Sharing names - Heritage

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 98759

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Miller, Gina (JIS)" 
<ginamiller at j...> wrote:
>  
>  
> 
> > Wanda:
> > 
> > I stand corrected.  Well, in that case, it was illogical writing 
on 
> > Rowling's part.  If a woman from a small village had married the 
son 
> > of the rich family who lived in the big house, it would have been 
> > common knowledge to everyone in town.  If they'd kept it secret, 
she 
> > could have exposed him when he deserted her.  A wife has power, a 
> > mistress has none.  And there's no reason for the state to take 
care 
> > of an "orphan" if he has a legal father or other relatives to do 
so, 
> > so Tom could not have ended up in an orphanage the way she 
> > describes.
> > 
> > Wanda
> 
> 
> Gina: 
>  
>           I might add that in those days (ever seen or read Nicholas
> Nickelby?) that if a father did not want a son he could pay to have 
him sent
> away - school, orphanage, etc. and more often than not it was a 
horrible
> place they landed. 

Geoff:
I'm more inclined to agree with Steve (message 98752) in that Tom Snr 
might arrange for the child to go to an orphanage but it would be a 
lot more civilised than the situation you quote. I think we 
calculated in a previous thread that it would have been 1926/1927 
when Tom Jnr was born whereas Smike in NN found himself in Dotheboys 
Hall in the mid-19th century and after Dickens blew the whistle on 
the Yorkshire schools and similar institutions, things were tightened 
up a lot.