Baby-farming in Scotland

What is it about?

Explores reactions to the practice of exchanging child-care for money in nineteenth century Scotland and how such women were labelled with the term 'baby-farmer' It focuses on the trials of Jessie King (murder 1889) and Barbara Gray (Culpable homicide 1881) along with newspaper coverage. It argues that the portrayal of these women as murderous ogresses is simplistic and that there is a need to examine the variety of ways they were represented, including how they represented themselves.

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Why is it important?

This article attempts to recapture the lost voice of women who were often written about, but denied a voice of their own. It explores their own capacity for agency and self definition. It also acts as a corrective to existing research which is largely English (and largely London) focused.