Harry Gossage
Five year old sold to organ grinders
Harry Gossage's illiterate mother had sold him to a couple of organ grinders [1], who later abandoned him. He was rescued from the workhouse by a local parson and sent to Dr Barnardo's in Stepney. Routine enquiries located Harry's mother who put her mark on a consent form for his admission. She was sent a more detailed agreement that listed, amongst other things, the possibility of emigration. After some delay, Mrs Gossage sought help in reading and filling in this form, this time from a Roman Catholic priest. The result was a letter written in her name demanding that Harry be transferred to an RC institution. Too late! By the time the letter was read Harry was already on his way to Canada. More embarrassingly, he was with an adoptive father who had insisted that their precise destination should not be known. Harry was untraceable.
A writ of habeas corpus was applied for on the mother's behalf, and the case wound its way slowly up through the courts, each ruling for the mother being appealed against by Barnardo, until it reached the House of Lords. The judgments were critical of Barnardo and his organisation, but it was agreed he stood on the moral high ground. Public attention had been focused on the way that the Law as it stood 'protected the rights of vicious and brutal parents to make their children brutal and vicious' [5,6].
A Standing Committee of the House of Lords looked at the workings of the Poor Laws particularly in relation to the plight of destitute children, the ones we call today 'at risk'. The Custody of Children Act 1891 resulted. It was so in line with what Barnardo was fighting for that his opponents mockingly referred to it as the 'Barnardo Relief Bill'.
Liverpool Echo
Dr. Barnardo and the Custody of Children
Liverpool Echo
Dr. Barnardo and the Custody of Children
Judgement at the House of Lords
The House of Lords this morning gave judgement in the appeal case of Dr. Barnardo-V-Ford.
This was an appeal from an order of the Court of Appeal of the 27th January 1890, affirming an order of the Court of Queen's Bench pf the 30th November 1889, amking absolute a rule nisi for a write of habeas corpus,commanding Dr. Barnardo to bring up the body of Harry Gossage, a boy of 12 years of age.
The boy was the son of Mary Ford, having found in a homeless and destitute condition by a Police Constable at Folkestone and was received into Dr. Barnardo's Home through the interposition of the Rev Edward Husband a clergyman at Folkestone, on the 25th September 1888.
It was alleged on the part of Dr. Barnardo that the father who died sometime previouslyl was a Wesleyan Methodist, and his mother was a woman of drunek habits, who constantly neglected him.
In November 1888, Dr. Baranrdo transfered the care of the lad to Mr. William Norton, to be taken to Canada. About the same time an applicatiopn was made to Dr. Barnardo on the behalf of Mary Ford for the producation of th eboy in order he may be placed in a Catholic Home in Harrow Rd.
The lad was then taken in the care of Mr. Norton and had been taken to Canada.
Legal proceedings were taken which resulted in the orders referred to above, against which Dr. Barnardo appealed.
Their Lordship dismissed that appeal with costs.
Mr. Rigby Q. V. made an application for an extension of time to return to the writ. Their Lordshiips, after consideration, fixed the return at three months from the present date.
