Pound Pup Legacy

Maria Rye (1829-1903) founded the Female Middle Class Emigration Society in 1861, and was responsible for escorting parties of young women to Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In 1869 she turned her attention to assisting young girls, usually aged between 5-12 years who were in the workhouses. She appealed for £1000 to finance such a scheme in a letter to the Times newspaper in March 1869. The first party of 76 children, many of whom were from Liverpool workhouse schools, sailed from Liverpool to Canada on the SS Hibernian six months later.

In the annual report of 1874 Maria writing about the costs involved, said that the "expense of taking a child out of the gutters in London, and placing it in Canada...may be roughly reckoned at £15 per head" The main focus of her efforts in England was the house in Peckham, which was opened on the 13 July 1872. Most girls spent upto a year at Peckham before they were migrated to Canada via Liverpool and Quebec, from where they would travel by train to the reception home at Niagara, called 'Our Western Home'. This former jail and courthouse could accommodate up to 120 children.

from: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/orphans/miss-rye-peckham.htm