary 06 December 1808, by licence.
Then the most likely reason for the Roberts children being admitted to the workhouse was found. Their mother Elizabeth had been buried at Hinton St Mary on 15 May 1824 – just three days before the children are recorded in the Overseers account book. It can only be assumed that their father and other family members were unable or unwilling to care for six children.
The importance of the Workhouse and poor relief for Dorset labourers cannot be underestimated. Stephen King writes that labourer’s real wages during the late Georgian period did not provide a standard of living consistently above the threshold to avoid the need to rely on poor relief and that over 20% of the population was in receipt of relief in 1821¹. In 1798 labourers weekly wages ranged from 7s 3d to 10s and Dorset was one of three counties with wages so low that they were generally considered insufficient. By 1848 the average weekly wage for a farm labourer had risen to 9s, with 12s being paid in rich districts and 8s in poorer districts². When a 4lb or quartern loaf of bread, which ought to feed four people for a day, cost about 9d it is easy to understand why John Roberts, a labourer, may have been unable to house and feed six children.
David Davies highlights the importance of the poor relief system in finding work for children:
“children in Dorset age 9, 10 or 11 earnt nothing and that it is not until children are at least 11 that they are put out of pauper families to be given an occupation by poor relief”.³
Dorset and the Newfoundland Connection
It is most likely that the Roberts boys were sent over to Newfoundland to work in the fishing industry. Matthew as the oldest went first in 1825 – the year Newfoundland was given colonial status within the British Empire. This formally allowed permanent settlements to be established, allowing fishermen to stay during the winter rather than return to England. However, the connection between Newfoundland and the West Country, including the ports of Dorset, can be traced to at least the 1600s. The business trail which led to four workhouse children in Sturminster Newton leaving to work in Newfoundland starts with Poole’s Quaker family, the Whites, who had a headquarters at Trinity, Newfoundland.
When Joseph White died in 1771 the Newfoundland component of his estate was left to his nephew, John Jeffrey, and five Newfoundland servants or agents, one of whom was Thomas Street. Thomas Street, between 1764 and 1771, had been in charge of two of White’s vessels the Mermaid and the Speedwell. On receipt of his inheritance he moved to Trinity as manger of the Newfoundland end of the partnership he had formed with John Jeffrey. Thomas Street died in 1805 leaving a very successful Newfoundland business to his son John Street. In 1809 John Street, the sole surviving son of Thomas Street, was lost at sea with all hands in the mid Atlantic. It is here that the final link in the business chain connects Sturminster Newton to Newfoundland.
Thomas Street’s daughter Mary had married Joseph Bird, a clothier of Sturminster Newton. When Joseph Bird’s clothier business failed he turned to the Newfoundland trade establishing a business that lasted until 1844.4
About 1808 the first British settlement in the Bonne Bay area on the west coast of Newfoundland was established at Woody Point. It is likely that this settlement was supported by the firm of Joseph Bird. Joseph Bird had also established a base at Forteau on the Labrador Coast opposite the Northern Peninsular of Newfoundland. Bird had an agent and premises to serve his fishing interests which employed at least six boats and about thirty men. When Joseph Bird died in 1824 his two sons, Thomas Street Bird and Joseph Bird, continued this trade until 1844.5
By 1897 the McAlpine’s Directory was describing Bonne Bay as:
“A large inlet on the French shore. A number of United States and Nova Scotia schooners visit this bay on account of its herring fishery, which is very productive. A river runs into its bay on which fine lumber is found. The land around this bay is mountainous, and the scenery quite grand. Distant from north head of Bay of Islands 23 miles. Population 336.”
Populating Woody Point, Bonne Bay
A monumental inscription provided the link between the Sturminster Newton workhouse records and Woody Point, Newfoundland:
“Mark R ROBERTS died July 19, 1898, age 83 years and 5 months, and his brother John died March 23, 1893 age 72 years. Natives of Sturmister Newton, Dorsetshire, England.”
Mark of Sturminster had married Mary Clark of Portugal Cove in 1839 at St Johns, Newfoundland. Mark was described as being literate.
Mark and Mary appear to have had one child – John Rowland Roberts who married Amelia Doyle who had eight children. Mark’s grandsons Alexander Rowland and Hector Rowland inherited his property at Crawley’s Point and Jersey Room respectively according to Mark’s will, transcribed below:
I, Mark Roberts, of Bonne Bay, North West Coast of Newfoundland, Planter, being of sound mind hereby publish and declare my last will and Testament. Revoking and annulling all former dispositions of my property. I give and bequeath my estate and all effects situate and know at Crawley’s Point Bonne Bay to my grandson Alexander Rowland Roberts and his heirs. I give and bequeath my estate and effects situate and known as the Jersey Room, Bonne Bay to my youngest grandson. This property known as the Jersey Room under no consideration is to be sold out of the family. I hereby authorise and command my son John Rowland Roberts to take sole control over the whole of my property until his death. And I hereby appoint my son John Rowland Roberts as the Executor of this my last will and Testament Mark Roberts (LS) Signed, sealed and delivered by the said Mark Roberts in Bonne Bay this twenty third day of March in the year of our Lord Eighteen hundred and ninety one in the presence of Charles W. Holland Missionary of the Church of England. Solomon Wilton.
Mark may not have felt the need to provide for his son, John Rowland as John Rowland appears to have bought, in April 1871, from William Barnes of Bonne Bay a dwelling house, stage and ground attached for £12. This may be the house where in 1873, the Bonne Bay Post Office was established with John Rowland as postmaster.
John married Amelia Amy (Emma) Decker of Rocky Harbour about 1840. John and Emma had thirteen children who then produced sixty-six grandchildren giving rise to the belief that the Roberts family populated Woody Point. In 1894 Bonne Bay only had a population of 336 and it is easy to imagine that at least a third were part of the extended Roberts family. Looking through the McAlpine Directories of the 1890s reveals that the men of the Robert’s family worked as fishermen, draper, lobster packers, general dealer and postmaster. Today the Historic Places website of Canada lists three properties which belonged to the Roberts family which survived the 1922 fire that destroyed much of Woody Point – John William Roberts house; Edward J Roberts house and Roberts store.
A substantial legacy for two boys from the workhouse in Sturminster Newton, Dorset!
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¹King, Steven. (2000) Poverty and welfare in England, 1700-1850 : a regional perspective. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
²Lavergne, de I. (1855). The rural economy of England, Scotland and Ireland. London: Blackwood.
³Cunningham, Hugh. (1990) The Employment and Unemployment of Children c. 1680-1851. Past and Present. 126. pp. 122-123. https://www.jstor.org/stable/650811 : accessed 17 December 2018.
4Dictionary of Canadian Biography. (2021) Street, Thomas. W Gordon Hancock. Vol. V (1801-1820). http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/street_thomas_5E.html accessed 08 February 2021.
5Fitzhugh, Lynne D (1999) The Labradorians: Voices from the Land of Cain. Breakwater Books.
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This is part one of a guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Valerie Brenton. You can read part two here.
Re link between Sturminster Newton (SN) and Newfoundland, I was most interested in a recent visit to the mill at SN to learn that it has 2 sections – one for milling floor, and the other to make swanskin – treating and pressing unwashed wool to make a sort of waterproof felt that was then sold (I think from mid 16th century) to seafarers in the North Atlantic and the fisherman and people of Newfoundland as early outdoor clothing. Apparently over 2000 villagers in SN were involved in this unique business whilst it lasted, so presumably there must have been strong business and community links between SN and Newfoundland. Well worth a visit to volunteers at SN Mill who have a lot of information about this.
My family, the Stanley’s or Standley’s, of Sturminster Newton worked at the mill making swanskin and the descendant Charles Stanley came to Fogo Island Newfoundland with the fishing industry, married a local girl, and begat a huge community in Kilbride and St. John’s Newfoundland.
I notice that one of the witnesses to the will of Mark Roberts was Solomon Wilton, who was nearly from Dorset! He hailed from Mere, Wiltshire, just across the Dorset border, and was also among the early English settlers at Bonne Bay. I’m not descended directly from Solomon, but I am related to him, as I’m descended from his cousin William Wilton, who emigrated to Australia in 1841 with his wife Elizabeth nee Norris, also from Mere.
Was Sturminster Newton Workhouse used as a convalescent home during WW2, my father was in the Navy on Russian convoys and was injured when HMS Hardy was torpedoed in Jauary 1944. He did a pencil drawing of St Mary’s Church, Sturminster Newton whilst convalescing after the event.
Hi Paul, ‘Stur: The Story of Sturminster Newton’ by Penny Mountain states “In 1940 Stour View House, as it was then called, played a very different role, taking in many seriously injured soldiers who had returned from Dunkirk. Subsequently the building became an old peoples home” (Pg 74). We would suggest contacting Sturminster Newton Museum to see if they know anything else. Otherwise, you might want to check in local newspapers of the period to see if there is any further information, which you can do here at Dorset History Centre. Should you wish to view the papers, please get in touch (archives@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk) and we can advise further.
I am a descendent of John Roberts who married Amelia Decker . Two Elsworth cousins ( Andrew and Eli) from Woolland came to Harbour Le Cou/ Rose Blanche Newfoundland about 1860. Later they went to Bonne Bay and married Roberts sisters Esther and Rosilla. I am planning a trip to this area of Dorset in 2026.