[Gemmy]

I've been asked to do some research on Harriet Kettle. I looked on various search engines, but I can't find information on her anywhere. I know that her father was a farm labourer and her mother took her own life due to insanity, but I can't find her dates of birth, death etc.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Mrs Faithorn]

You don't give us too much info to go on, but if you are studying 'The case of Harriet Kettle' as part of your GCSE course and a study of C19th workhouses as I suspect you may be then see here:

Quote

Harriet Kettle
12 year old Harriet lived at Gressenhall workhouse, Norfolk, England in 1851. This was 'Oliver Twist' time when life in a workhouse was very harsh. In 1853 she was found

    Guilty of great misbehaviour by destroying the food and other property of the Guardians and by wilfully disobeying the orders of the Master and using obscene and violent language.

She continued to regularly get into trouble and then she accused the schoolmaster of making her pregnant. She was locked into a room under the stairs and set fire to her bedding.

    On being placed in the dock and asked if she were guilty or not stated first that she was not guilty and then for a minute or two poured forth a torrent of words, the purport of which was that she did not wish to burn the union, but to kill herself, that she had been very badly treated by the authorities at the workhouse, and by everyone else and that she would kill herself whatever they might do to prevent her, for she would be ill treated or conquered by nobody.'

Harriet was shuttled between the local lunatic asylum and the local prison for several years until she was finally released in 1861.

Source: Gressenhall workhouse, which is now a museum of rural life.

I found this on this web page:
http://www.annakettl...tle/kfamous.htm

All I did was use Harriet Kettle's name as a search term in Google and this was the first hit!

I hope that helps/is what you were looking for.

If you are interested you can find out more about Gressenhall Workhouse where this poor girl had such a bad time here:
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default....R&Submit=Search

I'm afraid this still does not tell you the dates of her birth and death as you asked though if she was 12 in about 1851 you can work out (roughly) when she was born. She obviously "disappeared from the system" when she was released in 1861 so I guess you'd need to go your/the local Public Record Office to find out more.

This post has been edited by Mrs Faithorn: 05 December 2004 - 07:20 PM

[Gemmy]

Thank you very much. This will help greatly!