The Time Mosaic by Durst Susan;

Author:Durst, Susan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Nick and Jenny (9)

Nick stared in horror at Ellen’s death certificate. “It says here she died in the workhouse infirmary in Newcastle,” he gasped, hardly able to believe his eyes. It was one thing to read about workhouses in history books but quite another to learn that a family member had ended up in one. “The date is September 1887, so she’d have been no more than—”

“Twenty-five,” Jenny interjected. “Poor Ellen came to a very sorry end. Everyone knows the workhouse was the last resort for the destitute – the old, the sick, the drunkards, the tramps…”

“But this transcript gives Ellen’s profession as none,” he went on, frowning at the small print on the certificate.

“None was just a euphemism for prostitute in workhouse vocabulary, I’m afraid. Ellen was what the Victorians piously referred to as a fallen woman. And in those days, once a girl strayed from the straight and narrow, there was no turning back. She was branded for life and cast out of conventional society forever.”

“But you keep talking about the culture of solidarity in colliery villages,” Nick protested indignantly. “So how come her family left her to die in the workhouse?”

“I doubt whether they even knew she was there. Ellen was probably too ashamed to tell her family how low she’d sunk.” Seeing his shocked expression, Jenny pressed on with her explanation. “Oh, the Robertsons would have rallied around if she’d lost her job or fallen on hard times. They’d even have forgiven an illegitimate child, although the scandal would have brought disgrace on the entire family. But we must remember that Ellen came from the respectable working class – decent, hardworking people who abided by the strict morals of the day. For them, prostitution was an unforgivable sin, literally a fate worse than death.”

“But it all seems so harsh,” Nick insisted. “We all know there were hundreds of thousands of prostitutes in Britain in that era.”

“Oh yes,” Jenny agreed. “It was the fourth largest female occupation in Ellen’s day. And of course the vast majority of prostitutes came from the working class, girls who had previously been in dead-end jobs – laundering or charring or suchlike.”

“Is that what happened to Ellen?”

“We have very little information about her life.” Jenny leafed through the slim file by her side. “Apart from her birth and death certificates, all we have are two census reports. In the 1871 census, Ellen is nine years old and her father, Tom Robertson, long since in his grave. The head of the family is Ellen’s elder brother Jim, aged 22, who by then is already married with a baby son. The census shows Ellen, her mother Annie and Jim’s family all living under the same roof.”

“Well, that confirms what you told me earlier. But what about the 1881 census? Ellen would have been nineteen then.”

“Yes, this is where things get interesting. Like many working class girls, Ellen was in service at the time. She was apparently employed as a housemaid by a Mr Percy Swift, a well-established Newcastle solicitor residing in Jesmond.

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