History
It was established in 1825 as an agency to supply good servants of good character to families; it also ran almshouses for pensioned servants (Thomas Henry Baylis, The Rights, Duties, and Relations of Domestic Servants, their Masters and Mistresses, with a Short Account of Servants’ Institutions and their Advantages, 1857)
Its Secretary from its early days appears to have been Thomas Butts; he held an insurance policy on 46 Bedford Row in 1833 which mentions the Institution as occupiers (Sun Fire Office MS 11936/538/1153159, 20 March 1833, Guildhall Library) and he was named as the Institution’s Secretary by Baylis in 1857 (Thomas Henry Baylis, The Rights, Duties, and Relations of Domestic Servants, their Masters and Mistresses, with a Short Account of Servants’ Institutions and their Advantages, 1857)
It was apparently criticised by a magistrate in early 1853 when it refused to forward her reference to a girl who had found a job without the institution’s help (London Guardian, 26 January 1853; cited in E. J. Stearn, Notes on Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Being a Logical Answer to its Allegations and Inferences against Slavery as an Institution, 1853)
Perhaps surprisingly for such an institution, it had a surgeon; Robert Little Hooper had been its surgeon from at least 1845 (London Medical Directory, 1845) until his death aged 55 in 1852 (Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 37, 1852)
It took over the Servants’ Royal Provident Society in 1854 (The Charities of London, 1861)
It apparently no longer exists
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What was reforming about it?
Both families and servants could pay an annual subscription which guaranteed them servants and jobs respectively (The Charities of London, 1861)
Where in Bloomsbury
It was at 46 Bedford Row by 1828 (The Times, 22 December 1828)
It was still at 46 Bedford Row in 1861, when its Secretary was William Tooke (The Charities of London, 1861)
Website of current institution
It apparently no longer exists
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Books about it
None found
Archives
None found
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