Completed - 1911 headache - Jesmond orphanage

[Colin Cruddace]

Hopefully TWAS can come up with a solution to the riddle, and I'll let you know the outcome.

Colin

[Colin Cruddace]

Hopefully TWAS can come up with a solution to the riddle, and I'll let you know the outcome.

Colin

For a list of records we hold for Northern Counties Orphans Benevolent
Society please search our online catalogue under reference no. CH.OBS
http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/catalogue.htm. It states in the
description of this collection: "the intention of the founder was to
care for children of professional men and tradesmen who, had they lived,
would have given their children a good education."

Unfortunately it does not look like this collection includes any
admission registers or specific information relating to residents and
none are known to survive elsewhere.

I hope I have reproduced part of the reply I got from TWAS concerning the orphanage. I haven't searched the catalogue yet but the description seems to leave room for fatherless children to receive good education.

Regards,
Colin

[Jo P]

Hi Colin

don't know if you managed to find out too much about Northern Counties Orphanage?  I found this Roots site online when I was searching for info about Northern Counties Orphanage for my mother.  The Orphanage was run by the Freemasons and it was for the families of those who had fathers who were in the Masons and who had died, the orphanage then paid for the children to have a good education.  My mother says that they only were in residence at the orphanage during term time and were sent home during the holidays if the remaining parent was able to look after them.  My mother was there from 1939 - 1949 as it was up to the age of 16yrs. The original building was sold to the Fleming Hospital before my mother arrived as there were too few children and the girls and boys were then split up.  All the children were sent away during the war years to mainly Carlisle, when my mother arrived back in Newcastle she was in the Girls orphanage in Jesmond at 14 Otterburn Terrace and her brother was in Long Benton where the boys part of the orphanage had relocated.

If you have any further information then I would be interested to hear from you.

Jo

[Colin Cruddace]

Hi Jo,

Thanks for the information, and a very warm welcome to Rootschat 

I didn't manage to get any further with the enquiry but I was really just trying to establish that not all the children were orphans, otherwise it would have meant that she was abandoned by her mother, and I couldn't imagine that as being the case. You have confirmed what I suspected. 

Colin

[Tinmouth]

Hi

I had the same headache my g-grandad died (between 1905 and 1910 - still to find out exact date) when I found my g-grandma in the 1911 census she was recorded as living with her mother and 3 of her children, 2 were missing including my grandmother, then I found out that 2 of the daughters at that time were at Northern Counties Orphanage.  Luckly I have a cousin of my mothers who's mother was one of the sisters at the orphanage.  Apparently when my g-grandad died the nuns wanted to take all 5 children into the orphanage but my g-granda only agreed to the two oldest children.  From what I understand is that they had a very good education there and stayed up until the age of 16 where they cam back to live with their mother and other siblings.

Hope this helps

Pat 

[Colin Cruddace]

Hi Pat and welcome 

Thanks very much for the information, it's very helpful.

With many local newspapers being made available to view online, I was able to find out that the Orphanage made elections for pupils every 6 months, and the following details show that they must have had a very good reputation.

At a meeting held on 8.12.1904 it was stated that there were 52 boys and 38 girls in the School. As there are only 4 applications by girls they were accepted.
Maud Cruddace, 7, Whitley Bay
Jane Hogg, 7, Gateshead
Rachel Keenlyside, 7, Newcastle
Edith G M Lobban, 8, Hebburn

The 4 boys elected were -
Henry Johnson, 9, Newcastle, 693 votes
Thomas L Sherwood, 9, Barnard Castle, 673 votes
Charles W Y Davison, 10, Rothbury, 611 votes
Norman Downie, 11, Newcastle, 601 votes

Kind Regards,
Colin

[bibliotaphist]

I also have two relatives in the Northern Counties Orphanage, Jesmond, Newcastle, in the 1911 census, their father having died in 1907. This goes some way to explaining why!

Just leaving this reply in case anyone has any further information they can share.

Paul