Abstract
In this chapter, Musgrove and Michell present a microhistory through the story of John Wood Pledger who died in his foster home at just three years of age. In 1890s Melbourne, John’s 26-year-old single mother was left with few choices but to surrender him to the state. Tragically, a combination of individuals’ actions and systemic failings of the government’s foster care system led to the boy enduring shocking abuse, for which nobody was ultimately held responsible. The chapter considers how foster care systems responded to suspicions of physical and sexual abuse, particularly when ‘problem’ children were the victims, and identifies some disturbing parallels between the cases of John Wood Pledger (d. 1896) and that of another Australian foster child, Luke Anthony Borusiewic (d. 2009).
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Notes
- 1.
Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), VA 683, VPRS 3502, Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom.
- 2.
John and Harriet Pledger marriage certificate.
- 3.
Harriet Pledger death certificate.
- 4.
PROV, VA 475 Chief Secretary’s Department, VPRS 4527/P0 Ward Registers, Unit 41, 92 (hereafter cited as PROV, VPRS 4527, Unit 41, 92).
- 5.
Rachel Pledger death certificate.
- 6.
Hera Cook, “Unseemly and Unwomanly Behaviour: Comparing Women’s Control of Their Fertility in Australia and England from 1890 to 1970,” Journal of Population Research 17, no. 2 (2000): 125–41; Shurlee Swain and Renate Howe, Single Mothers and Their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 36–37.
- 7.
Nicola Goc, Women, Infanticide and the Press, 1822–1922: News Narratives in England and Australia (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013); Michelle Oberman, “Understanding Infanticide in Context: Mothers Who Kill, 1879–1930 and Today,” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 92, no. 3/4 (2002): 707–38; and Sherri Broder, Tramps, Unfit Mothers, and Neglected Children: Negotiating the Family in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
- 8.
PROV, VA 475 Chief Secretary’s Department, VPRS 3992 Inward Registered Correspondence II, Unit 699, 98/449 and Unit 747, 99/3251.
- 9.
Swain and Howe, Single Mothers and Their Children, 114–21.
- 10.
Marian Quartly, Shurlee Swain , and Denise Cuthbert, The Market in Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption (Clayton, VIC: Monash University Publishing, 2013), 25–38; Nell Musgrove, The Scars Remain: A Long History of Forgotten Australians and Children’s Institutions (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2013), 51–74.
- 11.
PROV, VPRS 4527, Unit 41, 92.
- 12.
Harriet Pledger death certificate.
- 13.
Quartly, Swain, and Cuthbert, The Market in Babies, 47–49; Annie Cossins, The Baby Farmers: A Chilling Tale of Missing Babies, Shameful Secrets and Murder in 19th Century Australia (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2013).
- 14.
PROV, VA 475 Chief Secretary’s Department, VPRS 3992 Inward Registered Correspondence II, Unit 618, Item 96/2561, Report and Compilation of Documents Concerning the Death of John Wood Pledger (hereafter cited as PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561).
- 15.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 16.
Chapter 7: Rediscovering Foster Care.
- 17.
PROV, VPRS 4527, Unit 41, 92.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
PROV, VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 20.
PROV, VPRS 4527, Unit 41, 92.
- 21.
Terms such as ‘imbecile’ and ‘idiot’ had specific meanings in the nineteenth century—they were used to distinguish between people with intellectual disabilities (in children this was often, but certainly not always, associated with congenital syphilis) and people with ‘lunacy’ which was used to as a generic term for mental illness. The terms are used here to capture the specific views and meanings of the archival material. However, we acknowledge that these words are now considered highly offensive, and so we place them in inverted commas to acknowledge the very negative connotations associated with these terms. For more on the uses of these terms in their historical setting see: Lee-Ann Monk, “‘Made Enquiries, Can Elicit No History of Injury’: Researching the History of Institutional Abuse in the Archives,” Provenance, no. 6 (2007): 13. For further discussion of the shifting usage and meaning of these words see: Anne Digby, “Contexts and Perspectives,” in From Idiocy to Mental Defective: Historical Perspectives on People with Learning Disabilities, ed. David Wright and Anne Digby (London and New York: Routledge), 3.
- 22.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Lorna Hallahan, “Inside Kew Cottages,” History Australia 7, no. 3 (2010): 63.1.
- 25.
Lee-Ann Monk, “Exploiting Patient Labour at Kew Cottages, Australia, 1887–1950,” British Journal of Learning Disabilities 38, no. 1 (2010): 86–94; Monk, “‘Made Enquiries, Can Elicit No History of Injury’: Researching the History of Institutional Abuse in the Archives,” 11–22.
- 26.
Official Visitors’ Report, PROV, VPRS 3992, Unit 700, 98/772.
- 27.
Pat Jalland, Changing Ways of Death in Australia: War, Medicine and the Funeral Business (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006), 3–8.
- 28.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 29.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 30.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561 and PROV VPRS 3992 Unit 112, 86/1245.
- 31.
- 32.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
Chapter 6: Foster Care—Philosophies, Rhetoric and Practices.
- 36.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 37.
Ibid.
- 38.
Ibid.
- 39.
Ibid.
- 40.
Ibid.
- 41.
Ibid.
- 42.
Ibid.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
Dorothy Scott and Shurlee Swain , Confronting Cruelty: Historical Perspectives on Child Protection in Australia (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), 40–42.
- 47.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Ibid.
- 50.
Ibid.
- 51.
VPRS 3991, Unit 739, 74/76258.
- 52.
Chapter 7: Rediscovering Foster Care.
- 53.
PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 618, 96/2561.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
For a similar argument relating to twentieth-century children in institutions see: Harry Ferguson , “Abused and Looked After Children as ‘Moral Dirt’: Child Abuse and Institutional Care in Historical Perspective,” Journal of Social Policy 36, no. 1 (2007): 123–39.
- 56.
For example see: PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 414, 91/5961; PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 499, 93/1970; and PROV VPRS 3992, Unit 746, 99/3021.
- 57.
Chapter 9: Are We Getting Better at This?
- 58.
Luke Anthony Borusiewicz was in foster care in the Australian state of Queensland . Child welfare in Australia developed in the colonial era (prior to 1901) and remained under state control following federation. Each state has its own system, although they have followed similar patterns and trends across the nation. For more detail see: Musgrove, The Scars Remain.
- 59.
Coroners Court at Cairns—Coroner Kevin Priestly, “Inquest into the Death of Luke Anthony Borusiewicz” (Queensland Courts: Office of the State Coroner, 2013), 1.
- 60.
Luke’s father, Michael Borusiewicz , developed a public campaign via social media condemning Queensland’s Child Safety Services, and also established a website called ‘Luke’s Army’: http://lukesarmy.blogspot.com.au/, last accessed 4 September 2015. We return to this in the concluding chapter of this book: What Can History Tell Us About the Future of Foster Care?
- 61.
Coroners Court at Cairns, “Inquest into the Death of Luke Anthony Borusiewicz.”
- 62.
Ibid.
- 63.
See Chapter 6: Foster Care—Philosophies, Rhetoric and Practice.
- 64.
Chapter 5: They’re Just Doing It for the Money.
References
Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria. “Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates of the Pledger Family.” https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/.
Broder, Sherri. Tramps, Unfit Mothers, and Neglected Children: Negotiating the Family in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
Cook, Hera. “Unseemly and Unwomanly Behaviour: Comparing Women’s Control of Their Fertility in Australia and England from 1890 to 1970.” Journal of Population Research 17, no. 2 (2000): 125–41.
Coroners Court at Cairns—Coroner Kevin Priestly. “Inquest into the Death of Luke Anthony Borusiewicz.” Queensland Courts: Office of the State Coroner, 2013.
Cossins, Annie. The Baby Farmers: A Chilling Tale of Missing Babies, Shameful Secrets and Murder in 19th Century Australia. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2013.
Department for Neglected Children and Reformatory Schools, Victoria. Department for Neglected Children and Reformatory Schools: Report of the Secretary and Inspector, 1896.
Digby, Anne. “Contexts and Perspectives.” In From Idiocy to Mental Defective: Historical Perspectives on People with Learning Disabilities, edited by David Wright and Anne Digby, 1–21. London and New York: Routledge.
Ferguson, Harry. “Abused and Looked After Children as ‘Moral Dirt’: Child Abuse and Institutional Care in Historical Perspective.” Journal of Social Policy 36, no. 1 (2007): 123–39.
Goc, Nicola. Women, Infanticide and the Press, 1822–1922: News Narratives in England and Australia. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.
Hallahan, Lorna. “Inside Kew Cottages.” History Australia 7, no. 3 (2010): 63.1–63.3.
Jalland, Pat. Changing Ways of Death in Australia: War, Medicine and the Funeral Business. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006.
‘Luke’s Army.’ http://lukesarmy.blogspot.com.au/.
Monk, Lee-Ann. “‘Made Enquiries, Can Elicit No History of Injury’: Researching the History of Institutional Abuse in the Archives.” Provenance, no. 6 (2007): 11–22.
Monk, Lee-Ann. “Exploiting Patient Labour at Kew Cottages, Australia, 1887–1950.” British Journal of Learning Disabilities 38, no. 1 (2010): 86–94.
Musgrove, Nell. The Scars Remain: A Long History of Forgotten Australians and Children’s Institutions. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2013.
Oberman, Michelle. “Understanding Infanticide in Context: Mothers Who Kill, 1879–1930 and Today.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 92, no. 3/4 (2002): 707–38.
Public Record Office Victoria, VA 475 Chief Secretary’s Department, VPRS 4527/P0 Ward Registers.
Public Record Office Victoria, VA 475 Chief Secretary’s Department, VPRS 3391 & 3992 Inward Registered Correspondence II & III.
Public Record Office Victoria, VA 683, VPRS 3502, Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom.
Quartly, Marian, Shurlee Swain, and Denise Cuthbert. The Market in Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption. Clayton, VIC: Monash University Publishing, 2013.
Scott, Dorothy, and Shurlee Swain. Confronting Cruelty: Historical Perspectives on Child Protection in Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002.
Swain, Shurlee, and Renate Howe. Single Mothers and Their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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Musgrove, N., Michell, D. (2018). Did Anybody Care? The Death of John Wood Pledger. In: The Slow Evolution of Foster Care in Australia. Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93900-1_2
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