Two hundred years ago in North Devon, a young girl stands on a table before an audience of farmers.
‘Mary Mitchell, nine years old. Draws your straws, gentlemen and we’ll see who’s to win this prize.’ The child was a parish apprentice, and this method of selection had died out everywhere else in the country, except North Devon.
Author Liz Shakespeare, who has become well-known for writing books inspired by the history of Devon, has uncovered the true story of one such apprentice.
‘The Song of the Skylark tells the story of Mary Mitchell, aged nine, and her brother Thomas who are sent to a remote farm, far from their parents and everything that is familiar to them,’ says Liz. ‘Pauper children in North Devon were often apprenticed as farmworkers and had to work long hours without wages. They were not granted their freedom until they reached the age of twenty-one. In effect they were simply used as unpaid servants to their masters.’ In 1843 the editor of the North Devon Journal criticised the practice, referring to it as slavery.
Liz found numerous documents which helped in her research into parish apprentices. ‘Many children would have been treated as part of the family,’ says Liz, ‘but it is clear that some were not. There are reports in the local papers of apprentices being severely whipped, and some ran away from their masters.’ Liz found adverts that had been placed by farmers giving a description of the runaway child, and warning that whoever harbours said apprentice will be prosecuted.
Thomas and Mary Mitchell work on the farm in Buckland Brewer parish for five years. These years become increasingly difficult for them due to a series of failed harvests.
‘It was shocking to realise how hard their lives would have been,’ says Liz. ‘The potato blight which caused the Great Famine in Ireland also hit Devon, and many labourers came close to starvation during the period termed the Hungry Forties.’
However Liz discovered that Thomas and Mary also had some respite from the backbreaking work. ‘One document revealed that they could read, and described them as ‘Thornites’. This was the name given to followers of the Thorne family of Shebbear who, along with William O’Bryan from Cornwall, had founded the Bible Christian movement, an offshoot of Wesleyan Methodism. The centre of the Bible Christian movement was Shebbear where there was a school for training ministers, later Shebbear College.’
Chapels were built wherever a small piece of land could be found, often at a crossroads with no other dwellings in sight; small unpretentious buildings with arched windows, now often converted to dwellings.
For Thomas and Mary, whose days are filled with unremitting labour and who are far from their family, joining a welcoming community at chapel and being told wonderful stories of the Promised Land brings very welcome relief.
‘The Bible Christians were particularly interesting’ said Liz, ‘because right from the start, in the early 1820’s, they used women ministers. One such was Mary O’Bryan Thorne. She was an extraordinary woman; highly educated, an inspirational preacher despite suffering terribly from nerves before speaking, mother to thirteen children, she also ran a busy farm household at Shebbear with the help of only one servant. She is an important character in my story.’
After five years on the farm, Thomas and Mary eventually take daring action in an effort to change the course of their lives. Their attempt ultimately wins them their freedom, but not before they are brought face-to-face with the heartless judicial system of early Victorian England.
‘I found it a compelling and sometimes difficult story to write,’ says Liz, ‘’but it has a happy ending!’
Liz is launching The Song of the Skylark on Friday 16th October with talks on Zoom at 2.30 and 7.30 describing how she came to write it and the research she carried out; there will be time for questions afterwards. Tickets are just £3 each with all proceeds being donated to The Plough Arts Centre in Torrington. You can book tickets at www.lizshakespeare.co.uk.
Signed copies of The Song of the Skylark can also be ordered from the website for £9.99 and will be sent post-free, or cheques made payable to Letterbox Books can be sent to The Old Post Office, Littleham, Bideford, EX39 5HW. The book is also available on Kindle.
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