A Memoir of Robert Blincoe, an Orphan Boy: Sent from the workhouse of St. Pancras, London, at seven years of age, to endure the horrors of a cotton-mill, through his infancy and youth, with a minute detail of his sufferings, being the first memoir of the kind published.
John Stuart Mill · en
offices, high and low; but no where was little parson to be found.
Meanwhile, as soon as Blincoe found himself outside the hated walls, he
set off again up Slack, a very steep hill close to the mill, and made
the best of his way to Litton, and going to the house of one Joseph
Robinson, a joiner, who worked in Litton Mill, who had known Blincoe
at Lowdham Mill, was well acquainted with the horrid cruelties he had
suffered, and heartily compassionating Blincoe’s miserable state, gave
him a good supper, and let him sleep with his sons. In the morning,
Robinson, who was really a humane man, and a friend to the poor children,
gave Blincoe some bread and meat, and giving him a strict injunction not
to own _where_ he had slept. Blincoe set off, about six o’clock in the
morning, to Mr. Middleton’s house. The morning was showery, and Blincoe
had neither hat, coat, or waistcoat, and he had about eight miles to go,
in search of justice. He arrived at Mr. Middleton’s long before his hour
of appearance. At last, Mr. Middleton got up, and Blincoe approaching,
crawling like a spaniel dog, said, “Sir, I have come again, Mr. Needham
has been beating me worse than ever, as soon as he read your letter
over.” Seeing the miserable state Blincoe was in, drenched with the
rain and half naked, Mr. Middleton said, “go into the kitchen and rest
yourself—you should not have come here first; you should have gone to Mr.
Cheek, of Whetstone Hall, and he would have given you a summons;” upon
this, poor Blincoe said mournfully, “Eh, Sir, he will do nought for me—he
is so thick with my master—they are often drinking together.” “Pshaw,
pshaw,” said the Justice, “he’s like to listen to you—he must;” but then,
as if recollecting himself, he said, “Stop, I’ll write you a letter to
Mr. Cheek.” In the Justice’s kitchen, poor Blincoe got some bread and
cheese, which was indeed a luxurious food, though unaccompanied with any
beer. Blincoe thus refreshed, again set off to Mr. Cheek, a distance of
about eleven or twelve miles, bareheaded and dressed only in trowsers and
shoes. The rain continuing pouring in torrents. When Blincoe reached
Whetstone Hall, one of the first persons he saw was a woman of the name
of Sally Oldfield, her husband, Thomas Oldfield, then dead, had been
governor of the ’prentices of Litton Mill. She was then housekeeper
to Messrs. Shoro and Cheek, at Whetstone Hall. Those gentlemen were
amongst the most intimate friends and visitors of Mr. Needham, and Sally
Oldfield, who recollected Blincoe, alias parson, said, “Eh, Parson! what
do you want here?” “I have a letter from Mr. Middleton to Mr. Cheek.”
“Eh!” said little old Sally again, “Are you going against your master?”
Blincoe told her he was, and how cruelly he had been treated. Sally could
not comprehend any right Blincoe had to complain, and said, “Eh! thou
should’st not go against thy master.” Saying this, she took him to the
kitchen, gave him some bread and cheese, and plenty too, and some good