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Ella Quinn, Romance Author
Ella Quinn
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Ella Quinn ~ Author 
Ella, I have a character in my WIP who I describe as a “tweenie.” I’ve used information I THINK is correct, but I’m not sure. Would you consider doing a Trivia post on children as servants? Sure could use your thoughts on the following:
A child about seven or eight years old is acquired from an orphanage as a tweenie. A toddler when abandoned, she lives on the streets until age six or seven when a “very poor” orphanage receives the care and feeding of her. In a short time, she is given to the first available household, as a servant. The child has no memory of a home, parents, or anything beyond her day-to-day existence.
Is what I have plausible?
The term orphanage in the sense of a home for orphans didn’t exist until 1865. Tweenie is a Victorian term. During the Regency, a child could be as young as 11 or 12 and go into service, but 7 was too young for a girl. Now factories took children as young as 8. Unless the mistress of the house is on a crusade to help better children in workhouses. it’s doubtful that a girl would go from a workhouse into service. Servants were middle-class (although, that term didn’t exist either), not from the lower classes.
Ooops! At first, it sounded like a complete rewrite of the youngest character in the book, until I sat back and thought about it for a bit. Can’t chuck her because she appears throughout the novel. Secondary, but important. She’ll have a few more harrowing years ahead of her before she’s dragged into service–as a scullery maid. Does that work? In any case, the mistress of the house she goes to is not a nice person…in fact, she is quite evil.
Thank you, Ella, for setting me on a straight course. One less credibility issue to run into. Love the genre, read it all my adult life, and thought I knew enough to write it. Still, I falter when I try.
You’re welcome!