The House That Was Their Home Away From Home

The Marchmont Home on Yeoman Street still exists today but no longer resembles the original building which was home to the Home Childen. The building  has now been converted into an apartment building. 

The noisy blast of the ship’s horn announcing its imminent departure from the harbour tore into their hearts as they faced the reality of being wrenched from their beloved homeland. With a sudden lurch, the ship, laden with hundreds of young children in its underbelly, moved forward bound for what the tiny passengers were told as an unknown but "promising" land. For the next couple of weeks, they would endure horrifying living conditions in the steerage hold of the ship with only each other for comfort as they traveled together to their new country.

These passengers were young children from the orphanages and streets in England who were sent to Canada in thousands between 1860s to mid-1920s in an attempt by the British Government to solve child poverty, rampant back then in the country’s industrial overpopulated cities such as London and Liverpool. In all, over 100,000 orphans from the streets, workhouses and the orphanages in England were sent to Canada in an attempt by well-meaning and influential individuals like Annie Macpherson and Dr. Barnardo to salvage them from dismal environments and rebuild their lives in this country.

The first group of these orphans or Home Children, as they were called at the time, came to Belleville in 1870. In the city, the children were accommodated in a temporary home called Marchmont before they were placed in foster care.

According to city historian Gerry Boyce’s latest book Belleville: A Popular History both the first and second Marchmont Homes here were destroyed by fire. The second incident claimed the life of a young child called Robbie Gray. The one that still stands at the corner of West Moira and Yeoman Streets, according to Boyce, was the third Marchmont Home.

City resident Marion Oliver’s late mother Marion (Thornley) Kellar arrived in the city as a ten-year-old orphan on May 11, 1907. On arriving in Canada aboard a ship called S.S. Tunisia, Kellar, 10 years old at the time, was first taken to Quebec and later brought by train to Belleville along with a group of 30 girls and 2 boys, between 5 to 19. When they arrived in Belleville, the boys in her group were taken to the Marchmont Home located at 193 Moira St. West in Belleville, while Kellar and the rest of the girls were taken to stay in an old building, long torn down, near the Belleville Hospital.

But for many others, before and after 1907, the large building on the west side of the city was where they spent their first few days in Canada waiting for the authorities to place them in foster care. Following a brief stay, the children were placed in foster care in the homes of area farmers with an understanding, agreed to by both the Home authorities and the applicants, that the children would be fed, given room and board and sent to school in exchange for light help around the house and the farm.

While those under the age of six might have been adopted, historical accounts documented that others slogged as farm hands and domestic servants for little or no pay. The children were expected to stay with their adoptive families until the age of 18.

Like many others brought across from England and placed in foster care in Canada’s rural farm homes, the second decade of Kellar’s life in Canada consisted of long hours of hard labour, loneliness and bitter tears. According to her daughter, Kellar lived with her last assigned family till she got married and became a mother and a homemaker to her eight children. She died at the age of 102 on Oct.8, 1997 surrounded by her large family consisting of her own children, grandchildren and their families.

Marchmont Home closed down in 1926 and until about two decades ago, surviving Home Children in Belleville and area numbered about 40 and most of them used to turn up for an annual reunion at the Glanmore Museum in Belleville.