The Quarrier Children

Everyone here in UK knows the name of Dr Barnardo’s but there were several other Victorian and Edwardian era charities with similar philosophies and aims. One was the Orphan Homes of Scotland, which had been set up in Glasgow by one William Quarrier in the 1870s and became known simply as “Quarriers”. One of the first BT27 passenger lists from 1891 to be transcribed included an appended three-page list made up entirely of boys, given in order of descending age from 18 to 6 years old.

At the top of the first page “Quarriers party” was written in large letters and in such a way as to make it clear that the name would be familiar to anyone reading the document at that time. The boys were travelling together from Glasgow to Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada, one of many such parties of impoverished or orphaned boys sent by the charity to start a new life in Canada.

From Halifax they would have been dispersed across Canada in farms and homesteads. To find out more about the Quarriers, go to their website at http://www.quarriers.org.uk/about/history/index.php or to the family history society created by descendants of the original children http://www.quarrierscanadianfamily.com.

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