Scotland in the nineteenth century

10. Labour

Section 10.1: Child employment

"Select Committee appointed to inquire into the state of the children employed in the manufactories of the United Kingdom."

A number of witnesses from Scotland gave evidence on the conditions of labour of children employed in the cotton industry. They submitted details of the number and ages of children employed, their wages, education and religious instruction, the temperature and ventilation in the mills in which they worked and the adverse effects this had on their health. Most of the children employed in the Scottish cotton mills were aged ten or over and worked a twelve-hour day. Robert Owen, proprietor of a factory in New Lanark (pp. 20-28, pp. 36-40, p. 66, pp. 86-95 and p. 113) stated, however, that when he bought the mill he found 500 children working there, mostly between the ages of five and eight, who had been taken from the poor-houses. Although they had been well fed and clothed, their growth was stunted in many cases. It was proposed that children's hours of labour should be reduced by law. Robert Owen recommended a ten-hour day for children.

Archibald Buchanan, on the other hand, who was manager of the cotton mills belonging to Messrs. James Finlay and Co., Glasgow (pp. 5-11, pp. 16-20, pp. 49-52 and pp. 57-58) did not think that legislative interference was necessary. He described the working conditions in the cotton mills owned by the company at Catrine, Ballindalloch and Deanston, and submitted a copy of the register of deaths at the Catrine works between 1808 and 1815.

Adam Bogle, partner in the firm of Henry Monteith, Bogle and Co. at Glasgow (pp. 162-178) which owned a number of cotton-spinning and weaving factories in Lanarkshire, said that if the hours of employment were reduced by law, his profits would be greatly reduced and he would have to make reductions in wages. He submitted evidence on the apprenticeship system and the moral habits and conduct of his employees.

Henry Houldsworth, who owned cotton mills at Anderston (pp. 230-252) claimed that most of the children under the age of ten employed by him were of very poor parents and if they were deprived of the right to work this would cause them considerable hardship. If the hours of labour were reduced, wages would be decreased and the spare time in the evenings would be spent in drinking.

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He said, "any interference in the regulation of the labour never fails to excite a restlessness and insubordination inimical to habits of sobriety and industry among the operatives by raising expectations which cannot be fulfilled..." He also submitted evidence on the employment of children in wool-spinning factories and print works in Scotland, and abstracts of returns made by proprietors or managers of cotton mills (pp. 240-241) and flax spinning and wool mills, weaving, printing and dye works in Scotland (pp. 242-243), showing the number of persons employed, their ages, hours of labour, the proportion of those able to read, and cases of sickness and deaths.

Report on the "Bill to regulate the labour of children in the mills and factories of the United Kingdom".

Evidence was given on the treatment of working children in the towns of Aberdeen (pp. 214-226), Dundee (pp. 386-394) and Glasgow (pp. 235-267). The Committee was interested in how factory work and the hours worked affected the children's health and growth. Whether the long hours of work reduced education and moral teaching. What kinds of safety records the factories had and how parents and employers treated the children.

Much of the Scottish evidence was concerned with the question of child education. The Rev. Gordon noticed that a decrease had taken place in the amount of knowledge and education in the Scottish manufacturing districts (pp. 214-226). While William Smith, in his evidence on Glasgow (pp. 235-251), was concerned that Scotland would lose its good reputation for education and that this would have a bad effect on the progress and stability of society in the future. Smith also found that the parents were generally in favour of children's hours of work being reduced.

James Patterson, who examined conditions in Dundee, also thought child education was important, and that in Scotland many considered it a stigma not to be well educated.

"appointed to collect information in the manufacturing districts, as to employment of children in factories, and as to the propriety and means of curtailing the hours of their labour."

Four districts were examined in order to mirror the areas of manufacturing industry in which considerable child labour was employed. Two civil commissioners and one medical commissioner were appointed to each district. The Northern district, Scotland, A1 (pp. 1-134) and A2 (pp. 1-93).

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Lists were sent out to manufacturers and to justices for them to record details such as the number of married employees, the number injured at the mill and the degree of education the workers had received.

In Scotland the hours were generally found to be twelve to twelve and a half hours, but in some districts over thirteen hours were worked, and in only a few ten hours and a five-day week, though most factories finished early on Saturday to allow employees to buy provisions. Time allowed for meals at work varied between one hour for breakfast and one and a half hours for dinner, to half an hour for each break. Some of the dinner break was usually spent cleaning stationary machinery. Many workers preferred to continue work at meal times and leave early. This could mean a sixteen-hour working day.

Some of the old mills had inadequate lighting and ventilation, many had roofs too low for their workers to stand upright, and narrow passages between unguarded machinery.

The sanitary conditions were also bad with too few privies, used by both sexes, improperly screened and unventilated.

The new mills were much better and some model mills, such as Robert Owen's at New Lanark, were especially praised.

The Commissioners found Scotland had in general one hour longer working days than England, and that the children were often too tired to eat and, when woken in the morning, unable to dress themselves. Scotland was considered the worst area for child cruelty and their tiredness often caused serious accidents with the machinery. The children were often too tired for schooling where it was provided and many examined thought educational standards were in decline.

The medical commissioner for the northern district, Sir David Barry, did not consider that work in factories for children over nine was necessarily bad. He found that most of the children were pale because of the heat and close atmosphere, but those working only twelve hours for five days and nine on Saturday under the Labour in Cotton Mills Act, 1831 were not in bad physical condition.

The women examined were found to be healthy, often in better condition than the men, and with large families. The cotton spinners were amongst the best paid labourers and children could earn up to 10d or 11d a day.

The women generally married young, at 17-22 years of age, and then left work. A family income provided better food, housing and clothing than those from other industries.

Conditions of work could be poor, since the cotton spinner had to keep up with the machines while remaining standing for long periods with little change of a break. The old factories were often low, damp or dusty rooms with impure heated air causing constant perspiration. The long periods spent standing was found to cause the women swollen feet and varicose veins while many also had asthma.

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Places visited:

The Commissioners concluded that the manufacturers did not consider the hours of child labour excessive or harmful and were therefore not likely to make any changes if left to make their own decisions.

Most of the manufacturers questioned thought a system of child relays could be instituted and that the hours of adult labour would not necessarily have to be affected. Most masters considered that a child twelve to fourteen years of age was old enough to work the same hours as an adult.

The Commissioners considered that long hours could be harmful to those children under 13 years of age who were also excluded from education and healthy recreation. They also thought, however, that the children had to be occupied whilst not working or they would become a nuisance or work in other factories.

It was concluded that inspectors with extensive powers were necessary, and that those children allowed to work must spend a certain proportion of their day in school.

Appendix: Reports on the North District (pp. 71-90).

Part II contained the tabular questions and replies from individual places. North District factory replies (pp. 1-243).

The Commissioners found that the way the mining industry worked and labour was employed varied across Scotland. The eastern coal district of Scotland around the Firth of Forth sold the majority of their coal in Edinburgh, some was also shipped out while the rest went to the Carron Iron Works in Stirlingshire.

In the western coalfields of Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire the coal was chiefly used in local manufacturing industry and domestically in Glasgow and at the Airdrie Iron Works.

It was found to be more common for five to six year old children to be employed in the eastern coalfield than anywhere in England. The manager of the Banknock Colliery said the owner had tried to stop boys under twelve going below ground but the men had forced him to change his orders (p. 19).

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In western Scotland the usual age for children to start work was eight years. Here the men only were allowed to earn a maximum wage but if the miner employed his own child at ten years of age he was given a quarter more money. So, the children were called "quarter bairns". At twelve-thirteen years the child was counted as a half-man and at sixteen-seventeen a three-quarter man and allowed to carry a pick. The father would then use another eight or nine year old child to help carry the coal and work the maximum wage in the shortest possible time.

In the Lothian coalfield girls were often used to carry the coal in baskets weighing up to 3 cwt. or on rail waggons for up to fourteen hours daily. The girls were often started at work before the boys, being thought more acute at a younger age. In the eastern coalfields women were extensively employed underground, many working while pregnant until the day the child was born and then returning within ten days. Very few women or girls were employed in the western coalfields. In the model mines the women were excluded from pit work, the girls sent into domestic service and the boys kept at school until twelve years of age.

A table of the number of children estimated to be employed under ground (p. 38) shows two-thirds of the East Lothian coalfield workforce were under eighteen years of age.

The home conditions and morals of the colliers were considered to be very bad with young children often left in squalor whilst parents went to work.

For five days' labour a hewer could earn 16s and a puller 5s 10d before stoppages. Table of wages (p. 158). Table of accidents (pp. 149-151).

The appendix containing the minutes of evidence for the main report was divided into two sections: Western Scotland (pp. 311-378) and Eastern Scotland (pp. 379-512).

The main mineral area in western Scotland was around Airdrie and a list of iron works giving the names of the owners and the number of furnaces was included (p. 312). The villages were almost exclusively working-class and this was blamed for the lack of importance attached to the home by the colliers, the gardens being untended and the degree of drunkenness. In some of the villages single families with two rooms were found to be taking in 14 single male lodgers.

Houses were normally let by the fortnight, the standard work period, and no pressure was exerted to keep them clean and tidy.

A number of model villages had been created and a plan was included of Mr. Pearston's works near Irvine, the winner of a Highland Society prize (p. 315).

At the model collieries the men were engaged for a year and the houses let annually. Families at Mr. Robertson's works near Airdrie were paying 8s 7d a fortnight for a house and garden, coals, the doctor, blacksmith and schooling (p. 314).

In the eastern coalfield statistics were kept of the number and age of those working in mining and the different active coal mines (pp. 379-81), and also of the wages and deductions (pp. 391-2).

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In eastern Scotland those children who attended school were taught to read, but, unlike in England, the Sunday Schools were only used for religious instruction. In the day schools the teachers received no fixed salary but were allowed the school fees, usually 3s a quarter. Most colliery children left school at seven-eight years of age.

The appendix includes a report by Joseph Fletcher on the lead mining industry of Lanark and Dumfries. At Leadhills in Lanarkshire the villages were poverty stricken, with many deserted cottages left after a gold rush. The lead mining was run by the Scots Mining Company which employed boys on the water-powered separating machines. The boys often suffered from the exposed nature of the work and having to stand for long periods in cold water. The miners' cottages had one main apartment which was used as a bedroom, sitting room and a kitchen. The main fuel was turf and their diet relied heavily on potatoes. The floors were of earth and the beds of heath. Very few miners owned books. Few people ate meat and at Crawford the butcher had left the village, though some had reclaimed land to graze their cows. The women and girls over eight worked at home on muslin embroidery for Glasgow agents, earning on average 2s 6d to 3s per week.

The former prosperity of the lead miners was indicated by the miners' library at Leadhills started in 1741, and by the parents' desire to educate their children. The Commissioner considered the schools much better than in England, with collections of books from the Iron Society (p. 864).

The Commissioners set out to consider the moral state of those children employed in the coal and iron industry and the physical and moral state of all those children working in industries not covered by the Factory Regulations.

In Stirlingshire large numbers of children were employed in the nail making industry from six years upwards, while those in the pin making works of western Scotland started work at ten years.

Ten years of age was also the norm for starting in the glass and pottery industries.

The calico printing trade employed children from six-seven years and an examination of the schools in Stirlingshire found only infants in the classes. The weaving trade also employed children from six years upwards.

Wages were found to vary in the different industries. Piece-work in the nail industry paid 1s 1d for 1000 nails while children in the glass works could earn 3s-4s per week and 5d per day at calico printing. Other industries often paid even less.

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A description was printed of children card setting (p. 131) and of Chambers printing works in Edinburgh. Here 70 were employed including five women, nine girls and nineteen boys of thirteen-fourteen years average age. The weekly wages averaged 3-4s the lowest being 2s 6d. The work day was ten hours with numerous breaks and the rooms were heated and well ventilated.

Most witnesses considered the education of the Scottish working-class to have deteriorated and that it had become rare for children employed in industry not covered by the Factory Regulations to receive any education.

The Commissioners looked in some detail at the Scottish calico printing industry which had greatly increased after reforms in 1831. Many new works were observed to be growing up. They found that children usually started work at eight-nine years of age but some were as young as six. It was estimated the industry employed 5,000 children and young persons.

The hours of work were 6am to 6pm with up to two hours for breaks, on Saturday work was from 6am to 3pm and was generally 58 hours per week. In the winter some works only operated during daylight.

The pay was often by piece-work and the demand for labour seasonal with long periods of overtime at some times of the year.

"appointed by Your Majesty to inquire into the employment of children and young persons, in trades and manufactures not regulated by law..."

The Commissioners looked at the manufacture of clothing industry (pp. 38-51) and hosiery (pp. 224-234) in Scotland. Hand-loom weaving and hosiery manufacture had declined and were limited almost exclusively to Hawick and Dumfries. In Hawick the small workshops, generally stocking makers, worked from 6am to 8pm in summer and in winter from 7 or 8am to 9 or 10pm, the hours being the same for men and children. The children would begin work at ten to twelve years of age, though some were as young as eight.

The weaving of other materials such as flax, jute, and hemp was increasing and, as techniques improved, it was thought there would be less use made of hand looms.

In the manufacture of clothing, cellars were often used as workshops, and in winter they had to be lit all day by gas. The hours were long; during the greater part of the year they lasted from 8am to 11pm (p. 14).