Robert Blincoe (''c.'' 1792–1860) was an English author and former

child labour Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...

er. He became famous during the 1830s for his popular autobiography, ''A Memoir of Robert Blincoe'', an account of his childhood spent in a

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

. However, there are some doubts about whether this detailed observation of Blincoe's early life can be considered autobiography.

Early life

Robert Blincoe was born around 1792. By 1796 he was an orphan and living in the St. Pancras workhouse in London. His parents are unknown. At the age of six he was sent to work as a chimney boy, an assistant of a chimney sweeper, but his master soon returned him to the workhouse. In August 1799, at the age of seven, he was apprenticed to work as a

mule scavenger Scavengers were employed in 18th and 19th century in cotton mills, predominantly in the UK and the United States, to clean and recoup the area underneath a spinning mule. The cotton wastage that gathered on the floor was seen as too valuable fo ...

in the Gonalston Mill, a

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven b ...

of C.W. and F. Lambert in

Lowdham Lowdham is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire between Nottingham and Southwell. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,832, increasing to 3,334 at the 2011 Census. Two main roads slicing thro ...

, near

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

. According to his later memoirs, he was one of the 80 seven-year-old children the St. Pancras workhouse indentured as parish apprentices. They traveled there in wagons for five days. Under the terms of their indenture, the boys were to be taught to make hosiery and the girls lace making in the last year of their apprenticeships, but that never happened. Blincoe and the others lived in a dormitory, and their food consisted of

porridge Porridge is a food made by heating or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, (dried) fruit or syrup to make a sweet cereal, ...

and black bread. They worked 14 hours a day, six days a week. Blincoe's first job was as a

, picking up loose cotton waste from the spinning frames when the machine was working, even in the face of injury. He lost half a finger. Overseers beat the children on the slightest provocation. Blincoe later stated that he contemplated suicide many times. When Blincoe ran away and tried to flee to London, a tailor who sometimes worked for the mill recognized him and dragged him back. In 1802, when Lowdham Mill was closed, Blincoe and others were sent to

Litton Mill Litton Mill is a textile mill at Millers Dale, near Tideswell in Derbyshire. The original 19th-century mill became notorious during the Industrial Revolution for its unsavoury employment practices, luridly described by the commentators of the ...

in Derbyshire. Treatment remained the same.

Later life

Blincoe completed his effective apprenticeship in stock weaving in 1813 and worked as an adult worker until 1817. He then left to found his own waste cotton supply business. In 1819, he married a woman named Martha.They had three children. He sold his waste cotton business to get into spinning cotton.

Memoirs and financial failure

In 1822, journalist John Brown met Blincoe and interviewed him for an article about

. Brown decided to write Blincoe's biography and gave it to social activist Richard Carlile. In 1828, Carlile decided to publish the tale in his newspaper ''The Lion'' in five weekly episodes between 25 January and 22 February and ''The Poor Man's Advocate''. The book exposed the poor conditions in the cotton mills, and just after the reprint in 1832, the government investigated the mills. Blincoe's spinning machinery was destroyed in a fire in 1828. Destitute and unable to pay his debts, he was imprisoned in

Lancaster Castle Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of ...

for some time. After his release, he became a cotton-waste dealer. This business was finally successful, and he was able to pay for his three children's education. In 1832, John Doherty published ''A Memoir of Robert Blincoe'' in a

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...

form.

Death and legacy

In 1833 Blincoe was questioned by Dr. Francis Bisset Hawkins for the commission on the employment of children in factories. He spoke about the impact on his health of working in a cotton mill from the age of 7, and described physical punishments suffered by children working in factories. He also stated that he'd rather see his children transported to Australia than put them to work in factories. When giving evidence, he mentioned his ''Memoir'', which was included in the commission's report as a result. Blincoe died of bronchitis in his daughter's house in 1860. According to John Waller, in his book ''The Real Oliver Twist'', Blincoe's life story was told to the writer John Brown, who wrote the manuscript of a biography of Blincoe before committing suicide later the same year. But Brown had given his manuscript to a friend,

Richard Carlile Richard Carlile (8 December 1790 – 10 February 1843) was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom. Early life Born in Ashburton, Devon, he was the son of a shoemaker w ...

, who published the resulting book, ''A Memoir of Robert Blincoe'', in five episodes in his magazine ''The Lion'' in 1832. In his book ''The Real Oliver Twist'', John Waller asserts that

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

based his character

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with ...

on Blincoe, but no firm documentary or anecdotal evidence exists that Dickens had heard of Blincoe.

Books and references

References

External links

Grandad? Is that you?
an article written by author Nicholas Blincoe about his ancestor. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blincoe, Robert 1792 births 1860 deaths Writers from London Child labour Deaths from bronchitis British autobiographers