UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

History

It was founded by David Nasmith in 1836 as the London Female Mission (Edward Steane, ed, The Religious Condition of Christendom, 1852), forming part of Nasmith’s “Philanthropic Institution House” (John Campbell, Memoirs of David Nasmith: His Labours and Travels in Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada, 1844)

Its purpose was “to afford shelter and protection to servants, and other unprotected women of good character...[and] to provide an asylum for fallen, but penitent females” (Thomas Henry Baylis, The Rights, Duties, and Relations of Domestic Servants, their Masters and Mistresses, with a Short Account of Servants’ Institutions and their Advantages, 1857)

It was originally concerned mainly with reforming fallen women, “and, subsidiary to that, the protection of the friendless but virtuous” but “now...the objects are reversed” (Sampson Low, Charities of London, 1850)

Its Treasurer was Henry Pownall and its Secretary Theophilus Smith (Sampson Low, Charities of London, 1850)

A later Secretary was Robert Quaife but Henry Pownall remained Treasurer (The Times, 23 December 1864)

Like other similar societies, it could be exploited: in 1853, Jemima Ciocci sued her husband, Raffale Ciocci, for divorce on the grounds of cruelty and adultery; he claimed that his meetings with prostitutes were to reform them, in his capacity as an active member of the Female Aid Society since 1850 (Thomas Spinks, Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Reports, vol. 1 (1853–1854), 1855)

The judge (Dr Lushington) did not believe him and granted the separation, commenting in his judgment that “nothing can be more disgusting than when an ostensible connection with such society is paraded for selfish motives to conceal corrupt indulgence, and to defeat justice” (Thomas Spinks, Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Reports, vol. 1 (1853–1854), 1855)

In addition to its original Mission, it also opened a Servants’ Home (also known as Home and Registry for Female Servants) in 1838 at 5 Millman Street (John Campbell, Memoirs of David Nasmith: His Labours and Travels in Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada (1844); The British Metropolis in 1851: A Classified Guide to London, 1851)

This is not to be confused with the Female Servants’ Home Society, founded 1836 (Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor: A Cyclopædia of the Condition and Earnings of Those that Will Work, Those that Cannot Work, and Those that Will Not Work, vol. IV, 1861–1862)

The Superintendent of the Servants’ Home in 1850 was Miss Knight (Sampson Low, Charities of London, 1850)

The Servants’ Home took in lodgers for 1s 6d per week “with religious privileges” and had housed nearly 3000 such lodgers by 1857; it also ran a free registry to help servants find jobs, which had helped 5000 people by the same date (Thomas Henry Baylis, The Rights, Duties, and Relations of Domestic Servants, their Masters and Mistresses, with a Short Account of Servants’ Institutions and their Advantages, 1857)

Also in 1838, it opened a Refuge for Indigent Young Females at 3a Princes Street (John Campbell, Memoirs of David Nasmith: His Labours and Travels in Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada, 1844)

In 1846 it opened a Friendless Home (also known as Home for Friendless Young Females or Home for Friendless Young Females of Good Character) at 17 New Ormond Street (Thomas Henry Baylis, The Rights, Duties, and Relations of Domestic Servants, their Masters and Mistresses, with a Short Account of Servants’ Institutions and their Advantages, 1857); its Matron was Mrs Stephens, and it held 30 inmates (Sampson Low, Charities of London, 1850)

The Friendless Home at New Ormond Street also provided lodging for “young and friendless females of good character” (Thomas Henry Baylis, The Rights, Duties, and Relations of Domestic Servants, their Masters and Mistresses, with a Short Account of Servants’ Institutions and their Advantages, 1857); it later moved to Powis Place

The Society itself was still operating from 27 Red Lion Square in 1866, when Punch published an appeal for funds on its behalf, whilst noting that “the man who nicknames women ‘females,’ deserves to have his ears boxed” (Punch, 24 February 1866)

The Society was wound up in 1881 due to insufficient funds; this was definitively established in the High Court in 1907 when the High Court considered what should happen to a bequest of £1000 made to the Society by George Brightwen, who had died in 1883 (The Times, 7 February 1907)

The Female Mission to the Fallen Women of London, who had taken over some of the Female Aid Society’s assets when the Society came to an end, and incorporated the name of the Society into their own, argued that they had taken over the work of the Society and hence deserved the bequest (The Times, 7 February 1907)

Many charitable reference books claimed that the Female Aid Society had indeed been amalgamated into the Female Mission in 1882 (The Baptist Hand-Book for 1896, 1895; John Lane ed, Herbert Fry’s Royal Guide to the London Charities, 1917)

But the Female Mission lost its case; the High Court ruled“that the Female Aid Society had come to an end before the testator’s death and that the legacy lapsed” (The Times, 7 February 1907)

It no longer exists; nor apparently does its successor institution, the Female Mission to the Fallen