Genealogy Chat

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I’ve just found an ancestor on the 1871 census, aged 9, with an occupation of servant. He’s not with the rest of the family, so it would tie in with him being a servant, but did they really have servants as young as 9, as recently as 1871? Thanks for any advice! Mandy :)

i had one aged 8 who was a niece of the head of house.at that sort of time

Possibly! Not sure about laws relating to child labour at that time. I know there were regulations about the number of hours a child could work in a factory, but a domestic servant may not have had such legal protection. nell

wasnt until teh Factory Act of 1878 thatthey bought in specific age limits Ithink: Factory Act of 1878 This brought all the previous Acts together in one consolidation. Now the Factory Code applied to all trades. No child anywhere under the age of 10 was to be employed. Compulsory education for children up to 10 years old. 10-14 year olds could only be employed for half days. Women were to work no more than 56 hours per week For a breakdown by Act try here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_Act

That's brilliant, many thanks everyone for your replies. Looks like he just got in before they made the lower age limit 10. Thanks again, Mandy :)

The factory acts were just that factory acts. They did not apply to farm work or domestic work. There were also acts for coalmines, shops and railway premises.

Education wasn't actually compulsary - parents needed a few extra coppers, so the children were put to useful occupation - i.e.employment. Jay