# Baby farming > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Baby_farming > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Baby_farming.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_farming > Source revision: 1355320696 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Charging to take custody of an infant}} {{about|the practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment|the systematic sale of human children|child harvesting}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} '''Baby farming''' is the historical practice of accepting custody of an [infant](/source/infant) or child in exchange for payment in late-[Victorian](/source/Victorian_era) Britain and, less commonly, in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. If the infant was young, this usually included [wet-nursing](/source/wet_nurse) (breast-feeding by a woman not the mother). Some baby farmers "adopted" children for lump-sum payments, while others cared for infants for periodic payments. ==Description== [[File:Agnes_Ward_notice_Evening_News_27_April1892_p1.jpg|thumb|416x416px|An advertisement that baby farmers [John and Sarah Makin](/source/John_and_Sarah_Makin) AKA The Hatpin Murderers responded to (from the Evening News 27 April 1892)]] The use of foster care in 18th-century Britain by middle-class parents was described by [Claire Tomalin](/source/Claire_Tomalin) in her biography of [Jane Austen](/source/Jane_Austen), who was fostered in the 1760s in this manner, as were all her siblings, from when they were a few months old until they were toddlers.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/janeaustenabiography.htm |newspaper=[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)|title=Jane Austen A Biography}} Tomalin emphasizes the emotional distance this created. Important historical context for the practice is the [Poor Law Amendment Act 1834](/source/Poor_Law_Amendment_Act_1834), which denied the poor the right to subsistence. In particular, single mothers were then forced to work in prison-like [workhouse](/source/workhouse)s. In late-[Victorian](/source/Victorian_era) Britain (and, less commonly, in Australia and the United States), baby farming was the practice of accepting custody of an [infant](/source/infant) or child in exchange for payment.{{cn|date=December 2023}} Though baby farmers were paid in the understanding that care would be provided, the term "baby farmer" was used as an insult, and improper treatment was usually implied.{{Cite web |title=Amelia Dyer {{!}} the Ogress of Reading |url=https://www.visitheritage.co.uk/things-to-do/cultural-history/true-crime/amelia-dyer-the-ogress-of-reading |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=www.visitheritage.co.uk}} [Illegitimacy](/source/Illegitimacy) and its attendant [social stigma](/source/social_stigma) were usually the impetus for a mother's decision to put her children "out to nurse" with a baby farmer, but baby farming also encompassed [foster care](/source/foster_care) and [adoption](/source/adoption) in the period before they were regulated by British law in the mid 19th century.{{cn|date=December 2023}} Wealthier women would also put their infants out to be cared for in the homes of villagers.{{cn|date=December 2023}} [[File:Clara_Risby_advt_Evening_News_4May1892_p1.jpg|thumb|406x406px|An advertisement that baby farmers [John and Sarah Makin](/source/John_and_Sarah_Makin) AKA The Hatpin Murderers responded to (from the Evening News, 4 May 1892)]] Particularly in the case of lump-sum adoptions, it was more profitable for the baby farmer if the infant or child she adopted died, since the small payment could not cover the care of the child for long. Some baby farmers adopted numerous children and then neglected them or murdered them outright (see [infanticide](/source/infanticide)). Several baby farmers were tried for murder, manslaughter, or criminal neglect and were hanged. [Margaret Waters](/source/Margaret_Waters) (executed 1870) and [Amelia Dyer](/source/Amelia_Dyer) (executed 1896) were two infamous British baby farmers, as were [Amelia Sach and Annie Walters](/source/Amelia_Sach_and_Annie_Walters) (executed 1903).{{Cite web|url=http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/babyfarm.html|title="Baby Farming" – a tragedy of Victorian times.|website=Capital Punishment U.K.}} The last baby farmer to be executed in Britain was [Rhoda Willis](/source/Rhoda_Willis), who was hanged in Wales in 1907.{{Cite web |last=Mosalski |first=Ruth |date=2017-11-16 |title=The horrible story of the last woman to be hanged in Wales |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/horrible-story-last-woman-hanged-13906837 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Wales Online |language=en}} The only woman to be executed in New Zealand, [Minnie Dean](/source/Minnie_Dean), was a baby farmer, although in 1926, a male baby farmer, [Daniel Cooper](/source/Daniel_Cooper_(murderer)), was executed for the death of his pregnant first wife and two subsequent infants. In Australia, baby-farmer [Frances Knorr](/source/Frances_Knorr) was executed for infanticide in 1894.{{cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/knorr-frances-lydia-minnie-13030|title=Knorr, Frances Lydia (Minnie) (1867–1894)|first=Kathy|last=Laster|year=2005|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography}} Although [John and Sarah Makin](/source/John_and_Sarah_Makin) were also convicted of infanticide, only John Makin had been executed a year earlier (1893) in Sydney for this crime.{{Cite web |title=Execution of John Makin - DEATH INSTANTANEOUS. No Confession. SYDNEY, TUESDAY. - Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954) - 16 Aug 1893 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/136404931/15130650 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Trove |date=1893 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=EXECUTION OF JOHN MAKIN. - HIS LAST STATEMENT. - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) - 16 Aug 1893 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13921859 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Trove |date=1893 |language=en}} In [Scandinavia](/source/Scandinavia) there was a [euphemism](/source/euphemism) for this activity: ''änglamakerska'' (Swedish, including [Hilda Nilsson](/source/Hilda_Nilsson)){{Cite news |title=Änglamakerskan |url=http://www.popularhistoria.se/artiklar/anglamakerskan/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208050955/http://www.popularhistoria.se/artiklar/anglamakerskan/ |archive-date=2015-12-08 |access-date=2026-05-21 |work=Populär Historia |language=sv-se}} and ''englemagerske'' (Danish, including [Dagmar Overby](/source/Dagmar_Overby)),{{Cite web|title=englemagersken |author= Karen Søndergaard Jensen |url=http://englemagersken.dk/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103135034/http://englemagersken.dk/ |archive-date=2014-01-03 |access-date= 2025-02-16}} both literally meaning a "(female) angel maker". ==Decline== An undercover investigation of baby-farming, reported in 1870 in a letter to ''[The Times](/source/The_Times)'', concluded that "My conviction is that children are murdered in scores by these women, that adoption is only a fine phrase for slow or sudden death".{{Cite news|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=rtl_ttda&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&docId=CS67676910&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|title=Baby Farming|date=14 July 1870|work=Times [London, England]|via=The Times Digital Archive}} Spurred by a series of articles that appeared in the ''[British Medical Journal](/source/British_Medical_Journal)'' in 1867, the [Parliament of the United Kingdom](/source/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom) began to regulate baby farming in 1872 with the passage of the Infant Life Protection Act 1872.{{cn|date=February 2025}} London coroner [Athelstan Braxton Hicks](/source/Athelstan_Braxton_Hicks) gave evidence in 1896 on the dangers of baby-farming to the Select Committee on Infant Life Protection Bill.{{Cite web|url=https://www.niph.go.jp/toshokan/koten/Britain/PDF/100718760003.pdf|title=Minutes of Evidence Taken Before The Select Committee on Infant Life Protection Bill|date=1896|pages=43–55}} One case that he cited was that of Mrs. Arnold, who had been "sweating" infants legally by doing so one at a time.{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18880928/061/0006|title=THE ALLEGED BABY FARMING CASE|date=28 September 1888|work=Morning Post [London]|via=British Newspaper Archive}} At another inquest, the jury were of the "opinion that there has been gross neglect in the case" but were unable to allocate responsibility. They added the rider that "The jury are strongly of opinion that further legislation in what are usually known as baby farming cases is greatly needed, and particularly that the required legislation should extend to the care of one infant only, and that the age of the infant should not be limited to one year, but rather to five years and that it should be an offence for any person undertaking the care of such infant to sub farm it."{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000317/18890518/133/0011|title=THE BABY FARMING CASE AT NEWPORT PAGNELL. ADJOURNED INQUEST—REMARKABLE EVIDENCE. THE CHILD'S STOMACH TO BE ANALYSED|date=18 May 1889|work=Northampton Mercury|page=11|via=British Newspaper Archive}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000317/18890601/145/0010|title=The Baby-Farming Inquest at Newport Pagnell. The Verdict|date=1 June 1889|work=Northampton Mercury|page=10|via=British Newspaper Archive}} The Infant Life Protection Act 1897 finally empowered local authorities to control the registration of nurses responsible for more than one infant under the age of five for a period longer than 48 hours.{{Cite web |title=Infant Life Protection Act 1897 |url=https://vlex.co.uk/vid/infant-life-protection-act-808042305#:~:text=Any%20person%20retaining%20or%20receiving,notice%20thereof%20to%20the%20local |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=vLex |language=en}} A series of acts passed over the next seventy years, including the [Children Act 1908](/source/Children_Act_1908) ([8 Edw. 7](/source/8_Edw._7). c. 67), under which "no infant could be kept in a home that was so unfit and so overcrowded as to endanger its health, and no infant could be kept by an unfit nurse who threatened, by neglect or abuse, its proper care and maintenance."{{cn|date=December 2023}} The Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act 1939 gradually placed adoption and foster care under the protection and regulation of the state.{{Cite web |title=Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act 1939 |url=https://vlex.co.uk/vid/adoption-of-children-regulation-808109357 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=vLex |language=en}} == Postwar Britain == In the 1960s and 70s, thousands of West African children were privately fostered by white families in the UK in a phenomenon known as 'farming'. The biological parents were usually students in the UK who also had a job. They placed ads in the newspapers looking for foster families to care for their children.{{Cite web |date=2022-09-15 |title='Farmed': why were so many Black children fostered by white families in the UK? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/15/farmed-black-children-fostered-white-families-uk |access-date=2022-09-15 |website=[the Guardian](/source/the_Guardian) |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2021-03-15 |title=Why thousands of West African children were privately fostered by white families |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2021-03-13/the-west-african-children-farmed-out-to-white-families |access-date=2022-09-15 |website=ITV News |language=en}} ==Known baby farmers with criminal convictions== ''The following is a list of baby farmers with criminal convictions associated with their operations, categorized by country and Number of Victims:'' ===Australia=== * Ellen Battshttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3503102 * [Frances Knorr](/source/Frances_Knorr) * [John and Sarah Makin](/source/John_and_Sarah_Makin) * [https://www.mamamia.com.au/alice-mitchell-baby-farm/ Alice Mitchell] ===Canada=== * [Grey Nuns of Montreal](/source/Grey_Nuns_of_Montreal) (suspect: related from a newspaper) * [Ideal Maternity Home](/source/Ideal_Maternity_Home) ===Denmark=== * [Dagmar Overbye](/source/Dagmar_Overbye) ===Germany=== * [Elisabeth Wiese](/source/Elisabeth_Wiese) ===Hungary=== * [https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=nwb&datum=18850908&seite=7&zoom=33 Marie Orban Juhass] ===Italy=== * [Sisters of Saint Anne](/source/Sisters_of_Saint_Anne) (suspect: related from a newspaper) ===Japan=== * [Miyuki Ishikawa](/source/Miyuki_Ishikawa) * [Shige Sakakura](/source/Shige_Sakakura) *{{ill|Kichinosuke Nakagawa|jp|中川吉之助}} *{{ill|Hatsutaro Kawamata|jp|目黒貰い子殺人事件}} * [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ryuji_Hirahara_and_Saku_Sawamura.jpg Ryuji Hirahara and Saku Sawamura] * [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keijiro_Nagai.jpg Keijiro] and [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gen_Nagai.jpg Gen Nagai] ===Mexico=== * [Felícitas Sánchez Aguillón](/source/Fel%C3%ADcitas_S%C3%A1nchez_Aguill%C3%B3n) ===New Zealand=== * [Daniel Cooper (murderer)](/source/Daniel_Cooper_(murderer)) * [Minnie Dean](/source/Minnie_Dean) ===Norway=== * [https://samlaget.no/blogs/aktuelt/englemakerskene Kristiania Angelmakers] ===Portugal=== * [Luísa de Jesus](/source/Lu%C3%ADsa_de_Jesus) ===Poland=== * [https://wielkahistoria.pl/marianna-skublinska-najglosniejsza-seryjna-morderczyni-xix-wiecznej-warszawy/ Marianna Skublińska] ===Sweden=== * [Hilda Nilsson](/source/Hilda_Nilsson) * {{ill|Alva Nordberg|sv}} ===United Kingdom=== * [Amelia Dyer](/source/Amelia_Dyer) * [Frances Knorr](/source/Frances_Knorr) * [Amelia Sach and Annie Walters](/source/Amelia_Sach_and_Annie_Walters) * [Margaret Waters](/source/Margaret_Waters) * [Ada Williams](/source/Ada_Williams_(baby_farmer)) * [Rhoda Willis](/source/Rhoda_Willis) * [Jessie King](/source/Jessie_King_(childtaker)) ===United States=== * [Julia Fortmeyer](/source/Julia_Fortmeyer) * [Helene Auguste Geisen-Volk](/source/Helene_Auguste_Geisen-Volk) * [Georgia Tann](/source/Georgia_Tann) * [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philadelphia_Baby_Farmers.jpg Elizabeth Ashmead] * [Henrietta Bamberger](/source/Henrietta_Bamberger) ==In popular culture== *The title character in [Charles Dickens](/source/Charles_Dickens)' ''[Oliver Twist](/source/Oliver_Twist)'' spends his first years in a "baby farm." *The eponymous heroine puts her newborn "out to nurse" with a baby farmer in [George Moore](/source/George_Moore_(novelist))'s ''[Esther Waters](/source/Esther_Waters)'' ([1894](/source/1894_in_literature)). *The main character in ''[Perfume](/source/Perfume_(book))'', [Jean-Baptiste Grenouille](/source/Jean-Baptiste_Grenouille), is orphaned shortly after birth and brought up in a baby farmer style orphanage. *The character of Mrs Sucksby in [Sarah Waters](/source/Sarah_Waters)'s novel ''[Fingersmith](/source/Fingersmith_(novel))'' is a baby farmer. *In the [Gilbert and Sullivan](/source/Gilbert_and_Sullivan) operetta ''[H.M.S. Pinafore](/source/H.M.S._Pinafore)'', the character of Buttercup reveals that, when a baby farmer, she had accidentally switched two babies of different social classes. This is part of a satire of class hierarchy in Victorian England. *The book ''[Mama's Babies](/source/Mama's_Babies)'' by [Gary Crew](/source/Gary_Crew) is the story of a child of a baby farmer in the 1890s. *The [silent film](/source/silent_film) [''Sparrows'' (1926)](/source/Sparrows_(1926_film)) with [Mary Pickford](/source/Mary_Pickford) was set in a baby farm in the Southern swamps. *In ''[The Fire Thief](/source/The_Fire_Thief)'' trilogy of novels, a baby farm figures prominently. *The plot of [Emma Donoghue](/source/Emma_Donoghue)'s [Frog Music](/source/Frog_Music) is initiated by the protagonist retrieving her son from a baby farm. *Australian musical ''[The Hatpin](/source/The_Hatpin)'' features a mother's experience with baby farmers and was inspired by the true story of Amber Murray and the [Makin family](/source/John_and_Sarah_Makin). *Australian poet [Judith Rodriguez](/source/Judith_Rodriguez) has written a series of poems based on Melbourne baby farmer [Frances Knorr](/source/Frances_Knorr) in ''The Hanging of Minnie Thwaites''. *The BBC TV soap opera ''[EastEnders](/source/EastEnders)'' features an evil character called [Babe Smith](/source/Babe_Smith), who is exposed as a baby farmer along with [Queenie Trott](/source/Queenie_Trott). It is revealed that while in [Ramsgate](/source/Ramsgate), they took young pregnant women in and sold their babies to the highest bidder. In a 2024 plotline involving George Knight, it is revealed by his adopted parents Eddie and Gloria that they were paid to adopt him.{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2023/eastenders-identity-storyline-george-knight | title=EastEnders to air identity storyline involving George Knight }} *In a March 2013 episode of [Syfy](/source/Syfy)'s ''[Haunted Collector](/source/Haunted_Collector)'', John Zaffis and his team discovered that a Boston cigar bar was used to house a baby farm in the 1870s. Ms. Elwood, who ran the farm, was found to have abused and even killed some of the infants there. They also found a syringe buried in the building's foundation dating to the time period of the farm.{{cite web |author= |title='Haunted Collector': Cigar Bar Used To Be A 'Baby Farm' That Abused Children (VIDEO) |work=Huffpost TV |publisher=TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. |date=14 March 2013 |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/haunted-collector-cigar-bar-baby-farm-video_n_2874477.html |access-date=10 April 2016 }} ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== *{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Baby-Farming}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20040110142710/http://www.uoregon.edu/~adoption/topics/babyfarming.html "Baby farming" from the ''Adoption History Project''] *Homrighaus, Ruth Ellen. [http://historytools.davidjvoelker.com/babyfarming/baby-farming.html Baby Farming: The Care of Illegitimate Children in England], 1860–1943. Ph.D. diss., 2003. Rev. ed., 2010, at Historytools. *[https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/baby-farmers Baby farmers (NZHistory.net.nz)] Category:Infanticide Category:Child abuse Category:Child care occupations Category:Class discrimination Category:Infancy Category:Obsolete occupations Category:Population Category:Victorian era Category:Wet nursing --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Baby farming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_farming) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_farming?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.